Karaikudi Restaurant, Penang by Gneb

I was in Little India last Friday. I’ve always been fascinated by Little India, Penang. It is such an enchanting and delightful area of Georgetown, both ethnically and culturally. The place is constantly in “carnival mode”, with the loud Indian music playing all day long, back-dropped by the multi-colored merchandizes in the shops around this area. If you come during the Hindu festive seasons, you’ll also get to see the residents dancing to the music along the street.

As Little India is located right at the heart of the heritage hub of Georgetown, it has also attracted a lot of local and foreign tourists, especially those from the nearby Chulia Street. Some of them come for the historic buildings, where in fact you will get to see some of the best preserved historic buildings in Penang. Some of them come for the shops which sell imported goods all the way from India. If you’re into ethnic motif fabrics, this is definitely the place. There are also some, like us apparently, who come for the authentic Indian food.

Karaikudi Restaurant is a restaurant that serves North and South Indian cuisines. It’s located at the edge of Little India in Market Street.

Karaikudi Restaurant is apparently very popular among the locals and tourists. We’d only been in there for 10 minutes, before the whole restaurant started to fill up with customers.

The restaurant supervisor takes customers’ orders from table to table and would patiently recommend and explain the food to their customers. I find him an honest man as he did the due diligence in advising us about the portion of the food and he’d also stop recommending once he knows that we’ve ordered enough or we’ll be wasting the food otherwise.

Don’t miss the Mango Lassi (RM4)! It’s soooo nice, rich and refreshing!

Fried Cauliflower (RM8) – This tastes almost like crisps! So crispy and tasty!

Butter, Garlic and Cheese Naan (RM5) – For me, Indian meals will not be complete without Naan. I’ll have to say these are very delicious Naan too.

Plain Briyani Rice (RM5.50) – We wanted to order Chicken Briyani at first, but were glad that we finally settled for Plain Briyani as it tastes equally as savory without the chicken.

We ordered Tandoori Chicken (RM11) instead as we wanted to taste the chicken on its own without the flavour of the spices in the Briyani. It turned out that this wasn’t a bad choice at all.

To go with the Briyani Rice and Naan, we also ordered the Special Fish Curry (RM12) and Kadai Vegetables (RM9). I really liked the Special Fish Curry and I will definitely go back for more.

It was such a fulfilling and satisfying dinner. We were so full by the time we finished the meal that we had to change our mind about ordering their desserts.

In the end, we decided to substitute eating with window shopping in Little India instead, since we were on the verge of puking having eaten too much. What a scene Little India has become at night!

My scores:
Taste: 5

Environment: 3(Nothing fancy but comfortable enough)

Service: 4 (The waiters were smiling most of the time and the Supervisor was kind of honest)

Price: 3 (I actually thought it was ok for the amount and quality of food that we got. It wasn’t exorbitant for sure.)

Parking: 4 (Parking spaces available in front of the restuarant)

Address: No 2, Market Street, 10200, Penang

Tel: 604-2631345 / 2631359

By the way, they have also opened a branch at Hill Side.

Visit their website for more info: http://www.karaikudi.com.my/