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Kari Guru

Matt Preston and Reviewer

Kari Guru.
Kari Guru.Supplied

Indian

Despite two months of planning, this week was a right shemozzle. Two drives to Kari Guru in Fitzroy North were aborted by ridiculous traffic. Then there was the issue of going to Werribee to check out the similarly and confusingly named Curry Guru.

This at least wasn't a total loss, as I did get to try some decent minty-marinated chunks of pudina chicken from the tandoor, and a tangy lamb curry lifted by yoghurt and fennel seeds. This bright, modern takeaway has a few tables, and, incongruously, for an Indian takeaway in Werribee, quotes 19th century art critic John Ruskin on its menu: "Quality is never an accident, it is always the result of intelligent effort." It is best approached, according to local knowledge, by avoiding the bain marie to choose stuff they cook to order such as butter chicken, Punjabi lamb shanks or fish curry.

I eventually find the right Kari Guru in Nicholson Street's no-man's-land, between Alexandra Parade and the pizza hub of Woodstock and L'Osteria. The room, while attempting to be smart with clothed and shiny-papered tables and curly-metal-backed chairs, seems to have an unloved quality typified by a collection of local real estate mags neatly lined up on the bar. Also, the business card is roughly sticky-taped to the bill folder, and there's a tumbleweed emptiness on the occasions I'm there.

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Really the place should be busier. The food is well-priced given the quality and it occasionally inventively marries South Indian flavours with some richer North Indian flourishes.

The Chettinard chicken, like many of the more Southern-influenced dishes on the menu, is dotted with mustard seeds and curry leaves; it's glossy, with a deep, smoky flavour from the long, blackened chillies in its gravy. Suspending the curry's little pot over a tealight keeps it hot - another positive.

Mustard seeds and curry leaves also turn up as lead flavourings in Kari Guru's chicken Chennai and in their "aviyal". Here their version of this Kerala vegie curry has nice firm, not mushy, cauliflower, capsicum, potato, peas, beans, carrots in a coconut, lemon juice and tomato sauce.

Sourness set against chilli heat is a bit of a theme here. Yoghurt mellows a lamb curry with sweetcorn; a Hyderabhadi chicken korma made with fennel seeds, fenugreek and a handful of skinny red chillies has its mughal richness countered by a vinegar reduction; the achar gosht has a vinegar tang playing against more chillies and the rich sauce of this "pickled" lamb curry.

The usual suspects make up the mains and entrees but as a change from tikka try the "tikki". These are sort of mint, mace and cardamom-spiked potato rissoles. And, rather than quoting Ruskin, don't be surprised if these have you quoting Darryl Kerrigan.

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