RESTAURANT REVIEW: @Zaffran and Marigold Unique Flavours both great options for Indian food in Pembroke (2024)

I enjoy many types of ethnic foods but in particular I’ve always enjoyed Indian cuisine. Therefore, I was pleased to see the arrival of Indian restaurants in Pembroke. The first one was @Zaffran downtown on Prince Street and now there is also Marigold Unique Flavours on Nelson Street.

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Many folks think of Indian food as very spicy and very hot, yet this is not always the case. Kadai curry can be spicy but also very flavourful.

This review pertains to take-out dishes that we have taken home. We have had the Kadai chicken from @Zaffran and it was very good. In googling this dish I learned one of the main spices is red chilies. I ordered the medium spiced kadai chicken. I enjoyed it but my wife found it too hot to finish. FYI vindaloo is the spiciest of all the dishes. You may be aware of this the morning after, if you know what I mean. The lamb curry from @Zaffran was very good too. We stayed away from the goat curry as it can have bones. I like @Zaffran’s written menu as it gives explanations of their dishes.

Marigold offers Indian food, Thai food as well as Indo-Chinese and Indian-Mexican fusion and we have eaten their pad thai with chicken. This is essentially a noodle dish and includes a very flavorful pad thai sauce.

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There are some interesting appetizers. Bhel chat, according to Google, is an Indian street dish. This we really liked. It is a dish that includes puffed rice and vegetables. I imagine being driven down some dusty Indian road in a rickshaw and stopping by a little shack and eating this dish and washing it down with a couple of cold Indian Kingfisher Lager beers.

From @Zaffran we have ordered, on a couple of occasions, their chaat papdi as a starter. According to their menu, this is crispy wafers with boiled potatoes, chick peas and yogurt.

There are a lot of spices in Indian food. According to Wikipedia the main ones are cardamom, saffron, cumin, coriander and turmeric. The latter is supposed to offer anti-inflammatory properties as well as memory improvement and can act as an anti-depressant.

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What did we do before the days of Wikipedia, Google, Safari, Alexa etc.?! Oh yes, we hauled ourselves down to the public library and looked up stuff in big books. Unabashed plug … support your local library!

I am not comparing the two restaurants here. They are definitely both worth ordering from.

Websites:

@Zaffran The Indian Bistro

Marigold Unique Flavours

Phil’s favs from local breweries

What to drink with Indian food? If you can find me a wine that goes with Indian food, then please let me know. Otherwise I would recommend water or cola which is what my better half drinks with Indian food. I think the best accompanying drink would be a beer. Regular industrial light beer won’t cut it; you really need a beer with some body. A robust IPA could pair well but I personally prefer an amber ale. Fortunately we have some interesting breweries in the area.

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Well-established, of course, is Whitewater Brewing Company with deliveries I understand, pretty much across all of Canada. Their Farmer’s Daughter and Legion Lager are light, easy-drinking beers. They also have an English-style pale ale in Whistling Paddler (my favorite) as well as an excellent stout. Also, Square Timber Brewing Companyhas been around for a and their Pembroke Pilsner is a very enjoyable, relatively light beer.

We have two relatively new breweries in the area. In Pembroke there is Two Hawks Brewing Company. Owned by a couple of military personnel, this is a small craft brewery operating out of the owner’s house. They make a number of beers including an excellent amber or red ale. This is an easy drinking beer with some bite and quite a bit of flavor. Their beers have military references.

Dog House Brewing Company is a relative newcomer in Petawawa. Owned and operated by a military father and son, they offer a variety of beers including their War Dog, a light, crispy lagered ale which would be a good beer if you wanted to move up from industrial beer to craft beer. They also have their 18 Pounder. This is a robust amber ale and a personal favorite.

Both these breweries have websites with details of their beers and opening hours (limited).

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