Masala is tucked away at the back of the Madison shopping centre, just outside the limits of old town Gdansk. As one of very few indian restaurants in the Tri City area, our hopes were high that we would find a regular respite from duck and cranberry sauce.
The restaurant occupies two levels and sits somewhere between cafe and restaurant in its overall decor. The Indian motif patterned table cloths almost hiding the crumbs and odd curry stain from the previous customer.
The selection of starters was limited when compared to an asian restaurant in the UK – spring rolls, asian soups and the odd indian bite. We decided to skip and move on to our mains.
There were plenty of options here, but not very exciting and running the gamut of Asian cuisines rather than a broad spread of Indian dishes. That is our excuse for the very ordinary dishes selected – Chicken Tikka Masala and Lamb Korma.
However, the Tikka Masala was far from ordinary, being one of the best we have tasted. The Korma was unfortunately rather bland and lacking in sweetness – but the lamb was plentiful and good quality. We took a side of a paneer naan which was nice.
Dessert was surprisingly excellent. Beneath an excessive heap of cream we found a fresh mango kulfi and banana icecream. Both were incredibly refreshing and a good way to end the meal.
At 130 PLN including a couple of cocktails, the meal was well priced – if you feel the need for some Indian cuisine then this is a solid choice.
UPDATE
We headed back to Masala the day after St. Paddy’s Day and found out what happens to any green dye left over from making green beers… The Thai green curry was so underwhelming and, well, neon, that we’ve taken this from a solid three to a disappointing two stars.
2 buckets of spray cream out of 5
Masala
ul. Rajska 10 C.H. Madison
Have you tried Taj Mahal yet? it’s in Gdynia and is a pleasant surprise.
We’re another couple of early 30s expat foodies who are trying to find some decent places to eat…I end up cooking a lot!
The same for us, I’m French, she is Polish. But actually I’m a chef. Anyway we tried lots of restaurants in Tri-city and nearly always disappointed.
We got sick after metamorfoza, masala is so/so (it depends on the dishes actually), Taj-Mahal is quite fine, we liked it pretty much.
Did you check a French restaurant in Sopot? Cyrano & Roxanne…
So most of the time we as well end up cooking at home
Thanks for the comments Yan. Sorry to hear you got sick after Metamorfoza – that was actually one of the places we thought was ok… but just ‘ok’
We agree about Taj Mahal – certainly one of the best Indian restaurants we have visited anywhere in the world.
We never got to Cyrano & Roxanne in Sopot – and with only a couple of weeks left in Poland it seems like we won’t get the chance unfortunately!
Something else about Metamorfoza, we got the main courses while we were still eating the starters!
Even if you don’t have the time (but the readers might have one day), there is the restaurant in Filharmonia to try, it’s on the expensive side, but the food is innovative, and more important, different than classic Polish food.
We have been meaning to order the tasting menu at Filharmonia – sounds very interesting, but unfortunately one half of us has only been in Gdansk for a few days in the last couple of months!
Would love to hear from anyone who tried the food there – did we read that the chef spent some time at El Bulli? (although I think they have dozens of trainee chefs through there each year…)