Chik and Kent was a place I’d seen mentioned on Facebook for the past few weeks and as a lover of Indian food I got it in my head that I wanted to try it out. It made it onto my never ending wish list. As chance would have it, good ol‘ Dimmi came to the party with a 50% off your food bill special, which provided the perfect opportunity or should I say excuse to head along and give this newbie a whirl.
I quite liked the fit out, it was very open and had quite the modern feel to it. We were shown to a table for two and swiftly had our water glasses filled – with slightly fizzy water as we discovered. Something different. We each chose a class of wine – myself a Margs SBS and GG an American Pinot Noir.
With our Dimmi special in hand, we felt we could be slightly more lavish with what we ordered. So we decided we would start with Charcoal Lamb Cutlet, mint chutney ($18) and Double toasted, honey orange pork belly ($18). There were definitely a few other items I was keen to try but I was conscious that for mains we were going to go with the ’usual’ and I wanted to ensure that we actually had room to do so.
It didn’t take long for the starters to arrive. They weren’t kidding on the charcoal front, the handles of the dainty cutlets had been charred black, but thankfully the meat wasn’t overcooked and was full of flavour and paired well with the mint chutney on the side. A nice intro to their food. The pork belly was served in large chunky cubes, generously coated in their marinade. I’d have to say that I thought this was more of an Asian inspired dish than specifically Indian. The stronger flavour in the marinade that I could taste was neither honey or orange and seemed more like soy. I didn’t mind it, just different to what I’d imagined. The meat itself had been well rendered and they were ample squares.
I’d enjoyed the starters we’d selected, they were tasty, and while they might not have wowed me quite as much as my last Dimmi Indian outing to Saffron in Inglewood, I had no complaints.
After a short prelude our somewhat predictable mains order appeared.
- · Butter Chicken, Fenugreek leaf, Tomato ($30)
- · Lamb Korma with cashew, almond and saffron ($30)
- · Butter Naan ($5)
- · Steamed Basmati ($5)
We each dished up and GG took the first bite. I wouldn’t say his expression filled me with a sense of eager anticipation. I dipped some of the naan bread into the butter chicken and I could see what his face had been about. I thought the dish was really bland. Usually Indian dishes have such wonderful aromatic flavours to them, with the delicious combination of herbs and spices, and that first moment when you dip the naan into all that beautiful sauce is pure magic. I’m not sure what happened but as it turned out for both the butter chicken and the lamb korma we both found them to be quite lacking in the flavour stakes. It made the $30 a dish price tag seem more than a little on the high side. I was grateful we came with a Dimmi special in tow to take the edge off what hadn’t been my favourite meal in recent times.
I felt disappointed as I had been looking forward to trying out this Indian newbie but it really didn’t hit the mark for me. Perhaps I caught them on them on an off night, but there’s a few other places closer to home that I would prefer to head next time I’m craving butter chicken.
perthmunchkin 
Indian food is all about flavour! Shame this place doesn’t seem to live up to all the hype. Saffron is on my long list of places to try – after reading your review of it, I think I might need to go soon!
Yeah gotta have a bit of spice with Indian food 🙂 good sauce and naan is the best. I can’t wait to get back to saffron for more of their lamb korma!