Urban Tadka Indian Restaurant
321 Mona Vale Road
Terrey Hills, Sydney
First impression when walking into Urban Tadka is WOW. The decor is “Amazing” in showcasing their tradition. This place has style. We were there to experience their new menu which is a combination of both Southern and Northern Indian flavours. This creates a mouthwatering taste sensation with exciting and beautifully balanced dishes.
It’s a really nice touch throughout the menu having the origins of the various dishes explained.
We have to say that every dish we had was so appetisingly presented with amazing aromas and flavours.
For drinks we each started with a cocktail. Sir loves anything rum based, so no surprises he went with a cocktail that had just that. Sirs was Indian Old Monk Rum. It was a glorious burgundy colour. It was slightly sweeter than he normally has but he did thoroughly enjoy the combination of cranberry juice and orange cherry jam. Mlady chose Penicillin as her cocktail. There was a wonderful smokiness that you could certainly taste. We both really enjoyed our cocktails.
The Papadams had a nice soft crispness and dipping them into the cool refreshing mint sauce was a nice way to start our meal. The biggest challenge was not eating them all - they really are moreish!
We started with Taco Chaat - long thin crispy fried wheat tacos. These had potatoes, chickpeas, spiced yoghurt, mint chutney and tamarind chutney. They had a nice tangy ‘kick’ with really good flavours. The tacos held together well too and were beautifully presented.
Next was shirkhampuri chevda kebab made from edamame, peas, potato, zucchini and crumbed corn flakes. These were a fave of Mlady’s. The crumbed corn flakes were really fine and not big crunchy flakes like you have for breakfast. They were very tasty and the ‘kick’ from this dish came gradually as you ate them.
We had a few chicken dishes and the first was called The Twisted Tandoori. This was bone-in chicken, cilantro scallion spiced rub and earthy hand crushed spice dust. The chicken was perfectly cooked and nice and tender and juicy with all flavours combining so well together.
One of our seafood dishes was Machi Lahosari - spiced fried fish in a unique combo of spices with herbs and gram flour, This dish is the pride of Lahone (Pakistan) and Amristsar (India). This tender cooked fish had a really nice spicy crispness. It was yet another mouthwatering combination of flavours and textures. It was served with sweet potato fries creating a delicious Indian version of fish and chips.
The Lamb Tujj Adraki Champein was slow cooked grass fed spring lamb cutlets marinated in garlic infused hung yoghurt and hand ground spices and served on a pea mash.
These had great flavours and were so tender. The pea mash combined perfectly and also added a nice vibrancy to this dish.
We then moved on to the Jhinga Narikelam - Tandoori smoked prawns, topped with coconut chutney. The prawns were lovely and juicy. Mlady loves chutneys and this coconut chutney went so well with the Tandoori smoked prawns.
Sir then had a nice red, a young but surprisingly smooth Tin Shed 2021 Shiraz from The Barossa Valley which tasted great. Mlady had a lighter red. She went with the 2021 Soho Bobby Pinot Noir. She thoroughly enjoyed this with her meal.
Next we had the wonderful Gosht Khajuro (hot) - grass fed lamb from the Cowra region cooked in infused tamarind and date purée with dehydrated Kashmiri red chillies. This was such a hearty looking dish that reminded us of a really nice rich stew. It was so tender with absolutely amazing flavours. The chilies gave it a lovely bright colour and bite which went so well. This dish was a favourite of Sirs.
We then tried another chicken dish, the Murgh Magaz - Masri (Hot) which was tender chicken filet cooked with coriander pods, and served on chur-chur dhaniya paratha. It was another filling and lovely tasting dish with wonderful flavours that combined so well together.
Mlady loves mussels so we just had to try the Mussel Nariel Kalanjan (mild). The mussels were cooked in lemon grass, kafir lime leaves, galangal and coconut cream. What an amazing colour. It was incredibly vibrant and a great mussel dish. The coconut cream gave it a mouthwatering creaminess.
The impressive Kukad Parath Biryani arrived in a cast iron pot. There’s a lot going on in this which just looked so good and tasted so good too! It was bone-in chicken in biryani spiced rice with fried egg. This dish is not just a side of rice, it is a meal in itself, which is the best of both worlds.
We had a couple of different Naans with our dishes. It’s hard not to!
The intriguingly different provalone cheese jalapeño Naan was made from plain flour and provalone cheese and was jalapeño infused and topped with these spicy morsels too.
Our other Naan was Chur Chur Dhaniya Parantha. This was whole meal bread with a layer of coriander inside.
Whilst both breads were nice to combine and dip into various dishes they were also really good to have just by themselves.
We managed to fit in dessert - but only just.
What a work of art the Peach Please was. It was made from Tonka bean mousse, caramelised peach compote, coconut and crunchy biscuit. It was such a pretty dessert with lovely, nice cool peach flavours.
Then we had the Masala chai pannacotta. It was Masala chai infused pannacotta with orange cremeux, freeze dried mandarin segments, rose petals all served with a famous Parle - G Biscuit.
It was yet another pretty dessert with an oh so good smooth texture that all combined so well.
Urban Tadka is a big place with seating for approximately 170 and with provisions for functions in various areas for big or small groups. It’s good it’s big though because it’s a popular place. Although big, it has great style and charm and they’ve won plenty of awards too.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests at Urban Tadka Indian Restaurant. Special thanks to one of the owners, Mandeep, for chatting with us and giving us a tour of this beautiful restaurant. Thank you also to Kunwar and Asim for taking care of us. Special thanks to Beyond Media for arranging this very tasty visit.