Indian curry menu guide and garlic naan in Samseong: India The Durbar

A good find near Coex — India The Durbar Samseong Station Branch | parking info, how to read a confusing Indian curry menu, and honest thoughts on the food

Where is India The Durbar Samseong Station Branch, and what are the hours?

• Address: 15 Samseong-ro 84-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, B1
• Location: about 605m from Exit 4 of Samseong Station
• Hours: daily 11:00–23:00 / last order 22:30
• Parking: Daecheodaemyeong-gil public street parking right in front of the restaurant
• Reservations: available via Naver Reservation

If you're looking for Indian food near Samseong Station and Coex, this is a great pick. From the moment we stepped into India The Durbar, the place was full of exotic atmosphere.

My husband has been to India twice and really loves Indian culture and food, and he's eaten plenty of curry, so this time I let him help me pick the menu haha. I suddenly got curious and asked him

Is curry actually different when you eat it in India?

and he said yes, it really is different. 😂 Especially at genuinely great local spots, apparently it's on another level. I'd love to try it in India myself someday. 🤍

Where to park near India The Durbar Samseong Station Branch

There's a Daecheodaemyeong-gil public street parking lot right in front of the restaurant, and that's where we parked. The rate is ₩400 per 5 minutes, which works out to ₩4,800 per hour.

On weekdays it's paid from 09:00 to 19:00, and free outside those hours. Weekends and public holidays are also listed as free. There are various discounts, including for low-emission vehicles, and EVs qualify too — worth checking if that applies to you!

Near Samseong Station or Coex, parking is usually the first worry when you're driving 😂 so having a public lot right in front of the restaurant was really convenient.

How to read an Indian curry menu

There's something that's always tripped me up every time I've come to an Indian curry place.

I look at the menu and have no idea what anything is... haha

Masala...? Makhani...? Palak...? Paneer...?

Turns out it's much easier to understand if you break menu names down into main ingredient + sauce or cooking style!

Ingredient names on the menu: paneer, palak, dal

• Chicken: chicken
• Mutton: goat/lamb family meat
• Paneer: Indian-style cheese

Cooking styles you will see most often

• Palak: a style using spinach
• Makhani: a smooth, creamy style using butter and tomato
• Masala: a spice blend, or a dish made using it

Once you know roughly that much, the menu suddenly starts to make sense haha. For example, Palak Paneer means a curry with spinach + paneer cheese! Thinking about combinations like this gives you a rough idea of what a dish will be.

Of course, Indian food varies a lot by region and restaurant, so not every menu item fits this formula exactly, but it's a pretty useful reference for reading a menu for the first time! If you don't know much about Indian curry like me, you could start with famous dishes like palak paneer, butter chicken (chicken makhani), or chicken tikka masala. ☺️

What comes in Set B at India The Durbar

We ordered Set B and picked palak paneer and butter chicken as our two curries. And partway through, we ended up adding a garlic naan too!

The salad that came out first had pretty fresh vegetables. Since curry as a whole is rich and savory, eating salad in between helped cut the richness and cleanse the palate perfectly.

Tandoori chicken

Sure, the curry already has chicken and cheese protein in it... but you still need separate protein too, right? 😌 haha. The spices were well soaked in and the chicken was tender, and dipping it in the accompanying sauce was delicious. Great to pick at before the curry arrives — the set felt really well put together!

Palak paneer

And the dish I totally fell for that day — palak paneer! 💚

Honestly, the green color looked a little unfamiliar at first. But once I tried it... why is this so savory and delicious? It didn't have that strong raw-spinach smell I expected — it was very smooth and nutty-savory.

Eating it together with the paneer cheese chunks mixed in added a mild, savory richness that kept me going back for more. It might look like it could be a hit-or-miss color in photos, but personally it was one of the tastiest things I ate that day!

Butter chicken

And of course, butter chicken, which is hard to get wrong! 🧡 The sauce itself was very smooth and creamy, with a gentle sweetness and savory depth.

You could taste the nuttiness from the cashews too, which paired really well with the naan. If palak paneer is a bit more clean and nutty, butter chicken is richer, creamier and sweeter! The colors and flavors were completely different, so I was glad we ordered both.

There was a warmer kept lit under the curries, so they stayed hot the whole time we ate. Curry really does taste better hot, and I liked that little detail. ☺️

The naan was so good we added garlic naan

The set already comes with a basic naan, but it was so delicious that we ended up ordering an extra garlic naan too haha.

The freshly made naan was warm, chewy, and savory — really good. We tore off pieces, piled on plenty of palak paneer, piled on plenty of butter chicken... 🤍🤍🤍

The curries were genuinely delicious that day, but honestly the naan was the real star. We ended up polishing off the extra naan too and nearly burst haha.

The rice tastes familiar to Korean diners

Rice comes with the set too, but it wasn't the long-grain basmati rice you'd get in India. What I had felt more like familiar Korean rice cooked a bit fluffy. So even if you're not used to the aroma or texture of Indian-style rice, this should be easy to pair with curry without any hesitation. Personally, though, I'm team naan over rice... 🤭

The lassi included in the set

And my favorite — lassi 🤍 The set includes one lassi per person! I really love lassi. 🥹 Taking a sip of cold, sweet lassi in between bites of rich, savory curry is such a good combination. I actually wanted to order another one, but with the extra naan already eaten, I was about to burst, so I couldn't bring myself to order more haha.

Is India The Durbar Samseong Station Branch worth it?

This visit was through Superchart, but next time I want to come back and pay with my own money! My husband, who's been to India twice and loves Indian food, said,

This is a genuinely solid Indian curry place.

Considering this is a curry spot in the Gangnam area, the prices didn't feel too burdensome, and overall we were satisfied with everything — curry, naan, tandoori chicken, lassi.

Most of all, I properly got into palak paneer this time... 💚 Next time I want to try other curries I haven't had yet. ...though I'll probably end up ordering palak paneer again anyway haha. India The Durbar, where we added naan and ate until we nearly burst — if you love Indian curry, this place is worth a visit. ☺️