#westie times at Aangan Indian Restaurant

I’ve referred to myself as a #westie on this blog a few times now but I may have been a little hyperbolic. Technically if you divide a map of Melbourne into quarters I’m on the westside, but #northwestie, which I technically am, just doesn’t have the same ring to it. The truth is that I have absolutely no knowledge of true #westie country, that is, the Footscray/Seddon/Yarraville part of Melbourne. I’ve driven through, I saw a play in Seddon once and I went to a cup day BBQ in Footscray two years ago. 

But I’m branching out. On Good Friday I headed over to West Footscray (that’s totally #westie) to Indian feasting with Cilla.

Aangan Indian Restaurant was absolutely pumping when we arrived. There was a little queue for takeaway and the restaurant was full. Despite this we were served quickly and staff were very friendly and hospitable.

The wine list is fairly basic but very affordable with a few mainstream brands but they also allow BYO for wine.

My knowledge of Indian food is pretty much encompassed by curry and naan so I was very pleased to have the chance to try some some dishes I haven’t had before.

We ordered a Chaat platter which includes a choice of three dishes served with tamarind, sour mint and cumin yoghurt sauces ($16.00)

Tikka Chaat- potato cakes: fat, crunchy and delicious with tangy sauce

Samosa Chaat- crushed samosas topped with chaat sauces. I thought this was going to be a bit stodgy and overwhelming but it was one of my favourite dishes of the night.

Masala Puri- hollow wheat semolina balls stuffed with chickpea, potato, tamarind and mint sauce. Tasty but definitely not first date food, there was lots of lovely sauce to ooze everywhere 🙂

I had heard of dosa but never tried it so we went for a Masala Dosa ($12.50)

A giant (seriously giant) crispy crepe filled with a very mild potato madras.

Sorry about the dodgy photo. My camera settings were trying to cope with reflected blue light, weird angles and a dosa that was seriously 50cm long. At this point they pulled up an extra table next to us to cope with all the food. 

Of course we had to get a curry too. We picked a Chicken Kolapuri ($16.50), largely because we wanted to try something different. It was mild and quite tangy with large pieces of tender chicken.

I adore naan so there was a cheese naan ($4.50) and a garlic naan ($2.50) on the side.

The cheese one was spot on, nice and cheesy and oily. The garlic one was also good but tasted a touch healthy for my liking 🙂

Plus a salad, because #balance. The Kachumber salad ($6.50) is basically an Indian version of a Greek salad (or maybe the Greeks copied India, who knows) with cucumber, tomato, red onion and paneer instead of fetta.

The food is exceptionally good value. We way (way, WAY) over-ordered and the staff were very kind to provide a couple of takeaway containers. If anything, the dishes could have been spicier but we didn’t order a ‘heat’ level so I’m assuming everything was made mild for us.

I reckon I may just embrace my #westie side yet.

Now that I’ve popped my Footscray cherry, where else MUST I go?