2nd July 2008 - Vintage India

After an interesting Indian evening at Khana Khazana, we decided to try Vintage India to see how their food and ambience compared.

We had a slightly over-ambitious waiter who enjoyed pointing at each of us in demand of what we would be ordering which was a little overbearing but until our food orders were taken he was most efficient. Thereafter however, he seemed to disappear into the kitchen not to be seen again until our meal was served. The drought did not go down well.

The food was excellent though, the selection of dishes on the menu were clearly described with heat indicators and various choices of meat with which to have your sauce. We chose Prawn Vindaloo (not outrageously hot); Chicken Xacuti; Tawa Chicken; Chicken Hyderabadi; Chicken Rogan Josh and Chicken Kolhapuri and all the dishes were delicious. The Jeera Rice was also very tasty but all dishes are served with steamed rice so once again there was too much food on our table.

Pricing was pretty average at 500Mtn per person including our drinks and starters. The 2M was top of the pops as usual and the Nederburg Duet was very smooth. A small tip with regard to the possibility of a drought is to order 2-3 beers each and ask for a wine bucket to keep them cool.

Vintage India was very busy and there was a nice ambience and it is definately worth a visit before you venture to Khana Khazana. Vintage India is situated on Julius Nyerere No. 450. There are also branches in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

18th June '08 - Khana Khazana

It was wonderful to enjoy a restaurant in Maputo that is slightly off the beaten track. Khana Khazana is a typical indian style restaurant with round tables and white table linen. We had wonderful service from both the Maitre D' and the waitrons and we ate a feast of tasty, relatively authentic indian dishes. We got incredibly carried away much to the delight of the Maitre D' and ordered far too much food under his gentle skills of persuasion. We had starters of a paper roti and Bhaji's which were wonderful, unfortunately the accompaniments were an excellent green chilli pesto and 'KETCHUP' ...... oh dear ...... For our main meal we each ordered a dish with side dishes for the table and shared. This proved to be far too much food so we had loads of leftovers. We had a chicken korma, butter chicken, chicken marsala, do plaza, a prawn curry, a balti dahl with 2 types of rice and the seven breads platter. All the curries were tasty but lacked the kick you would expect from some of the dishes. Unfortunately the restaurant was quite quiet and didn't serve draft beer and they ran out of cold 2M bottles. There was no South African wine on the menu so we had the J.P. Chenet which was not bad. Our total bill was a little high due to our overambitious ordering. The seven breads dish was way too much and we could have easy done with only 4 main dishes to share between the 6 of us. Khana Khazana is situated at 580 Patrice Lumumba Avenue, near the Monte Carlo Hotel in Maputo. It is definately worth a visit.