Tandoori Flame - Mississauga (Indian)

Tandoori Flame is located at 5975 Mavis. Rd. in Mississauga, the city that borders Toronto to the west. It's just south of the Hwy. 401 Mavis exit so is convenient to drive to. We already reviewed the Brampton location. Tandoori Mississauga is not as large as the Brampton locations or as extravagantly decorated, but was still very nice and elegant and the food was very well presented. I went for weekday lunch. AYCD pop is available for $3.19.

There are too many options at Tandoori Flame for me to review them all in one sitting, but I certainly did try... for starters, Khroda soup which is a mutton broth also found at the other location was quite spicy but tasty, although mutton is not my favourite. Minestrone soup was excellent, very well-seasoned and delicious. Pineapple and banana chat were delicious is a spicy not overpowering the fruit flavour or being too hot. Kaaikari Mandi which is a vegetable medley in rice water was good and reminded me of Village Greek salad. Sprouts salad was excellently seasoned, very fresh and delicious, also seemed very healthy. Kale salad was also very fresh and I enjoyed even though kale is not my favourite. Pasta salad had a strong bold flavor and was quite good.

Murgh Patiala, similar to curried butter chicken, was excellent was distinctly different spicing than regular curry and plenty of heat. Butter chicken was good but unexpectedly for such a signature dish was starting to go stale. Chicken taka-tak is an Indian street food similar to chicken tikka masala, was delicious not too hot and very savoury. Aloo gobi was a little drier than I am used to, but still very tasty. Chana masala was delicious and well spiced. Chicken biryani was also quite good, although milder in seasoning and less hot than I'm used to, with less cinnamon although there was plenty of cardamom which is a very expensive spice so tells me it is being prepared well.

Onion rings were tasty but unfortunately too dry, as were the chicken nuggets. Spring rolls were tasty but also a little bit dry though not enough to matter. This was made up for by the nearby chicken pasta, macaroni in tomato sauce, which was absolutely delicious, moist and very well-seasoned; unexpectedly excellent. As would be expected, the eponymous tandoori chicken was amazingly good, smoky, moist, and delicious... the star of the show.

Shahi paneer was quite good and even though it appeared as if it would not be fresh, it tasted fresh and was not too hot. Palak paneer appears very much like sag paneer elsewhere. Karahi paneer is paneer in butter chicken sauce and they were a nice combination. Punjabi kadi was all sauce with no pakoras in it, which I was told was supposed to be like as it's a sauce for other things. Cheese pizza was good although unfortunately I had let it get cold, my fault.

For dessert, unfortunately none of the ice creams were labelled, I had to pull the containers out of the refrigerator to see what flavours they were. The butterscotch ice cream appear to have been melted and then refrozen. However it was still good and fresh, as was the cookies and cream, vanilla, strawberry and mango, the latter having a wonderful perfumery flavour I enjoyed. Caramel custard was quite good and I enjoyed that as well. Chocolate brownies were delicious with plenty of dark bitter chocolate notes. Macaroons were moist and not dried out with plenty of coconut flavour, very good. Shakar para is an Indian snack of fried ghee, and I don't know whether they were supposed to be this hard and unchewable as they were for me and I did not like them. Kesari jamun is similar to gulab jamun with the honey sauce baked in and were quite good. Petha is candied gourd with an interesting flavour but it is extremely sweet. Blue gelatin was wonderfully delicious; I don't know whether it was blueberry or some combination of blue flavours but whatever it was was excellent. Pecan and lemon tarts were both good though I doubt they were baked on premises. Fruit cream was good, although merely the mixture of sweet whipped cream and pineapple. Pineapple Srikand is pineapple in yogurt and was a very good combination, delicious. Gulab jamun honey balls and were delicious, moist and at the right temperature, just about the best I've had. Rasgulla are like the opposite of gulab jamun, white very sweet balls flavoured with rosewater. Apple crumble was delicious and a very nice finale to the meal, plenty of flavour and not overly sweet. Weekday lunch $17.99. Although there were some minor issues, as with the Brampton location this is quite a reasonable price for such quality and unique offerings (and attractive presentation.) I had a very enjoyable lunch and would happily return.

Rating: 8.5-9/10