Urban Indian Cafe
1910 St. Laurent Blvd. (in the Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre’s parking lot), 613-247-1010, urbanindiancafe.ca
Open: Tuesday to Friday 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday noon to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: most main dishes under $15
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms
Ah, the Taj Mahal. “It is truly, stunningly beautiful. The amount of detail on that marble!” said my friend, who has visited the architectural masterpiece in Agra.
We were both moved to ponder the Northern Indian wonder upon viewing a strikingly large mural of the Taj Mahal on the wall at Urban Indian Cafe, a much less majestic eatery in the Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre’s parking lot that opened this spring.
Beyond the almost mesmerizing mural, the decorations at the cafe are minimal — just some placards showing food. The eatery is not licensed, its cutlery and napkins are available by the cash where you order, and service has ranged from minimal to a little brusque. On the whole, it’s not so much a place to linger as a place for a quick meal or getting food to go.
But because the cafe offers some Indian items that strike me as uncommon in Ottawa, including breads, street snacks and breakfast items, and because its prices appealed (nearly all of its items are less than $15), I’ve paid a few visits this month.
There have been pleasant surprises, especially of the bread-y kind, probably significant enough to spark cravings when I’m next in the vicinity. Also on the plus side, portions too have been generous.
But there also have been dishes that were too cold or tasted too much of shortcuts or of too much salt. The menu could also be better organized, to group and highlight items more, especially for curious non-Indian expats. Also, the kitchen could arguably be better stocked, as it’s been out of at least one thing I wanted to try each time I visited.
I can recommend the breads I’ve had here, which were freshly made and emerged hot from the tandoor oven or frying pan.
Beyond commonplace naan breads — which also serve as the wrapping for the cafe’s tandoori wraps — there were many varieties of stuffed breads, including spicy, pliant Amritsari kulcha ($7.95), which was pleasingly packed with a filling of potato and peas and came with a bowl of chickpea curry.
Left, Amritsari Kulcha and right, Kashmiri naan at Urban Indian Cafe
More substantial was the helping of fried bread that came on the platter called chole bhature ($11.95), a Punjabi dish that pairs the bread, or bhatura, principally with a helping of chickpea curry.
Chole Bhature at Urban Indian Cafe
At a mid-morning visit, we enjoyed paratha flatbreads, stuffed with bits of chicken ($8.95) or potato ($6.95) and cut into quarters. During that visit, we also filled up with chicken stuffed omelette sandwiches ($9.95), which struck us as far-flung Western sandwiches at first glance but in fact are a common Indian street food.
Chicken parathas at Urban Indian Cafe
Bread omelette sandwich at Urban Indian Cafe
While the cafe has no desserts per se, the Kashmiri naan ($4.50), loosely stuffed with raisins and flaked coconut, functioned as a meal-ender.
A fantastic shareable starter here was an order of prawn pakora ($11.95), which featured nine of those massive shrimp perfectly deep-fried and encased in a crisp, chickpea-flour batter. If every dish at Urban Indian Cafe was as good, I’d be proclaiming it the hole-in-the-wall of the year.
Prawn pakora at Urban India Cafe
The cafe serves a few kinds of chaat, the Indian street food, including samosa chaat, which involves chopping up the common doughy snack and saucing the morsels with tamarind sauce, yogurt and chickpeas; aloo tikki chaat, which substitutes potato croquettes for the samosas; and chaat papadi, which involves crispy, fried, savoury wafers.
I had high hopes for the chaat, but was let down somewhat at the cafe. Chaat papadi was not available when I twice asked for it, I assume because no papadis had been made. Meanwhile, the very saucy samosa chaat ($7.50) and aloo tikki chaat (6.95) were OK, but would have been better had their samosas and potato croquettes been cooked to order rather than seemingly tepidly reheated.
Samosa chaat at Urban Indian Cafe
Aloo tikki chaat at Urban Indian Cafe
The cafe serves a handful of Hakka (Indo-Chinese) dishes that skew spicy and sour in what’s thought of as an emulation of Sichuan flavours. I took home some chilli chicken ($14.95) and Hakka noodles with chicken ($13.95), and felt they might have been more enjoyable eaten at the cafe; in particular, the breaded chicken in the first dish was simply soggy and overcooked.
Chili Chicken at Urban Indian Cafe
Much, much better was the cafe’s Malai chicken ($17.95), a standout curry of tender chicken in a savoury sauce enriched by onions and ground cashews. Butter chicken, which a friend had as part of his combo meal ($14.95), was respectable but more pedestrian.
Malai chicken at Urban Indian Cafe
Combo meal including butter chicken and chana masala at Urban Indian Cafe
Beef korma ($16.95) was properly rich, spicy and savoury, and a platter of okra ($10.95) was sharply flavoured and properly textured. Vegetable biryani ($11.75) was too salty.
Beef Korma at Urban Indian Cafe
Okra at Urban Indian Cafe
The cafe’s mango lassis, made in advance and stored with the soft drinks, were thick and cheap ($2.95). Among those soft drinks were bottles of Thums Up, the Indian cola. At my breakfast visit, my friend and I each ordered chai tea ($2.25) and received a heaping pot of the stuff.
In all, I’ve had to sort out treats from frustrations at Urban India Cafe, but the effort was worthwhile. It’s an imperfect but interesting place where savvy, informed, patient ordering can ultimately pay off.
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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews