Author: Erin_42

As we have tried and frequented the two north Raj Palaces in Calgary several times, we thought we'd try the Midnapore restaurant before trying the downtown location. As usual, the food tasted great! We had the delicious finely-roasted pomfret fish (a chef's special!) and my...standard, Chettinad lamb curry, with great garlic naan and saffron rice. The flavours and textures were wonderful, and decidedly comparable to the other Raj Palace restos although with minor differences. But on returning home, both my wife and I were oddly thirsty, and felt oddly upset, even slightly disoriented, even intoxicated, as if we'd had something slightly psychedelic in something. And we didn't have any wine or spirits with the meal. The only thing that we could put it down to was MSG, that salty curse of all excellent cuisine. Now perhaps we were wrong, but suddenly being extraordinarily thirsty for much of the remaining evening was not usual by any means. Hence that MSG, to which we both have had reactions to before, had to be the culprit. Do not such chefs not know that garlic is one of the ultimate best flavour enhancers, even though it's much more hassle than MSG? And few will get upset on it. Because we were more than disappointed, our conclusion is to not ever return to that branch of Raj Palace! The one in Harvest Hills in the Beddington north side of the city is the best so far, and the chef and his wife are an amazing team. I hope the overall owner reads this and calls on the kitchen in Midnapore to respond to our suspicions.