In search of Durban’s best curry

Posted by Sarah Duff on 6 May 2011

When my editor told me that my assignment would involved finding Durban’s best curry I was initially pretty excited. But then it soon dawned on me – finding Durbs’ best curry was like trying to find New York’s best hot dog – an incredibly daunting task.

Nevertheless, I arrived in balmy Durban with an empty tummy and a list of recommendations garnered from curry-philes on Twitter and set off on my task.

My first stop was Durban’s CBD. I parked my (borrowed) car in a less than salubrious road, checked several times that it was locked and then headed for Victory Lounge, on Victoria Street, which was recommended to me by Abigail Donnelly, TASTE’s food editor, on Twitter. The tiny crowded front room of the restaurant was packed with people ordering late breakfasts. I asked for their best vegetarian curry and was handed a steaming plate containg a mixed veg curry bunny chow. It was 10 am and I’d just eaten breakfast, but I tucked in nevertheless. It was delicious – spicy without being too hot, tangy, with lots of veggies and a generous bit of soft white bread for scooping. I give it a four out of five on my bunny-o-meter.

Victory Lounge also had a great selection of sweets and I just had to try some. In addition to Westernised treats like donuts, there were sticky orange jalebis, trays of milky burfi and piles of ladoos. I opted for a selection of the sweets which were predictably sugary but delicious.

Then it was on to my next stop – Victoria Street Market. On my walk to the market I felt like I was in another country. Durban’s CBD is far removed from European Cape Town – it feels very African, with piles of shiny forest-green avocados for sale, alongside mutis for various ailments, bushels of strong-smelling plants I’d never seen before, thumping kwaito music pouring out of shops selling cheap Chinese imports and gold watches, and spice shops releasing heady scents. It was loud, colourful and a bit overwhelming. I loved it.

Victoria Street Market is a jumble of small shops selling everything from African curios, jewellery, and electronics to spices and atchar. I was drawn into the RA Moodley ‘Asian Delight’ shop by its wafting spice-smells and colourful garlands decorating its exterior. Inside, Samusha Moodliar (RA’s daughter and current proprietress) ushered me in with a call of ‘Darling, darling, what can I get you?’ Without planning to buy anything, I left with several packets of fresh spices, including a ‘Durbs masala’ mix and a ‘Tastes just like Nandos spice’ mix. It’s such a treasure of a little shop that you have to go if you’re in Durban after curry – this is where you can get all your spices, fresh coconut, mango atchar, vats of chilli sauce and anything you need for an at-home curry feast.

Samusha pointed me in the direction of one of her favourite curry spots – Little Gujarat, on Prince Edward Street. This plek only serves vegetarian food, which suits me as I’m vegetarian and then I don’t get surprise chunks of meat in my curry. Feeling full after my first curry, I opted to have only a potato samoosa, a half bunny (filled with broadbean curry) and masala tea. The samoosa was perfect: subtlely spiced, golden-tumericky, crisp and soft at the same time. Delicious. The bunny was less spicy than Victory Lounge, but there were levels of flavour in there that compensated. I liked the fresh curry leaves too. It gets a three out of five on the meter. It was great washed down with the cup of sweet, milky masala. The best thing about Little Gujarat, however, was the price: R13 for my entire meal. Try and find a cheaper meal anywhere else.

I couldn’t miss going to the purported birthplace of bunny chow: Patel’s Vegetarian Refreshment Room, on Grey Street. Even though the curry looked a little dodgy (varying shades of grey and brown in dirty-looking containers under a grimy counter) I just had to try one of their famous bunnys. My quarter bunny was loaded with all of their curries (all their food is vegetarian, so again, no unexpected meat bits) and I tucked in, sitting at a table next to hungry lunch-time curry-eaters. I loved the spicyness of the curry – it was a heat that hit at the back of the throat, and the huge piece of melt-in-your-mouth-soft scooping bread was appreciated. I reckon that one gets a four on the meter.

After my curry, I chatted to owner Manilal Patel, whose father, Ranchod Rama Patel opened the restaurant 96 years ago. The story goes that Mr Patel invented the bunny chow to give to black patrons who (in adherence with laws of the time) couldn’t sit in the restaurant to take away. Manilal now owns and runs the restaurant, which serves 400 or 500 bunnies a day. That’s a lot of curry.

Manilal took me through all the sweets they have on offer from burfi (sweet milky cake-type thing), chenna magaj (made from chickpea flour and spices) and boomdhi (little golden balls made from lentil, cake and maize flour, fried and then submerged in syrup) which are served mixed with salty snacks (a rather yummy combo).

