Where to find curry on the Costa Brava

As I said in another article for Costa Brava Lifestyle, when I first moved to Catalonia after upping sticks from the UK and arriving in Barcelona, I quickly found the things I missed most about leaving. One of those was slightly unexpected, but in retrospect was something I should have anticipated; I really missed being able to get a good curry.

I’ve been eating curries since my teens, first by a family friend living in Spain who home cooked a Malaysian curry that my mum later picked up and then got hooked on that Indian restaurant staple, Chicken Madras. I fell in love with the spices, the heat, and the anticipation of going out for a curry.

In many respects I think that Indian restaurants are undervalued. Most of them in the UK serve you with a real tablecloth rather than the disposable paper ones that you get in many places; and most of the ones I’ve eaten in have a good level of service, on top of great food.

Rather than appreciate all that service and environment for what is a relatively cheap night out many people relegate Indians to post-pub food when it doesn’t matter what it tastes like as long as it’s vindaloo hot; I don’t know whose fault that is, whether the Indian restaurants for not valuing what they have to offer enough, or whether they need that business in order to survive.

But I digress.

Arriving in Barcelona, planning on taking three months off before deciding what to do work wise, I soon found I needed a curry; that’s how I learnt how to cook Indian food.

The problem is, it doesn’t matter how good the home cooked curry is, I miss the whole rigmarole of going out, being greeted and seated, the Cobra or Kingfisher beer, going through the menu and often choosing the same thing time after time.

I did get a great Indian Restaurant cookbook as a gift, which lifted the levels of my curry greatly, but I still didn’t get what I really wanted (i.e. to be waited upon!), except for those few trips to the UK, when I would ensure that at least one meal would be curry.

In Barcelona there was a Pakistani owned restaurant that was dirt-cheap and offered great tandoori dishes, but not curry. Some places came and went, some nearby, some in the city centre; and once for my birthday we tried one in Raval, which was really good.

Where’s the chilli?

Often the problem is that the recipes have been adapted for Spanish tastes, which means the amount of chilli is reduced so the food isn’t so hot. The problem with that is that the chilli also provides part of the flavour and so you lose more than simply heat.

And then one day, after moving out of the big city and driving back from the beach at Santa Cristina my other half asked “what about stopping in Lloret for a takeaway?”

We did.

It was the first time we’d actually been into Lloret de Mar, but the tourist office was helpful and marked a number of Indian restaurants on a tourist map. The first of these was closed, but the second (or was it the third) we found to be open.

A curry in Lloret

We sat outside in the September sunshine on plastic chairs and went through the menu, picking those items we couldn’t do without, and a few others we wanted to try.

Carrying our precious cargo back to the car – a kilometre or so, I seem to remember –  we got a glimpse of what Lloret was all about, but finally in the car the delicious aromas soon had us salivating on the drive home.

That was the best restaurant curry we’d had since I moved to Catalonia and given that we’d ordered quite a bit of food and there were just two of us it lasted for a couple of nights too.

The next time we ordered Indian food was the following New Year’s Eve, when we ordered from an Indian takeaway in Vidreres. The food was edible, but a long way from what Indian cuisine should be; the “tandoori” chicken was nothing like it should have been and I realised that the chicken had actually been cooked in Romesco sauce! It was frustrating, but that restaurant is no longer there.

Indian food arrives in l’Escala… briefly

But then a couple of years ago there was a monumental culinary event in l’Escala; early in the year an Indian restaurant opened up.

As soon as we could manage it the two of us took my (Catalan) mother in law there, who surprised us by loving the food.

The food was good.

It wasn’t expensive.

But… there was hardly anyone there.

We went back a few times and it was always the same. Service was good, the food mainly good, although sometimes a bit inconsistent. But the problem remained, they had too few customers and finally, after being open for just six months, they closed down.

This was, mainly, a good restaurant, but it just seems that unless there is a solid British community to support them, Indian restaurants have neither the right food culture to support them in Spain (or at least Catalonia) and are compromised by catering for local tastes.

As far as I know (it’s been a six months since last venturing to Lloret) the Indian in Lloret de Mar is still open and I’d recommend the food there, which you can find below:

Namaste
C. Riera, 48 (Bajos)
Lloret de Mar
972 364 036

If you have a recommendation for a great Indian restaurant on the Costa Brava then please let a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.