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Eat of the week: Satya

I’ve just returned from New Year’s dinner and it was amazing.

Satya is at 515 Sandringham Road (and I love that it has the easiest phone number to remember, hands down. 8458451!). It’s a tiny little restaurant tucked away in the last block of Sandringham shops, specialising in South Indian food at really reasonable prices. The decor, as others have noted, is a tad weird – orange, pink and purple fabric draped around the place (from Geoff’s Emporium maybe?) and rough hewn wooden surfaces. Even the water glasses are battered metal cups – I commented that it was just like camping. The service is patchy; I love how their drinks menu offered lots of info about South Indian cuisine, and the paragraph that said “we’re not professional chefs, we focus on homestyle Indian cooking techniques”!

The food is fabulous. We had the recommended Dahi Puri to start: “a well balanced mix of yoghurt ,boiled potato and chick peas with tamarind chutney and fresh ground roasted spices topping”. It’s unique. That’s all I can say, you really have to try it to experience it.

I had chicken paralakan (?). It was rich and thick and not too spicy. The boy had butter chicken, which was great – I don’t like butter chicken, but this revived my hope in the dish. I didn’t like the fact that the menu descriptions were pretty patchy. Some were completely unhelpful (ie chicken with spinach, no mention of flavours or spices used).

They don’t advertise so rely on word of mouth (hence my plug!) but have got a fair bit of publicity already. Satya consistently scores on best eatery lists. I think it’s got best Indian restaurant in Metro recently, as well as others. The thing I love most about ethnic restaurants is even the good ones serve top class food at fair prices. And frankly I feel at home in the surroundings. I don’t really in posh, European places (not that I’ve ever actually been to one…apart from high tea atthe Langham which was totally an experience to remember).

We left Satya full and satisfied, rubbing our tummies. The servings were perfect, we finished everything (except the bread which was overly cheesy and garlicky) and walked out able to stand up straight without any trouble. Don’t you hate when you sutff yourself silly then have to hobble around bent over almost double? Our bill: Two mains, a garlic cheese paratha and and entree came to just over $45 – can’t ask for better than that!

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