Balti Bars

[ozzieEagle]

As a lover of indian food, (ain't we all) I'm very curious about the new style of restaurant that visitors from the UK rave about, and that is the "balti bar''. What is the main difference between balti bars and the more traditional curry house, as i know it.

Over here, indian food/restaturants are making real inroads, thankfully, as i was sorely deprived of my favourite food for about 15 years of the 22 years that i've been here. We even have 3 curry houses in my suburb of coburg, and 10 years ago, there were probably only 3 in the whole of the northern suburbs.

Like i stated above, visitors are raving about the balti bars in england, and one or two have said, the 1st thing they would do if they came to aussie would be open up a balti bar. I smell money, can anyone englighten me ta

[JamieBcpfc]

That sounds like a snack bar
Dont like Indian food however

[limited_edition]

Balti bar ? You make it sound like a drinking establishment with maybe some Indian bar snacks or something. Do you mean a balti house ? Balti houses differ from your average curry house in that your food is usually served to you at the table in a sizzling cast iron wok thing called a karahi or balti. It's best served with a nan.

Balti houses are usually BYOB places so I don't know how your idea for a Balti Bar would fit in. By contrast, curry houses sell their own booze.

The best balti houses are sadly not here in London but in Birmingham. There a lot of them are a bit like cafes that just serve homestyle, ie more authentic Northern Indian / Pakistani food. They are very popular with the Asian community (including my family up there).

[wholethedougout]

Sounds like a boring thread only kidding, though not my cup of tea, later folks.

[we_8_brighton]

Indian food is top notch

[ozzieEagle]

One bloke i talked to in particular, was from the midlands, and he was talking about balti bars, maybe it was just beer talking, but he certainly got me going. I was under the impression that there was some kind of culinary revolution, going on originating out of the midlands somewhere. Sounds like it was exaggerated. No wonder i couldnt find anything via browsing lol

He did mention the sizzling wok, and bread, and something about being very trendy, so i'm not sure whether he was talking about one place in particular or a group of new style restaurants.


??

[Curry]

Aye aye!

[Blind_Eagle]

Originally posted by ozzieEagle
One bloke i talked to in particular, was from the midlands, and he was talking about balti bars, maybe it was just beer talking, but he certainly got me going. I was under the impression that there was some kind of culinary revolution, going on originating out of the midlands somewhere. Sounds like it was exaggerated. No wonder i couldnt find anything via browsing lol

He did mention the sizzling wok, and bread, and something about being very trendy, so i'm not sure whether he was talking about one place in particular or a group of new style restaurants.


??

Oz, you should find all you need to know about Balti houses here

Enjoy!

[limited_edition]

Check this out http://www.thebaltiguide.com/

Balti houses are just a good place for good food. Much better than many a High Street "Indian", which is usually Bengali run and have food that about as authentically Indian as a McDonald's Lamb McSpicy burger. Wouldn't necessarily call balti houses trendy. I suppose they are perhaps the Indian equivalent of a noodle bar. Indian fast food in fact. The above owlsprings link is a zillion times better than mine and sums up baltis excellently.

[Thatch]

Watching Sky News Aus at the weekend I'm sure I saw something about a Balti Restaurant owner in Melbourne (who once served celebrities such as Steve Waugh -big wow) going to court for very bad hygiene and his Balti restaurant being closed down (yawn zzzzzz).