In-Dish

Review

The Indian mixture

Photo: Heribert Corn It's a funny thing about Indian cuisine in Vienna. There's a lot to suggest that it could finally take off now: the generally growing interest in spices, the enormous variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes, the increasing desire for authentic cooking styles and Asian cuisines anyway, booming tourism to and from India. And last but not least, role models such as Benares, Tamarind, Quilon, Trishna, Jamavar and all the other Michelin-starred Indian restaurants in London. Sufian Ahmed Awan took these top Indian restaurants as a model when he designed his in-dish, as he had also worked in such restaurants in London and New York after completing his training in the Viennese module. And what obviously impressed the 25-year-old the most there was the fusion of Indian and Western cuisine, also known as "fusion". Or rather, it wasn't really all that foreign to him anyway, because in Zell am See, where he comes from, his father ran the Basmati restaurant for 30 years - with both Indian and Italian cuisine, but in parallel and not mixed. No matter. Sufian Ahmed now mixes Indian classics with a little bit of Italian, a lot of American, a pinch of Mexican and a portion of Japanese. Indian-prepared chicken or beef is used as a filling/topping for wraps, burgers, tacos, maki rolls, ceasar salad and arancini, while tandoori prawns end up on saffron risotto.
These may not all be great ideas, but the generally high quality of the food and the appetizing presentation speak volumes for the in-dish and things like the three differently marinated chicken breast fillets or the duck breast from the tandoori oven are a very good way to start.
And then there are also Indian specialties without fusion, a somewhat bland daal lentil soup, for example (€ 4.-), a really first-class tikka tandoori chicken with funny fried peas in a stanitzel made from the wonderful lentil crispbread pappadam (€ 6,-) or the classic Silky Butter Chicken, very well marinated, extremely juicy chicken pieces in a fruity-sour makhani sauce, a wonderful conglomerate of spices, garlic and tomatoes that you could actually eat all the time and with anything (€ 16,-). And the palak kofta, small dumplings made from minced beef, chickpeas and poppy seeds with a shockingly good spinach and curry sauce and refreshing raita (mint and yoghurt sauce), were great (€ 16). Yes, of course, there's still room for improvement, and ingredients like the Victoria perch don't have to be. But it's a good step in the right Indian direction. Summary: A new restaurant with "modern" Indian cuisine, by which I mean that it's good on the one hand and makes burgers and wraps on the other. In-Dish 1st, Schwarzenbergstr. 8/16 Tel. 01/941 28 01 Mon-Sat 11-14.30, 17-22 h

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