Chawla's Indian Cuisine

Cream Chicken -- like an Indian version of Alfredo sauce. If I'm riding my bicycle around Surrey, I've gotta eat some Indian food, just like I've gotta eat Chinese if I'm in Richmond. I saw Chawla's sign bragging that they're in 85 places around the world, and now here in Vancouver, so I decided to give it a try for that reason. I didn't know I was stepping into a spot of controversy when I tried the house special cream chicken curry. I just picked it because diners can get that, a small Styro box of salad, a garlic naan and a can of soda for $12. Seemed like a fairly good deal, and a relatively complete meal.

I liked it! The sauce in the creamed chicken was not oily -- it reminded me of an Indian-spice equivalent to chicken Alfredo sauce, or curried Campbell's cream of chicken soup. The flavour had some depth to it too, a blending of black pepper and curry spices, not just one gustatory note. It was made with nice large chunks of white-meat chicken, only a little fat and gristle. The naan was bland and the onion/cucumber salad could have done with a bit more chopping -- the veggies were in BIG chunks. But it was healthy and fresh. I can see why this place is a successful franchise in the Old Subcontinent.