I might as well come clean: This is going to be a favourable review. Curry Corner has been a family favourite for more than a decade, ever since my wife and I bought a house in Riverbend.
As the closest Indian restaurant to our home, Curry Corner (in Riverbend Square, beside the Shoppers Drug Mart) quickly became our “local.” My three kids fell in love with the butter chicken and crave it to this day. We went there for birthdays and anniversaries and whenever my parents visited from Ontario. When COVID hit, it was our go-to takeout place. Who would eat at a place that often if they didn’t enjoy the food, right?
On this occasion, I did have something I hadn’t before: the lunch special (although I have had most of its component parts). The papadam and naan bread were typically delicious, the papadam delicately crispy and the naan light and fluffy with a crunchy patina. The saffron rice is always popular in my family, with a sprinkling of cumin seeds giving a sweet, nutty flavour to rice that has not a single bit of stickiness to it. The daal tadka – lentils cooked in herbs and spices – was new to me and is something I’ll add to the usual order.
The meal also features the aforementioned butter chicken, which has never been a favourite of mine. To me butter chicken is a gateway-to-Indian-food dish for white people (of which I am, admittedly, one). But I find it too creamy and sweet, reminiscent of tomato soup. I’ve always known that about butter chicken, but it doesn’t change my kids’ minds. It just leaves more for them, and for me the rest of the meal more than makes up for it.
The lunch portion at Curry Corner is huge, more than I would usually have for lunch and a bargain at $14. Sadly, for the hour I was there, I was the only customer. Curry Corner has never seemed busy. The owner, Tara Kharal, tells me he’s getting by OK, despite COVID and inflation biting into business. He says the catering aspect of the business has grown, and take-out has always been pretty strong.
Nonetheless, knowing how difficult it is to get by in the restaurant business these days, and not wanting to ever see the end of Curry Corner, I buy two more lunch specials to take home to the family. I’ll be welcomed as a conquering hero.
Curry Corner
Riverbend | 616 Riverbend Sq, Edmonton | 780.438.1008 | currycorner.ca
