Easily a 4.5+ restaurant after two visits, this relatively recent entrant into the somewhat crowded…read moreIndian resto scene in the NE and SE of Calgary is definitely at or near the top in terms of close to great food.
Across the way from La Jawab (a very good 4.25 star Tamil Indian restaurant also in the same large McKnight and 52nd Street plaza area), Punjaabi offers excellent pomfret fish (tandoori), very good vindaloo and garlic naan bread. They also serve an assortment of other veg and non-veg dishes.
Returning there with my wife, together we dove into yet another tandoori pomfret, very fine chicken curry, and garlic naan/paratha with a good-tasting mango smoothie.
Despite the restaurant name, it seems their chef can cook several styles, including Tamil from Chennai to Goa, up to Punjab and possibly other parts of the Indian sub-continent. Pretty cool, esp. as these styles all taste wonderfully different.
Our waiters were forthcoming and easy to work with.
Other customers were largely other Indians, a very good sign.
With an attractive upbeat interior, cloth napkins and table cloth, and matching silverware, Punjaabi is distinctly a step up from most of the other Calgary Indian restaurants. But prices are still average per entree, hovering in the $13-15 range, with specialty dishes running up to $22.
Leftovers provided 3 home meals this 2nd time, and as a test of the best chefs, the flavours and textures held up nicely.
In a red/black art-deco interior likely inherited from the restaurant that recently closed before they took possession, it pipes through Bollywood-styled glitzy music on several flat screens.
One slight downside is that there were no female serving crew: it's our opinion that women servers are far more attentively caring than the average man. For instance, to have our waiters play with their cell phones in plain view of customers is bad form: with water covering the handwashing sink area, washrooms need minor cleaning, and we had to call them over for payment and to arrange takeout. With my wife helping run a local pizza restaurant and 7.5 years of customer service and staff supervisory experience in the hospitality industry, it was plain to both of us that in general female servers are simply more with it than the average male. Hint ... hint?
A closer alternative to the excellent Mehtab in Cochrane, Punjaabi is well worth it!
