ottawa foodies

The clean and tidy dining area was empty at noon, Saturday, during my visit.

Ordered some samosa chaat ($11.30 after tax) for takeout from Shaan and found their version of this dish interesting, with the samosa's filling broken up into bits and its fried dough cut into strips, which was then layered on top of the chickpea curry. The food serving seemed on the small side, but this compact brick of carbs and protein provided a filling lunch. Thought it tasted pretty good due to the tangy curry, red onions and cilantro, as well as the green chili, tamarind and yogurt sauces.

We've been ordering out from here at work lately - overall extremely good food. Everyone enjoys it.

Wow, this place is good. Best curries I've had in Ottawa for sure. I had the vegetable curry dinner the first time visiting, the flavour was spot on and it was hot and plentiful. It came with mango juice (yum), a tasty samosa complete with tamarind sauce, rice, naan and the curry. The samosa was tasty, but was definitely sitting out for a while. The naan was the low point of the meal - cold and not flavourful at all. However, the vegetable curry was fantastic and made up for everything.

Next visit I had the daal delight, with rice and a samosa (skipped the naan). Again, an absolutely delicious curry and you get a huge meal for the price. The guy at the counter is super friendly and the service is quick even in the busy lunch hour. I'll go back and try the chana next time.

We get takeaway from here fairly often. Love it.

Note: prices have increased a bit recently. Examples:

Samosa - 1.25 to 1.50
Naan - 1.50 to 1.95
Veg Curry - 4.83/6.20 to 5.50/6.95
Beef Curry - 6.20/7.53 to 6.95/8.25
Veg Delight - 7.99 to 8.95

Most of the other delights, combos and specials seem to have gone up by $1 to $1.50.

In my humble opinion, the best Indian food in the city. The lamb curry is always fresh. They use whole spices, not the premade one.
Service is great.
Samosas also best in the city.
All the food is just like ma (and pa) used to make!

Do what cheap people like me do: buy a good bottle of tamarind sauce to keep at home. Buy samosas there, but tell them you don't need the sauce.

See? Problem solved. Smile.

Although I haven't been in a while I have to say that I've always been a fan of Shaan's, and to be honest I always found them a bit underpriced given the quality of the food. Their samosas are quite a bit better than most.

I'm also surprised to hear that $2 is too much for a samosa with tamarind sauce -- is it the total pricing that bothers you or the fact that it breaks down to 50 cents for the sauce and it's an automatic charge?

How much should a samosa cost?

Cause I'm pretty sure they need to make money in order to be able to keep offering samosas at all. Or you know, to stay in business.

For something that requires a half dozen or so ingredients to be prepped and cooked separately for a filling, then for said filling to be wrapped, then cooked again (and then potentially IQF'd and packaged if its premade), $1.50 doesn't seem like a lot.

How much is fair? $0.50? $0.75?

$0.15 if it's microwaved?

Coffee is ground beans in hot water but people seem to be o.k with paying for 1000% markups for it.

Personally, I think $2.00 for a Samosa and sauce is pretty reasonable. I think I would charge at least $3 if it were me.

Food is still just as good, however the prices have been rising steadily over the years and it is starting to affect my decision to go there. One thing that really bugs me is that a samosa is $1.50, but the tamarind sauce is an extra $.50, and they tack it on automatically. There is no reason for a samosa to cost that much, especially if it's reheated in the microwave.

Since I am pissed off at Shaan, I went to Karara - The Indian Take Out for lunch.