Had a friend's birthday dinner a few weeks ago. He was very keen on having Indian food, so his girlfriend booked him into one of his favourite places in town, Old Monk in Rosalie. We were glad to go, having heard so many fantastic reviews of the place.
The dinner was somewhat late and the place wasn't very full, unless you have a very large group, it doesn't seem like you need a reservation. Our long table was set and service was friendly and attentive.
The menu was quite extensive, but for large groups, we had the Old Monk Banquet, where everyone was able to order one small plate, one large plate and a side for $45. Depending on what you ordered, this could be notably cheaper than individual pricing.
Staff were amazing when it came to serving, despite a table of 15, each with three courses, they were able to prepare all dishes to arrive roughly at the same time. A lot of our food was shared around, but I will cover what Dr L and I ordered that evening. First up was our serve of Indian Fried Chicken. I wish more people had ordered this dish, because when it got put down, quite a few people had food envy and we were left with one piece each, which goes to show how popular it was. Anyway, the chicken was very flavoursome but not overly spicy. The batter wasn't particularly thick or crispy, but it still had some crunch. We really liked this and would order it again.
Our other small dish was the Hariyali Paneer Tikka, an Indian cottage cheese marinated with coriander, mint along with spices. This was generous in size for a small dish and there were a fair few pieces of cheese. I really enjoyed the chewy, spongey texture of the cheese and the strong hit of herbs and spices.
With such generously sized small dishes, I had high expectations for the large dishes. Sadly, I was left disappointed. After our first course was cleared, second course came fairly quickly. This was the butter chicken. It was without a doubt delicious, with its spicy but creamy tomato base. What definitely could have been better though was the protein content of the dish. As you can see, it was largely comprised of one chicken drumstick, which was fairly small. In fact I would say the portions were fairly akin to the small dishes. This could of course be bulked up with the addition of sides such as rice or roti, but I would definitely have liked more chicken.
Our other large dish was the Lamb Rogan Josh, a Kashmiri style slow cooked lamb with house grounded spices. The flavours were also really well done in this dish, again with some very creamy tomato flavours to the curry, but again there was a severe lack of protein in the bowl. Between the two of us, we only managed one bite size piece of lamb each, which was really not very sufficient. If I had paid for this outside of the course meal, I would be pretty upset to have paid $25 for two small pieces of lamb.
Dr L didn't feel like rice, so our two sides consisted of Butter Naan and Garlic Naan. These were actually huge and were of excellent use mopping up the sauces in our curries. The garlic flavours were notable, especially compared to the butter naan, but it wasn't particularly strong. I did like the textures of the naan, with its flakey layers and elasticity, it was fun ripping it up and dipping it into the curry. Overall we had a good time at Old Monk. Next time we go back we will probably opt for more small dishes and aim for flexibility in ordering, but overall it was a good experience and worth a return visit!
Price Range: $45pp
Taste: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10
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