Taipei restaurant -Little Kitchen Curry 小灶咖 – Wonderful Japanese curry with an fragrant Indian twist.

Many people out there may turn their nose up at ‘English’ food. And, I don’t really blame you. I cannot claim to say that curry is ‘English’ food, but it is definitely part of English culture. I will quite happily go on record saying that curry in England is exceptional. I challenge you to go somewhere like Dishoom, Kennington Tandoori , Tayyabs in London, my local spot Shahenshah in Derby, or Herb in Leicester, and dislike any of their dishes.

With such a love for curry, I don’t often post about places that I don’t feel worthy of such acclaim when it comes to Taipei. But, Little Kitchen Curry is doing a great job!

Fairly new on the block, Little Kitchen claims to be a ‘Japanese’ curry space, but I tend to disagree. The spices used here taste fresh and fragrant, which I have never had in a ‘Japanese‘ style curry before.

The menu is simple, which I like a lot. 3 curries are on the menu – Beef stew, Indian butter chicken, and Pork Keema. Both the beef and chicken benefit from the same base that focuses on tomato, garlic, and ginger. The ratio of garlic, to ginger, to tomato is slightly different in both curries, and the spices are definitely different, too.

Beef Stew Curry

It’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it? I mean, it’s easy to make curry look like a big bowl of stew. But I think it’s more difficult to make it look as pretty as this one. However, the proof is in the pudding, as they say…

Rich tomato, delicate undertones of onion and garlic, a pleasant hum of spices throughout, and plenty of chunks of beef with carrot. There’s lots to like in this bowl, and this bowl alone would have me going back for more. The spice doesn’t feel as important here, but rather the fragrance sings through and does the talking. The red wine and tomato flavour comes through strongest of all.

Indian Butter Chicken

We always try to get different dishes wherever possible. So I couldn’t get the beef. But, similarly, knowing that ‘keema’ often means ground meat, I felt like it was my duty to get the butter chicken, even though I don’t particularly like butter chicken. In my experience, butter chicken tends to be sweeter, with lots of cream, and it half feels more like a dessert than a main meal. Alas, not this one.

The butter chicken here was fragrant, had a mild spice, and was pretty darned good. The curry flavour felt slightly stronger when compared to the beef, but that doesn’t mean that either is nicer than the other. If you want a stronger fragrant spice flavour, then this should be your choice. But if you want a richer dish, then go for the beef.

The bottom line

I will come back here, for sure. It isn’t traditional Indian curry, I accept that. But, it’s reasonably priced curry that uses Indian spices in a quiet and unassuming atmosphere.

Where is it?