Coex Indian restaurant, aloo paratha & rasgulla: India The Durbar

India The Durbar (인디아 더르바르) 15 Samseong-ro 84-gil, Gangnam-gu Hours: 11:00–23:00 Last order 22:30

A late lunch after a Coex work trip: why India The Durbar?

India The Durbar is an Indian curry restaurant on Samseong-ro 84-gil, not far from Coex. I finished my Coex work trip early and stopped here for a late lunch. I had skipped lunch and was about to eat somewhere nearby before heading back, and when I found a highly rated Indian curry place, I decided on the spot.

Everybody loves curry, right~? I like Korean curry, Japanese curry and Indian curry, all of it! But it had been so long since I last had Indian curry. Good Indian places are hard to find, and there's none in my neighborhood T_T

Atmosphere and interior of India The Durbar Samseong Station Branch

This Indian curry restaurant near Coex announces "I'm an Indian restaurant~" from the outside, and when you walk down the half flight of stairs, the Indian vibe gets even stronger.

The inside is quite spacious, and since I came at an in-between time, around 3:30 PM, nobody else was eating. It felt like we had rented the whole place, which I actually loved~

Lunch set and à la carte: what we ordered

Until 2 PM, India The Durbar offers a lunch set at a low price with salad, curry, chicken, naan or rice, and a drink. There are other set menus outside lunch hours too, but none had the curry I wanted, so we ordered à la carte.

• Butter chicken makhani
• Prawn vindaloo
• Garlic butter naan
• Aloo paratha (potato-stuffed flatbread)
• Lassi (Indian yogurt drink)
• Rasgulla (Indian milk-curd dessert balls)

You order with the QR code on the table, and there's a review event too. If you love naan, order one fewer and get it through the review event~!

The tableware has an Indian feel. I've never been to India, but it's an Indian restaurant, so it must be right, no?

Kimchi, jalapeños and pickled radish come as side dishes, but we hardly touched them. Why? Because the curry at this Gangnam Indian curry spot is just perfect. Per. Fect.

How long is the wait for food?

India The Durbar makes the curry right after you order, so it can take a little while. Maybe because we ordered a lot, the food came about 20 minutes later, and it all arrived at once instead of one dish at a time, which I liked even more.

Prawn vindaloo and butter chicken makhani. It had been so long since I'd had Indian curry, so I got excited the moment I saw it!! And the smell is so good T3T

Garlic butter naan and my first aloo paratha

The garlic butter naan comes out very large, and the aloo paratha came cut into 4 pieces. Scissors come out for cutting the naan too, but tearing naan by hand is the real way to eat it, isn't it~!

Aloo paratha was our first meeting, so I ate it plain without dipping anything. Oh, there's potato inside and it's tasty!! It's apparently baked with spicy spices, and I tasted a faint pepper-like aroma and flavor, but it wasn't spicy.

Why did butter chicken makhani become my curry of a lifetime?

Butter chicken makhani is one of the best curries at India The Durbar, a smooth curry where tomato and cream blend well. The chunks of chicken inside are huge too.

It's good on the aloo paratha, but on the garlic butter naan it's even better. This place really knows curry. With coconut it could turn sweet, and with cream it could get heavy and make you tired of it, but it's not sweet, and no matter how much you keep eating it never gets heavy or boring. It's just delicious, over and over.

It was so good that we didn't want to leave anything on the bowl and scraped it clean. There was plenty of curry, and both of us were scraping the bowls. Did we grow up poor,,? haha. My friend also loves curry and eats it at home too, and we both agreed India The Durbar's curry is insanely good and crowned it our curry of a lifetime.

Is the prawn vindaloo spicy? Tangy beat hot

The prawn vindaloo at India The Durbar is a curry with prawns, but the tangy taste was stronger than the heat. I saw the 3 chili peppers and figured it would be spicy, so I ordered it, but the heat was weaker than I expected.

The menu description said "a kick of spiciness," but it was a kick of tanginess T_T haha. It's not bad, but the strong tang left me just a little disappointed. If you don't like tangy flavors, I recommend the prawn masala! Next time I'll try the prawn masala!

Lassi and rasgulla: how were the drinks and dessert?

A sip of lassi, the traditional Indian yogurt drink too~! Lassi tastes best with a slight tang, but India The Durbar's lassi had none, which was a letdown T_T Still, it's just right for drinking after curry~!

Rasgulla, one of the foods you must try before you die! It's a traditional Indian dessert of milk curdled with vinegar or lemon juice and simmered in sugar syrup, and apparently it's a staple of special occasions. For Indians, rasgulla is more than a dessert~! But to my taste it was way too sweet ^^,, haha

The texture was really interesting. It's like a hardened sponge soaked with water, squeaking and breaking apart when you bite it, but it isn't very moist once broken, so you have to chew hard? Anyway it was really interesting, and I'm glad I tried it before I die^^! haha

Would I recommend India The Durbar for Indian curry near Coex?

Two women ate very well and left stuffed at India The Durbar. For Gangnam, the price seems reasonable, and above all the curry is crazy good, so if you want proper Indian curry near Coex, I totally highly recommend India The Durbar!! Next time I'm at Coex, I'll definitely come here again!!