Chorney-Booth: Two new restaurants take Calgarians on a regional tour of India

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As Calgary continues to grow, places to eat are popping up in the farthest reaches of the city. The far ‘burbs are traditionally the realm of tried ’n’ true chain eateries, but now and then a surprisingly robust satellite restaurant zone will emerge on the outskirts of the city, miles away from the hot spots of the Beltline or Kensington. In some instances, it’s even worth driving from one end of the city to the other in the pursuit of something delicious – which says a lot about a restaurant, given the seemingly never-ending scope of Calgary’s sprawl.

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These days, food lovers should consider venturing out to the far northeast corner of the city, which encompasses newer communities such as Redstone and Skyview Ranch. These suburban developments are marked by pretty new homes and contemporary condo buildings, as well as a surprising number of new locally owned restaurants. One of the newest and most impressive is a South Indian spot called Dosa and Co.

From the outside, Dosa and Co. looks much like many of the other South Asian restaurants in the area: it sits in a strip mall also home to a pizza place, a specialty grocery store, and a liquor store. Inside, guests will find a bright dining room with just over 25 wicker-backed seats, smartly tiled floors, and a cheery mural covering a feature wall. But a look at the menu and a whiff of the food reveals this isn’t just another good Indian restaurant to add to the list of other good Indian restaurants in Calgary. Dosa and Co. is doing something special.

The restaurant is a dream realized by business partners Suresh Sekar and Udit Sharma. While dosas – crispy fermented crepes typically served with flavourful chutneys and a side of sambar stew – are probably the most popular and well-known South Indian dish here in North America and the restaurant’s name will get dosa fans through the door, the owners wanted Dosa and Co. to offer a more fulsome selection of South Indian fare.

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“There are a lot of Indian restaurants in Calgary, but I want to bring the real taste of South India,” Sekar says. “The comments we’ve been getting the most are that everything has a unique taste. People usually think about dosa with South Indian food, but we’re bringing more flavours into the restaurant.”

Those dishes include appetizers like cut mirchi ($9.99), which are crispy, double-fried, stuffed chili fritters, and deep-fried karuveppilai mushrooms cooked in a coconut and curry leaf sauce ($13.99). The curries are South Indian-specific (do not expect butter chicken), with specialties like a Kerala egg curry ($12.99), a rich and complex chicken Chettinad ($15.99) and Pallipalayam chicken ($16.99), a favourite from Sekar’s hometown in India. It’s a lengthy menu with several fish delicacies, biryanis, Hakka dishes, tiffin meals, non-alcoholic drinks and sodas, and desserts, including a fantastic house-made kulfi ($5.99). While seafood, chicken, and mutton appear throughout, more than half of the menu is vegetarian.

And then there are the dosas. As the name heavily implies, dosa is the house specialty and Dosa and Co. offers over 50 varieties, ranging from a perfectly crispy plain dosa ($8.99) to the Instagram-worthy cone-shaped bucket dosa ($15.99) and cheesy cylindrical volcano dosas ($14.99). The restaurant has also already turned heads with its four-foot-long “family” dosa ($14.99), a favourite Sekar remembers regularly enjoying at a theme park as a child growing up in Southern India.

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Dosa and Co. Is located at #4150 235 Red Embers Way N.E. and can be reached at 587-864-5653 or through dosaandco.com. The restaurant is open Wednesday through Monday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

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Dosa and Co. isn’t the only noteworthy regional-specific Indian restaurant to open over the last month or so. Located on Memorial Drive just off Edmonton Trail, Ninja Tiger is run by the same team behind the also recently opened Bombay Tiger in Kensington. Despite some esthetic similarities, the two restaurants’ menus are completely different with Bombay Tiger offering a pan-Indian menu and Ninja Tiger dealing in food from the state of Maharashtra in central India.

At Ninja Tiger, chef-owner Prasad Patil offers a range of food including Mumbai street food like vada pav potato sliders ($10 for two) and puffy pani puri ($8), regional curries ($15 to $24) and biryani ($19 to $22). The house specialty though, is a selection of multi-item thali platters, all designed to help out Calgarians who may be unfamiliar with the food of Maharashtra, since it’s not particularly common in the city. Combinations include a unique seafood thali studded with fish dishes and shellfish curries ($33) and the “Tiger” thali for two with a selection of a little bit of everything ($79). It’s all tasty stuff and so markedly different than the South Indian offerings at Dosa and Co. Give yourself a little tour of India by visiting both, along with some of Calgary’s other regional Indian restaurants.

Ninja Tiger is located at 412 Memorial Dr. N.E. and can be reached at 403-454-5440 or through ninjatiger.ca. The restaurant is open every day for lunch and dinner, except for Wednesdays.

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram at @elizabooth or sign up for her newsletter at hungrycalgary.substack.com.

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