Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Kota Kinabalu : Anjappar Restaurant

Anjappar is one of the “new” Indian restaurant in downtown Kota Kinabalu which I only managed to check out yesterday.

This restaurant is located on the ground floor of Kompleks Asia City, more popularly known as KAC and you can’t miss the tusk like structure that decorated the front entrance.

When we arrived, the place was quite empty save for 2 tables but it started to fill up towards the end. I quite like the simple decor and that pitcher of water on every table is something which every restaurant should have.

Once we overheard one of the patron giving direction to the restaurant to a person over a phone asking him to look for the “Japalan Restaurant”. Anjappar = Japalan? I hope his friend did not take his instruction literally.

Anjappar (and not Japalan) Restaurant specialises in Chettinad cuisines which originated from Chettinad, a region in Tamil Nadu state which basically meant, it’s South Indian dishes.

But to me, when it comes to Indian food, I don’t care if they are Northern Indian or Southern Indian, as long as they have the Aloo Gobi Masala (RM5).

Anjappar’s Aloo Gobi looked and tasted just how I like it and it was a pleasure to indulge in this dish again.

Besides this, we ordered from their set meal menu. I had the Chettinad Non-Vegetarian meal (RM9) which comes with a bowl of very scrumptious chicken curry, cabbages, ladies finger and many small bowls of gravies, yoghurt and rasam.

Because my sister asked for their Banana Leaf Set meal (RM6), at first we weren’t sure if this was her dish or mine as underneath the tray was a banana leaf. When we asked our waiter (who was a local), he confused us further by saying that that tray was both the banana leaf meal AND my non-vegetarian meal - at least that was how we understood him then.

Us : We ordered one banana leaf meal (spoken in Malay)
Clueless Waiter : Itulah.. (“That’s the one”)
Us : And we also ordered one non-vegetarian meal (spoken in Malay)
Clueless Waiter : Itulah.. (“That’s the one”)
Us : Huh??

We even showed him the names on the menu and he still maintained that that tray was both the meals - until the manager or someone came over and sorted things out.

Turns out that our clueless waiter - friendly though he was - did not order the banana leaf meal.

When my sister’s banana leaf meal finally arrived, the Indian manager or something told her that she’s supposed to take all the bowls out and pour the contents on the leaf, which she did.

But when told to eat by hand, my sister with her manicured fingernails, declined.

I didn’t need to be told to use my hand because - although I too hate the smell that will linger on my fingers - there is just something that makes Indian food so much more delicious when eaten by hand, don’t you think?
Anyhow, clueless waiter or not, I love the food as you can see from the picture, we enjoyed the food and I look forward to trying out their other dishes next time.
Posted by Jewelle Tan at 03:25:33 | Permalink | Comments (1) »