Red Is Unique Among Bangkok's Indian Restaurants

Indian restaurants in Bangkok usually fall into one of several categories: very high-end places with traditional northern Indian cuisine, mid-level places with the same type of menu and very low-end southern Indian and vegetarian places. However, Red Indian restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 55 sort of breaks the mold. It is not really expensive and offers a surprising variety of Indian dishes that come primarily from the north but also represent many different areas of this large and incredibly diverse culinary country.
 
 I had never visited Red until recently (May, 2009) even though it had been open for about two years and was very impressed with the unique character of the food. There were a number of recognizable dishes on their menu

but also many that I was not familiar with at all and these happened to be the most memorable. Number one on my list is, perhaps surprisingly – since I’m not really a vegetarian, a dish known as tawa subzi bahar. It’s basically an assortment of fried chunks of vegetable with some sort of spicy coating that is made up of a number of ingredients. It was delicious and I couldn’t stop eating it even though I had many other dishes to try in one sitting.

Actually, everything I tried was very good, from the fish moilu to the jinga tiranga – tandoor-cooked prawns with a tasty marinade – to the peas pulao and the special flambéed raan, a lamb dish, which is done tableside. I also tried a mushroom-based dish and a tikka as well as several others and in each case there was a distinctive, and for me, different taste to each of these dishes.

This is definitely a place to put on your culinary calendar whether you’ve been a big fan of Indian food in the past before or not. No matter what country these dishes come from they’re just plain good and your taste buds will thank you afterwards. Red reminds you that it’s a good idea to break out and try something different once in a while.