Urban Tadka

It's an  unseasonably hot day when we arrive at Urban Tadka, and my empty stomach starts to sink as the waiter leads us to the Worst Table in the Restaurant (WTR). Neither the ambience nor the full effect of the airconditioning can quite reach this little corner just outside the restaurant office, which has its door open to reveal office-y, un-restaurant-y things.

Being seated at the WTR is like being uninvited to a party. After a few minutes, I ask if we might please move, if all those tables for four in the business part of the restaurant, where the cool air is thick with ambience and waiters sashay past bearing platters of plump samosa, aren't booked out today.

Our waiter agrees immediately. Before we know it, we have Bangalore-brewed Kingfisher lagers in hand, pappadums dipped in mint chutney to munch on and our order almost nailed, as the waiter helps us with main course selection. Looking around with new eyes, yes, we quite agree with Urban Tadka's line that this is resort-style dining. With the greenery outside and the refuge inside from the heat, it reminds us of Bali.

For the sake of research, we've picked the Urban Tadka mixed sampler entree of samosa, vegetable croquet, murgh tikka and lakhnawi seekh, the latter two both dishes of boneless, melt-in-the-mouth chicken, drizzled, like the samosa, in a zingy sauce.

Urban Tadka is smart and modern, purpose-built four years ago by its trio of owners.  It has a lovely red, black and wood dining room. But it is also a little bit daggy. Muzak trills in the background. All the crockery and glassware is eponymously branded. On the wall above our table, a poster advertises Bollywood-themed functions. And they do like a garnish, even if it's just a couple of raw Spanish onion rings and a cherry tomato, which sit atop the patiala ka murgh saag.

This dish of chicken cooked with fenugreek and English spinach is "Punjab's fantasy", the menu advises. We continue our mini food tour of India with a salmon dish from the south, Kerala se salmon kuurchan, the tender, spicy fillet sitting un-sauced on a bed of okra, an excellent foil to the rich and more-ish sauce that inundates the chicken.

Urban Tadka's fare is authentic, unreconstructed Indian. At the 2014 India Australia Business and Community awards, it was named Australia's best Indian restaurant, beating  such restaurants as Vrindavan in Pyrmont and Delhi 'O' Delhi in Newtown. On this Saturday lunchtime, many of the clientele are family groups. A little boy is running circuits around the table beside us, smiling as he passes. It's a happy vibe.

"We promise only the finest of quality and highest of flavour," Urban Tadka's website says and, indeed, this is flavour that knocks you about the head. No opportunity is missed to get it in and draw it out, through marinades, spices, herbs, sauces – and, one guesses, dollops of ghee.

At some point, this food undoes us. It has lured us, siren-like, to eat too much of it, and it is another 36 hours before I can face anything but fruit and yoghurt. In retrospect, I blame the masala kulcha, a Delhi roadside  naan with spicy potatoes and cheese, picked from a selection of 10 mouth-watering breads. Oh, how I loved it, almost a meal in itself. But alas, a dish too far.

THE PICKS
Urban Tadka mixed sampler; achari paneer shashlik (cottage cheese with onion, capsicum and tomato); Kerala se salmon kuurchan; masala kulcha 

THE LOOK
Tropical resort with modern Indian flourishes

THE SERVICE
Efficient and helpful