Daughter In Law in Adelaide is an Indian restaurant with a very friendly, even festive atmosphere, but a cuisine of little interest or finesse.
When I was looking for a restaurant for this evening in Adelaide, I had noticed Daughter In Law mentioned in numerous guides and specialized magazines. Not a gourmet restaurant, but obviously serving honest Indian food in a friendly atmosphere, and as it had been a long time since I’d eaten Indian food, I thought the occasion was perfect…
You’ll find a summary of the articles about this trip to Australia at the bottom of the page.
The concept of the restaurant
The property describes itself as an “unauthentic Australian Indian bar”, which translates into a cuisine that blends Indian and Australian inspirations (although I’ve mostly seen Indian).
At the end of the meal, the waitress confirms that their aim is to give the customer a first taste of Indian cuisine, a bit like a discovery. You’ll see in the course of this article what I thought of it.
The setting
The restaurant is made up of several large rooms with lots of big tables, and a luminous ambience in purple/pink tones. As the restaurant was full when I arrived and since my table was located near the entrance, I didn’t see much more.
The menu
The restaurant offers an extensive menu, as well as a sort of tasting menu.
And I obviously chose the tasting menu.
The meal
On arrival, I am immediately taken care of and seated at my table. The welcome is very smiling and friendly.
They bring me the menu and I order a cocktail as an aperitif and the discovery menu. The atmosphere is very, very noisy and I have to raise my voice to make myself heard, but more on that later.
In the meantime, I look at the dishes arriving at the other tables, and it all looks very appetizing.
The first course arrives while I’m still waiting for my aperitif…so I cancel the order for the aperitif, a little upset, obviously to the surprise of the waitress.
The dishes arrive in scattered order and not necessarily in the order of the menu… it’s not going to be easy to identify and follow.
Let’s start with street food.
Balls of happiness
Very nice and fresh with the mint sauce.
Seriole ceviche
Another fresh, pleasant dish with an Indian-inspired yogurt-based sauce. But the quantities are significant and one more bite would have been nauseating.
Colonel tso’s cauliflower
Sweet and spicy at the same time, and an interesting way of making cauliflower appetizing. Mais en fait le gout provient surtout de la sauce, le choux étant assez neutre et le plat est beaucoup trop copieux.
Then comes the Tandoor part of the meal.
Tandoori chicken with mint yoghurt, pineapple and jalapeno chutney.
Melt-in-the-mouth meat and a suitably spicy dish, but still very hearty…at this stage I’m hardly hungry anymore.
Next come curries.
Aunty dahl, lamb rogan josh, inauthentic butter chicken, coconut curry with seasonal vegetables served with served with rice, raita, papadum, and naan
The coco see curry is excellent and the rest is correct, neither fine nor rough. But my stomach is on the verge of exploding.
Finally comes the dessert. Kulfi, honey milk, cardamom.
With everything I’ve just eaten, the lightness of this dessert is welcome. It’s also really good.
And here’s what brings the meal to a close.
The first comment that comes to my mind is that it was far too hearty and that while some of the dishes were really good, the others were average, I mean not bad but not transcendent either, giving the impression that quantity was preferred to quality and that the main thing was to fill the stomach.
In fact, I spoke to the waitress later, who confirmed that it was more of a discovery menu than a tasting menu, and that the quantities were the same whether it was served for one or two people (which I’d guessed from looking at the other tables). A sort of introduction to Indian cuisine for neophytes.
In my opinion, a very pleasant restaurant for a convivial and lively dinner with friends, but you don’t go there just for the pleasure of the taste buds.
At the end, to apologize for the bug with the aperitif, she offers me a drink.
The atmosphere
When I say friendly restaurant, I mean the kind of restaurant that’s ideal for eating out with friends, and I’ve seen many tables of 4 or more sharing dishes. This confirms my opinion that the most important thing is the conviviality of the place rather than the quality of the food, which, while not bad, is secondary. Food is just a pretext for a moment with friends.
On the other hand, the downside is that it’s noisy, very noisy, very very noisy. It’s hard to hear what the staff are saying, and I think it’s even hard to hear the people at your own table.
The service
Young, very pleasant, smiling, dynamic staff. That said, the service is almost industrial: the kitchen brings out the dishes and they run to serve them in the dining room, with no time to breathe.
Bottom line
A very nice place in a certain context, but if you’re really interested in discovering Indian cuisine and want a bit of peace and quiet and attentive service, this is not the place.
The articles about this trip to Australia
Articles similaires
Restaurant Nour in Sydney: a fine Middle Eastern cuisine, a very (too?) lively restaurant
Martabaan by Oberoi, Emirates Palace
Ribe Restaurant, Tallinn