I was feeling like I’d eaten A LOT of curry by the time I finished my fourth curry of the day at Little India in Musgrave Road. I arrived, and told them about my assignment, saying that I’d already eaten my fill of curry for the day and asking for just a taste of their best curry. Instead, they brought me a massive dosa (pancake) filled with potato curry, and served with three chutnies and a sambal. I couldn’t not eat the delicious meal. Dosas are a southern Indian dish, and I could taste the tropical beaches of southern India in the fresh and tasty coconut chutney. I also loved the peanut chutney and the fragrant potato curry, as well as the wafer-thin crispy pancake.

Little India serves both southern and northern Indian dishes, but it specialises in southern cuisine. Their most popular curries are butter chicken, mutton rogan josh and curries with paneer (they make their own paneer). It’s a great spot. The interior’s a little dim (especially during the day) but you can sit out on the balcony and watch bustling Musgrave Road beneath you.

I really thought I had reached curry saturation point by this time and it was with some effort that I tucked into what can only be described as a curry orgasma at Jaipur Palace in Waterkant Street. Every day Jaipur Palace offers a curry buffet for lunch and dinner. It’s a curry-gourmand’s heaven. This is where you need to come if you want to eat a lot of curry in one go. They had 10 different meat and fish curries to choose from, and nine vegetarian curries, as well as starters like chilli bites and crumbed fish, salads, like curried carrot and bean, and sweets (sooji, kheer, ice cream and custard). The vegetarian curries weren’t the best I’ve ever had but they were tasty (especially the paneer makariwala) and are great value for money. The sooji and kheer (a milky pudding with vermicelli) were gorgeous.

My last curry spot for the day was Sea Belle in South Beach Road, Tongaat. This seaside restaurant purports to serve the best prawn curry around. Having not tasted every prawn curry in Durban I can’t verify this, but I can say that it is very very good. It’s tomatoey, tangy and has perfectly thick curry consistency.

When ordering I was asked if I wanted hot or mild. I always ask for hot, as I consider myself to be pretty tolerant to the old chilli. The waiter, however, was not so sure. ‘The whites never have it hot’ he said. ‘Well, I eat a lot of curry and I’m pretty sure I can take it’ I replied, confidently. I don’t think he took me seriously, because while the curry was moderately spicy, I wouldn’t have called it hot. I reckon he took one look at me and decided that I was not the kind of person who could deal with super hot. So that’s my one gripe with Sea Belle.

I had to try a Bombay Crush – I’d seen it on the menu of all the curry places I’d been to and was wondering what it was. It looks like a pink Nesquik: it’s Barbie-pink and has little black seed things floating in it and is topped with a bit of ice cream and hundreds and thousands. I know it sounds weird but it’s actually rather yummy. Apparently it’s drunk as a digestive. It’s made from milk, some neon-coloured syrup made from elichi (whatever that is) and has some kind of seed in it. The waiters couldn’t tell me what the seeds actually were…

As for the restaurant itself, it’s delightfully unpretentious, with so-tacky-it’s-almost-cool decor: a life-sized pirate statue draped in gaudy flower garlands, plastic tablecloths, cloth posters of dolphins and flamingoes in lurid colours. It does overlook the sea though.

So that was it: one day, seven curries, one very full tummy.

So where is Durban’s best curry?

I think I would need a month to get through all of Durban’s curry restaurants, and not just a day. All the places I went to had great curry and I would recommend them all for different reasons.

For hole-in-the-wall canteen-style curry restaurants with great food at astronomically low prices try

Victory Lounge
187 Grey Street, tel 031-306-1906

Patel’s Vegetarian Refreshment Room
202 Grey Street, 031-306-1774

Little Gujarat
Corner Grey and Prince Edward Streets, tel 301-306-2272

For more upmarket (but still well-priced) curry restaurants try

Little India
155 Musgrave Road, tel 031-201-1121

Jaipur Palace
Lunch buffet is R90 Monday to Saturday, and R100 on Sundays.
Dinner buffet is R100 Monday to Saturday, and R109 on Sundays.
131 Waterkant Road, tel 031-563-0287

For curry with a view try

Sea Belle
62 South Beach Road, Desainagar, Tongaat, tel 032-941-5551

I didn’t get round to trying these curry restaurants but they do come recommended:

(The legendary) Jonnie’s Roti
Sparks Road

Goundens
Eaton Road, Umbilo

Indian Connection
485 Windermere Road, Morningside, tel 031-312-1440

Britannia Hotel
1299 Umgeni Road, tel 031-303-2266

If you’re cooking your own curry, you have to make a visit to RA Moodley in Victoria Street Market, tel 031-307-2180.

* Disclaimer: I don’t eat meat (only fish and seafood) so my curry judgements are based on vegetarian and pescetarian curries only. Perhaps some intrepid meat-eating food blogger wants to review Durban’s meat curries? Let me know.

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