So after a hard day of grinding paint off a staircase, what else does one crave but Indian? I wanted to venture up Namur way to Pushaps, but the husb wanted to keep it local, so we hoofed it to Chez Maggy in the hood.
We had tried their tuna buns at one of the Promenade Wellington street fairs and it was very nice - moreish, just the right amount spice, very flavourful with a great texture. Yum. We actually went back for more.
Unfortunately the rest of the restaurant doesn't hold up. The place opened earlier this year and it's quite sparse - bare yellow walls save for a few poppy wall decals, and a television on CTV in the corner. It seemed like they were focusing more on the take out trade, but when we were there, there were four tables occupied. Not bad. I take bad atmosphere as a positive sign for "ethnic cuisine" so this didn't bother me.
Maggy is a lovely, friendly woman. Her son, who helps her out, was great when we first met him over the tuna bun thing. But he must have had the friendliness part of his brain deactivated today. And the service one too. Here's the exchange when we ordered:
"what is in the vegetable plate?"
"lots of different vegetables."
"ok, but how is it cooked?"
"I don't know"
"Is it a curry?"
"No."
"Is it spicy?"
"A little"
So we ordered the chicken bhuna and the mystery vegetable plate with "lots of different vegetables", with four pakoras to start. Salad and a very nice roti canai (if anything, could be more buttery, but I was happy) arrived in good time. Then we waited. And waited. And waited.
I think the son had disappeared because suddenly Maggy was running around taking the orders and refilling glasses, apologizing to everyone that she's all alone. Oh dear. We waited about 40 minutes for the food. I'm surprised no one complained - I took it to be a good sign - the food must be worth it.
Pakoras were nice - fluffy, flavourful and importantly, not too dry. The mint chutney tasted fresh. The only thing was that we ordered four instead of two, so Maggy had to go back to get more. All mains come with rice, salad, and vegetables. The rice came in a gigantic family size bowl - one usually used for soup. The "lots of vegetables" turned out to be aloo gobi - with far, far more potatoes than cauliflower - nice, but with that much rice, why did I need a dish that heavy on potatoes? The dish was ok, the flavour was quite mild and the potatoes were on the salty side. in fact, we received two bowls of aloo gobi - because the meat dish also came with vegetables as a side. So basically the vegetarian option was exactly the same as the meat except that you were missing one dish, which didn't make sense to me.
Maggy had previously come up to apologize that there's no Chicken Bhuna, so we ordered Chicken curry instead. Hmm. At least it looked right. It was pretty bland for curry, there was no spicy kick or deeper flavour. I'm not a fan of chana dal which came with each meal - I often find that it's not very spicy or flavourful (my favourite chana dal here is at Jolee in Cote Ste Catherine) and it's the case here - bland.
And colour - ok - chana dal - yellowish. Chicken curry - browny/yellow. Aloo gobi - yellow. Rice - yellow with fried onion strips on top. Mmmm Mmmm variety!
I hate to say that I'm disappointed, especially with a local concern, but this was a one visit kind of place. It's pretty cheap though - my stomach was full, but I feel like it was a waste of hunger. It was simple homecooking, but unfortunately not in a good way.
As we were leaving, I saw some nice looking food on the next table - so hopefully we just ordered badly. Be warned for non-beef eaters - the mains menu is quite heavy on beef. I wanted to try the gulab jamun ($1.50) but unfortunately I was starched out. Maybe I'll head back for just that because I lerve gulab jamun and it's nice not to have to trek to Jean Talon to get my fix.
Chez Maggy
4912 Rue Wellington
(514) 227-7968
cash only
Chicken curry served with lots of rice, salad, roti, chana dal, and vegetables $8.95
