Overall:
Having heard about Chutney Mary's reputation as being an institution of Subiaco cuisine and on many an occasion having longingly passed by this colourful Indian Restaurant, I was thrilled to find out that out group enroot to seeing a show at the Regal theatre would be making a pit-stop beforehand to have an early dinner there. The starrsheep stomach was eager and ready!
First step into the restaurant brought forth a tantalising waft of Indian spices. Good for wetting the appetite but never good for clothing, so give a pass to wearing anything "dry-clean" only unless you want to smell like you've spent the previous night in a tandoor oven the next morning. Being an obviously popular restaurant, with diners spilling forth onto tables outside despite it being a slightly chilly evening (bookings I’d say essential!), I was not surprised to find our party of 11 crammed onto a long table made up of 3 square tables, which would comfortably seat 8; but staff were very helpful in locating extra chairs. In fact I believe it was the staff that made us feel comfortable despite the lack of space – weaving in and out like magicians removing used plates, filling up the water bottles, deftly setting down ordered dishes without disturbing guests or the table layout. 5 out of 5 points for service, the food came out fast and at no point did I see anyone on our table needing to flag a waiter down to "discuss" anything. Two of our group arrived late, but the waitress attended to them immediately and their meals came out only about 5 minutes after everyone else’s. I "tested" (no, it was not because I forgot!) the waitress by asking her for two mango lassi while she was setting out the dinner plates, but lo behold, 5 minutes later and our drinks were there. One slight error though, the waitress brought out a big plate of onion bhaji. "What are they?" someone asked. "I don’t know, who ordered these?" said another. Our friend Peter went one better and took one off the plate and started eating it. Waitress comes over and takes away the onion bhaji out the back. Moments later they magically reappear on the table adjacent to ours. Everyone chuckles at Peter, but he is pleased with his free "delicious" entree.
Starrsheep and Kimmik start off with a mango lassi each. Delicious mango and yoghurt drinks served attractively in a round tumbler with two short straws. Very summery, someone asked if we were having cocktails. After wrestling with my conscience that eating the house special, goat curry, would be "not right" for a Starrsheep, I settled for half a tandoori chicken. It consisted of two pieces of chicken and a mint yoghurt dipping sauce. The chicken was a bit dry, but tasty all the same, with a nice smokey flavour. Kimmik order the chicken palak, chicken pieces served in a rich spinach curry gravy -also a staff favourite it said on the nicely extensive menu. The palak was very flavoursome, a creamy mild curry. This was, as were all the other curries, served on attractive golden bowls (Kimmik notions approval), the rice served in white china bowls and the naan bread in baskets. We ordered the garlic naan bread and a cheese naan. Each piece is generous enough to share between two. Overall I’d say the food was good - fresh, clean and made with good ingredients, but I get the inkling that perhaps it has been a little sanitised for the Western (or Subi!) palate, I think there was something akin to "chicken salt" on my tandoori chicken and the garlic naan reminded me a lot of garlic bread and the cheese naan was filled with cream cheese (delicious, but nagging feeling this not authentic). Out of the large amounts of orders among the 11 people on the table, I did not witness any surprising or novel dishes, so I would say real crowd pleaser, but no "discover something brand new" epiphany to be had here.
Looking around at the surrounds, I make an observation about the tastefulness of the decor - "professionally" mounted scenes of Indian life and culture, clean and tasteful red and yellow paint, no plastic flowers and tacky Indian souvenirs here - so you could say "very Subi". Nice ambience. Not personally my type of scene, but comfortable and pleasant atmosphere.
For a main each, naan bread, rice and the lassi, it was approx $25 each for me and Kimmik, so the price was reasonable for the locale. I would probably prefer to try other Indian restaurants and would not make a special effort to return to Chutney Mary's.... but for the mainstream diner, out for a safe bet on a nice meal in nice surrounds with excellent service, perhaps racking the brain for a crowd-pleaser, I would say this restaurant would be hard for anyone to fault. Starrsheep says: "ewe'll like it!"