Was meandering around the South Bay again this weekend and thanks to @thechez5 many informative posts, I had Southern Spice on my list to try. We like Indian food and was intrigued by learning more about dishes with southern spices.
We ordered:
- Mutton Sukka
- Dindigul Mutton Biryani
- Fresh Bhindi Fry
- Chicken Chettinadu
The Sukka mutton was roasted well with the meat was juicy but not fatty or greasy.
We’ve always liked the different versions of okra in Indian cooking and ordering a dish is standard for us at any new Indian place. We found the bhindi fry good but unevenly cooked. Some pieces were tougher than others. Overall, it was a solid dish but not my favorite Indian version of okra.
The Chicken Chittenadu was a curry twist we really liked. The flavors were so deep and rich. The chicken pieces chunky and juicy not the usual small dry slices of breast meat you find in many Indian dishes. This is a dish I’d order repeatedly. The picture doesn’t do it justice as the meat was all below the surface and doesn’t capture the thickness and creaminess of the sauce. This is sauce I’d be licking up the last drop from my plate.
No pic of the biryani since it came last and we were too busy digging in already. But it’s made with broken rice instead of the usual basmati. The rice was a little bit more stickier and not as separated as the usual biryani, but not overly sticky. Small pieces of mutton distributed in the dish and the rice was infused well with the juices of the meat and spices.
Overall, this was a good introduction for us for Indian food that was spiced differently than what we were used to. I’m not well versed enough to detail what the different spices are but everything tasted clean and distinct, there were whole leaves, peppers and spices in all the dishes and it didn’t feel like they just threw in a bunch of different powdered spices.
Perusing the menu, it seemed like there was a bunch of dishes that had fried items which surprised me as I don’t recall seeing that much and those types of dishes in other Indian restaurants. Anyone with more experience, I’d love to hear and learn more.
Although the restaurant has been around for a while, new ownership took over only a couple of years ago. Service was friendly and prompt and they were patient with our questions helping guide us through our choices along with accommodating our requests for no cilantro. We also thought the QPR was good with generous portions. We definitely want to go back and explore more of the menu.