I’ve walked past Ashoka on numerous occasions and rarely have I seen a full house. In most cases, that can be taken as a bad sign, but you never really know until you’ve tried the food there. Without spending too much money, I came here for their $8.90 curry and rice lunchtime specials. This price excludes their seafood curries and the vegetarian curries are $1 cheaper.

The place itself offers all your favourite Indian dishes and there’s certainly good variety. The restaurant itself is modern and well presented, and you could easily seat about 40. It was a warm overcast day, so we decided to take the outside seats.

For lunch, I ordered the Butter Chicken. The dish came out after a 15 minute wait and was nicely presented. Some of the cheaper Indian dining options just throw the curry on a plate with a serving of rice. This place actually puts the curry into a bowl. The chicken was tender, succulent and well marinated. The meat had a heavenly smokey flavour and the sauce was rich and creamy. The dish was well balanced and had plenty of depth. One of the best butter chicken’s I’ve ever had and I’m still licking my lips thinking about it.

My friend had the Rogan Josh, and said it was flavourless.

The staff were friendly and the service was good. The atmosphere was relaxed and the pricing was more than reasonable, particularly the lunchtime deals.

If I had come here by myself and ordered the Butter Chicken, I probably would have given it 5 stars.

WHERE: 171a Hutt St, Adelaide