Chauhan's Fine Indian Cuisine

Since we had been dining out a lot at Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants lately, we decided to try something different.  We scoured the Markham area for some really good Indian food and one place that we found was Chauhan’s Fine Indian Cuisine.  This place apparently has been up and running for many years now and even though some of my friends have been there before, I decided to make an executive decision and give it a go there.  Since it was my first time there, we wanted to give the buffet run a try since many of us weren’t really too sure what we would be ordering with the a la carte menu. 

 

We made reservations for a rather huge group this past weekend.  Some of the other Indian restaurants were a little packed and this one had a few tables remaining so we decided upon this place.  For this evening, adults were charged $17.99 while kids were charged $11.98.  Although not everything was served at the buffet table from their a la carte menu, some of the more notable items served that evening were the Butter Chicken, Goat Curry, and Vegetarian Samosa.  I would say there were about 20 dishes altogether including the dessert and salad bar. 

 

None of the curries were very spicy.  On a scale of 1 to 10 on the spiciness chart, I would have given a 3 at the most.  The sauce for the Butter Chicken was made to perfection with respect to taste.  However I found the overall curry to be a tad bit oily and the pieces of chicken to be rather small and frayed. 

 

The curry itself in the goat curry was pretty good.  One could not taste the goat as the curry seemed to have overwhelmed the taste.  The goat meat itself was much more abundant and thicker than the chicken in the butter chicken. 

 

The Vegetarian Samosa was reasonably good.  Personally I myself like the meat samosas more than the vegetarians. The outer layer was crunchy although for me it was a little thick while the vegetarian stuffing was decent.  It was mildly spicy like most of all the foods in the restaurant. 

 

The rice they served that evening I believe was the Rice Pulao which basically was Jeera and Saffron flavored Basmati Rice.  The two spices gave the rice just that extra bit of aroma to make different from just a simple white rice being served. 

 

Other things being served that evening included the Tandoorl Murg Chicken, which to me was good in the spices they used but just a little dry for me to stomach.  While the chicken was probably grilled to perfection, I personally enjoy moist juicy meat over dry meat.  I could have eaten more, but I would rather have the Butter Chicken over this chicken for its juicy sauces and moistness of the meat.  While the fruit and vegetable salad bars offered a variety of choices to choose from, there was only one type of soup available.  Although I’m not a 100% sure of the soup, I believe it was a hot tomato soup being served.  I did not see any fish being served.  They gave us plenty of Nan (traditional Indian bread) at the table to dip into our curry sauces and the servers would come by and offer more if the stock had gone down. 

 

For dessert there was some sweet rice pudding and Rasmalai.  Rasmalai by definition is sugary paneer soaked in cardamom clotted cream.  Although most of my friends had a tough time dealing with the taste and texture, I actually thought it was a pretty good dessert.  I could see why my fellow peers would have trouble with it.  The texture is like a soggy piece of bread that has been saturated in a bowl of sugar water for the past hour or so.  It is sweet and slightly minty and cinnamony in taste but I think it’s more of the texture that throws people off with this dessert. 

 

Overall the buffet was okay.  If we knew what we were ordering, a la carte might have been the better choice.  Near the end we could see some of the patrons actually ordering specialty or unique foods from their menu.  It was a little quiet even though it was the weekend although I was told that another Indian restaurant down the street was pretty busy and had a line up all the way out the door.  If you are interested in trying authentic Indian food and don’t wish to pay an arm and a leg for the food, this may be the place for you.  You will get to try a little bit of everything.  Personally I’ve been to a few Indian restaurants myself and I have to admit there probably wasn’t anything that really stood out at this place.  It was descent and did its job as I had about 4 to 5 plates of it but I certainly have had better Indian foods elsewhere as well.  Overall I give it a 3 out of 5. 

 

 Chauhan's Fine Indian Cuisine

323 Denison St, Markham, ON L3R 1B5
(905) 947-1234