Ambiyan Restaurant and Bar

Boosted by a strong craving of good Indian food, we were recommended and introduced to a place on Main Street in Unionville, Ontario to give that restaurant’s fine dining cuisine a try. Its location is right in the middle of a popular tourist attraction in Markham, Ontario where thousands of people flock to every year.  Ambiyan Indian Restaurant has been there for quite some time and its expertise in traditional and modern Indian dishes makes it one of the more unique and sought restaurants to go to. 

Caesar Salad

We converged on a weekend evening with a couple of our other friends.  The restaurant had its lights nicely dimmed to give it that romantic feel.  There was a bar at the entrance of the restaurant, an outdoor patio and a dining room area.  The restaurant had about 20 tables altogether. 

Chicken Pakora

We had reservations for the evening and our waiter promptly showed us to our tables.  Although this was not our first time in an Indian restaurant, we asked the waiter what were some of their more favorite dishes there.  The waiter mentioned that a few of them and after a while we settled on about 5-6 dishes which included: the Chicken Pakora ($11.00), Butter Chicken ($18.00), Masala Lime Lamb ($20.00), Caesar Salad and Saag Paneer ($15.00).  We went with the Caesar simply because of our dishes had curry in it and because we weren’t too sure how spicy some of their dishes were and with my little one tagging along, it was best that we had something that my daughter could have without worrying whether it would be too spicy for her. 

The dishes all arrived together within 20 minutes of ordering it.  The Chicken Pakora was closest to me so I went for it first.  The chicken was lightly battered in chickpeas and deep fried into cubes and then they were served with tamarind chutney.  The chicken itself was not really hot in temperature nor in spiciness.  The chickpeas certainly gave it a more distinct flavor otherwise the chicken would have tasted like ordinary chicken nuggets.    It was a nice appetizer to start off with.  There was enough so that each person at the table could have one of. 

Butter Chicken

One can not go into an Indian restaurant and not order Buttered Chicken.  I think it’s a staple and a dish that I always must try at every Indian restaurant I go to.  The chicken in this case was made and immersed into tomato cream sauce.  The sauce was not spicy at all which to me was a little disappointing.  I was hoping for a little bit more zip in it.  It lacked that wow factor as I often allude to.  It wasn’t bad at all truthfully although the adjective I would use to describe such a dish would be safe.   Perhaps a touch of coconut milk or some gourmet spices to really enhance the taste would have been welcomed.  The buttered chicken tasted decent but just lacked pizzazz.

Masala Lime Lamb

The Masala Lime Lamb on the other hand was probably my favorite dish for the evening.  The lamb was cooked and served in a masala and lime curry sauce.  The curry sauce was nice and creamy, not spicy at all and mixed well with the lamb.  The aroma of the curry certainly provided a mouth-watering attraction to this dish.  The lamb meat itself was nicely cooked and the flavors of the curry did not overwhelm the taste of the actual lamb meat.   The dish was pretty decent and I would recommend it to any lamb lovers who are out there.

Saag Paneer

Since the Caesar Salad went to my daughter, we decided to go with the Saag Paneer which was basically pureed spinach cooked in paneer cubes.  The puree was very smooth where one could barely see the most tiniest parts of the spinach leaves.  We couldn’t actually see the paneer itself although he could definitely taste it.  One could eat as is or eat with a piece of naan.  Again there was a tiny bit of spiciness to it but not enough to cause one to be diving for the water pitcher.  It tasted great and added that bit of uniqueness of what the Indian culture is all about.

Desert

Service was pretty good as there were two waiters who kept an eye on us the entire time.  I personally thought that some of the dishes could have had more flavor to them by adding more of their cultural spices to them.  I have been to many Indian restaurants before where dishes certainly provided a major kick to them.  All the dishes that were served tonight I must say only had a mild spiciness to them.  Having said that, I wouldn’t mind heading back again but this time, I would ask the chef to really give me a good bang for the dollar.  Overall, I give it a 3.75 out of 5. 

Ambiyan Restaurant and Bar

149 Main Street

Unionville, Ontario

905 480-0094