Daegu curry restaurant mie goreng and whole-crab curry: Rama & Babana

What kind of restaurant is Rama & Babana Dongseong-ro Main Branch?

Rama & Babana Dongseong-ro Main Branch is an Indian fusion restaurant on the 2nd floor at the entrance of Tongsin-golmok alley in Jung-gu, Daegu. With Chuseok right around the corner, work has been so busy that I even missed a posting yesterday 🥵 I got off work really late, so on the way home I figured we'd grab dinner, and my daughter and I headed downtown for once to hit up a spot known for Indian curry in Daegu.

[Rama & Babana Dongseong-ro Main Branch] ▶ Address = 25-11 Bongsan-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea ▶ Hours = 11:30–21:30 (break time 15:00–16:30) ▶ Closed = Every Tuesday ▶ Parking = No dedicated parking lot

Rama & Babana has been in business since 2004, so it's been a fixture of the Dongseong-ro food scene for over 20 years — a restaurant with real history. It's pretty impressive that it's kept running steadily all this time smack in the middle of downtown Daegu, not tucked away in some quiet neighborhood.

I'd vaguely heard there's also a branch in Suseong-gu, Daegu, but I'd passed by this Dongseong-ro main branch so many times downtown that I felt a kind of inner familiarity (?) with it, so that's the one we ended up visiting 🤗

The restaurant sits right at the entrance of Tongsin-golmok alley, and I love that you can eat on the 2nd floor while looking down through the window.

Rama & Babana is an Indian fusion restaurant, so you can try all kinds of traditional Indian curries alongside special dishes like tom yum curry, nasi goreng, and mie goreng — I'd definitely recommend it if you're after a unique date spot in Dongseong-ro 😉

Inside Rama & Babana: mood and seating

Inside, Rama & Babana Dongseong-ro Main Branch is mostly made up of 2- and 4-person tables, fitting about 10 groups — a place that's neither too small nor too big. The moment we opened the door, a subtle waft of spices hit us.

What we ordered: chicken curry, poo pad pong curry and mie goreng

There were more menu items than I expected, so I had to think it over quite a bit, but since it was our first visit, I wanted to try a little of everything without any misses, so we ordered the signature chicken curry, tom yum curry, and mie goreng.

While waiting for our order, I noticed what looked like autographs on the wall — turned out to be traces of quite a few celebrities and public figures who'd stopped by. Guess my family showed up way too late 😅

The food is made right after you order, and since the kitchen is open, you get to watch the whole process — a nice touch!

Mie goreng: seafood toppings right through the noodles

Our tom yum curry, mie goreng, and chicken curry with added naan all arrived together 😋 Worried the noodles would go soggy, I tried the mie goreng first — it had the classic egg topping you'd expect, plus tomatoes, shrimp, and various other seafood spread evenly throughout, making it the kind of flavor I think anyone, young or old, would enjoy.

Poo pad pong curry with a whole crab in the pan

Second up was the tom yum curry with an entire crab dropped in whole! I remember being amazed the first time I tried tom yum curry in my twenties, thinking 'oh, this kind of flavor exists too' — I think anyone who loves blue crab would love this dish.

Tom yum curry is a dish where you mix rice into a soft, savory curry made with egg and milk, and this one also had a big shrimp in it — there's just no way it wouldn't taste good, right..? 😏

Chicken curry: about as spicy as buldak

Last up was the main dish, chicken curry~ Honestly I wanted to dive in right away, but since I'd heard it was about as spicy as buldak (fire chicken), and I'm pretty sensitive to spice, I waited a bit for it to cool down first..

The curries come in chicken, shrimp, or beef depending on what's inside, and this one had a generously filling amount of ingredients, which I liked.

If you add naan, it comes out pretty large, so you can either just dip it in the curry or eat it with the meat — but a few bites in, the spice really kicked in, so if you can't handle spicy food, I'd say order the beef or shrimp instead 🤣

Is Rama & Babana worth it for a Dongseong-ro dinner?

If you're out on a date in Dongseong-ro, I'd recommend stopping by Rama & Babana, a unique Indian curry spot in Daegu with great food and great atmosphere!