Vij's

1480 W 11th Ave, Vancouver

Food: 4

Service: 3

Price: Fair, as it is fine dining Indian cuisine

Lately, I been crossing lots of restaurants off my wish list, and now Vij’s is off too. I am a August baby, so for my birthday I decided to go, as I’ve heard some good reviews, even one that claim Vij’s is the best Indian restaurant in Vancouver.

As most people already know, Vij’s does NOT take reservation. Since it’s my birthday and we had a group of 9, I decided to go super early to line up. We got there at approximately 4:15 (they open at 5:30), and there were only 1 family in line, so we decided to grab a drink and come back later. Big mistake, when we got back there were close to 30 people in front of us, and we were only gone for 20 min. People weren't kidding when they say this restaurant always have a line up.

Vij’s does not have an extensive menu; it’s a simple one page menu with your normal sections of appetizers, entree and desserts.

They walked around with various complementary apps and ask if we would like to try. The one on the left tasted like spiced cracker and the right one tasted like vegetarian nugget, but crunchier.

I didn’t order any other drink, just water. They have these canteen styled water jug at each table already filled with ice water, so you have to pour your own water. The guys ordered beer, from what I heard, it was not bad.

After pondering the menu with my bf, we finally decide that to take the leap and try the spicy ground cricket paranta with tomato cumin ($11.50). I am a little anxious about the cricket part, but it came looking like normal naan but of a darker color (probably due to the grounded cricket). We tried it with the chutney and thought it was pretty good. There wasn’t any weird taste or texture, in fact if you didn’t tell me it contained crickets, I wouldn’t be able to detect any difference. The celeriac salad that it come with was just average.

Another appetizer that I liked was the garam masala sautéed portobello in porcini cream curry. It was creamy and spicy at the same time. The combination actually works out very well. This was $12.50.

For my main, I chose the wine marinated lamb popsicles in fenugreek cream curry on turmeric spinach potatoes. I have to say out of all the main courses this is my favorite. The lamb was very tender; the curry cream sauce had just the right amount of spice to complement the lightly marinated lamb. The "popsicles" were also very handy to eat. For $26.50, I thought it was a worthy dish.

The other dish I tried was the Rajasthani style goat curry with lightly spiced bell peppers and cabbage. It comes in a cute stew pot. The dish itself is quite spicy, the kind you will feel a little sweaty afterward. I like the taste of this dish, but I feel that the spiciness mask the flavors of the other spices. This was $26.

Here are some photos of dishes that I only had a bite off, and already forgot which ones taste like what. :P  If memory serves me right (from L-R): BC spot prawns and halibut with black chickpeas in coconut-lemon curry ($28), beef tenderloin with almonds and garlic in tomato and yogurt curry ($27), organic chicken with crimini mushrooms in creamy saffron curry (26.50) and lastly, the beef short ribs in cinnamon and red wine curry with warm greens ($26.50).

All the entrees include unlimited rice and naan. You just have to let the server know if you ran out. The rice is the typical basmati rice, the naan is good, but not great. It wasn’t very fluffy and the exterior is too soft (felt like the naan was under cooked).

Since it was my birthday, and my friends secretly informed the waiter/manager, he said he would give us 2 ice creams. I don’t know about you, but when my friends heard that, they assumed it was free. It was not, each mango pistachio ice cream cost $7. They asked the manager again after finding out that the ice cream was charged to the bill, he said “I never said it was free.” I guess that’s that, consider it lesson learned. One other thing we all noticed was that all their server are wearing sandals,  are servers allowed to do that?

The service felt rushed and not very attentive, but they were packed and busy. The restaurant can hold about 50-60 people at a time, so if you can’t make it for the opening round, you can get your name on the list and wait it out. The decor here is interesting; there wasn’t any picture on the wall. It’s mostly decorated by lamp that cast elephant shapes on the wall.

Overall, the food was definitely high end Indian cuisine that taste delicious. However I don’t think it really lived up to the hype that surrounds this place. I mean for a restaurant that is ranked number one on Urbanspoon (fine dining category); I would have expected more in every aspect. Would I visit again? Maybe… if I didn’t have to wait in line.