Masala Banff, Indian Food worth fighting over!

I’d obviously had a dyslexic moment when I wrote down the address – but didn't realise it at the time. 

When we got to 226 Bear Street, I felt uneasy that it was an odd looking, dirty, glass door with no Restaurant in sight. With Poppy on my hip, while Hubby found a park, I felt even more uneasy when I saw a crooked, (badly) handwritten sign saying “Come in – We open!” posted on the fire escape door… *cue creepy music*

I’m as much a sucker for hunting down a great local restaurant as anyone else, but I was seriously expecting to be mugged and carved up by organ harvesters if I went through that door… highly unlikely in one of the main streets of tourist friendly Banff I know – but I have an overactive imagination and I watch far too many crime shows.

When my good friend Google confirmed it should have been 229 Bear Street – it all came together - on the opposite side of the street. Hidden right down the end of a small mall, was Masala Indian Restaurant. 

Again – that uneasy feeling resurfaced when we noticed we were the only people in there…  but we are parents of a young child, we eat early now and were no doubt eating while the party people were still sleeping off their lunch time hangovers.

Luckily for us – the adrenaline spike was well worth it! Although we were the only customers in the Restaurant at 6pm, service was patchy to start with as they were obviously still getting ready for the onslaught – by the time we left it was heaving, and there was a line up outside.

We ordered our standard when eating a new Indian Restaurant – Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Garlic Naan and Pappadams. Asides from a slight delay in dishing up Poppy’s serving where we still conversed like normal adults – once we had our first bites – there were no more pleasantries. Eyeing each other off over the last tearing of Naan – we played “Scissor, Paper, Rock”  to decide who got the Naan and who had to fight Poppy for the remaining shards of Pappadam.

Hubby won. Dammit.

And seeing as she had pre-loved most of the Pappadams – Poppy won also. So I ordered more rice, and consoled myself with scraping out the last of the curry sauce.

The curries were absolutely delicious and although suspiciously similar in colouring - the flavours and degrees of heat could not have been more different. The Tikka Masala was made all the more incredible with the addition of freshly toasted pistachios, both in the sauce and as a garnish. Amazing!

The Naan was a perfect combination of fluffy and gently charred in all the right places.

With bulging bellies, a happy baby and a cheap night out – it was unanimous – Masala was the best Indian Restaurant we have ever been to. Hands down.

We plan on heading back to Banff for Christmas if Hubby gets home in time – and we are already planning on going back here and being more adventurous with our next order... and ordering an extra Naan!

Masala
229 Bear Street
Banff