Guru

Guru is the only place in town that serves up high end Indian cuisine. Yes, you probably don’t associate upscale and Indian together but there are a few restaurants that do it well. Vij’s in Vancouver is one spot that pops to my mind immediately.

Fun fact: this place used to be a Julio’s Barrio. Bet you didn’t know that unless you’re a west sider. The interior is completely different (a good thing) with a wine case on full display when you first walk in, a full bar in the back and plenty of tables/booths.

I’m not sure whose dining here on the regular but it was fairly busy for a Friday night. Our plans to check out a couple places didn’t pan out so we had to settle for here. The prices are STEEEEEEEEEEP. Prepare yourself to do a double take back. I’ve never been here for dinner so I was shocked to see how expensive everything was: at least double the price than your usual Indian spot.

Menu starts off as appetizers, soup & salad, kebabs and non-vegetarian entrees.

The rest is vegetarian rice, rice, bread and drinks.

Now’s a good time to break out the expense account. Someone willing to share theirs with me? One thing that stood out during our meal was that one of the chef’s comes out and goes table to table to chat with the customers. I guess he’s doing rounds but it seemed forced…

Shrimp pakora ($21.00)
Seasoned prawns dipped in chickpea batter and lightly browned. We went with one appy and holy crap, you get a grand total of seven pieces of shrimp. That’s insane. They were good but not anywhere near being worthy of the price tag. Yikes.

Garlic naan ($7.00)I’ve had their naan before and the garlic is great. Fluffy, crispy, satisfying naan.

Lamb vindaloo (spicy) ($25.00)Portuguese spices with boneless lamb and potato cubes cooked in vindaloo sauce. Our waitress informed us that their spice level goes up to 10. We went with a 7 and this was barely spicy. This is not legit Indian spice levels but it makes sense with the clientele they serve. Oh well.

Butter chicken ($24.00)
Chicken cooked in a traditional Guru sauce. Not sure how it’s a traditional sauce but this sauce is on the sweeter side of things.

Palak paneer chilgoza ($22.00)Chopped spinach and home style cheese cooked with pine nuts. This was M and my favourite dish of the night. This actually had the most “heat” out of all the dishes but was well balanced in flavour. Funny how the vegetarian dish turned out to be the best one.

Vegetable pulao ($11.00)Rice tempered with cumin and seasonal vegetables. Rice was moist and flavourful.

Tandoori chicken ($27.00)
Boneless chicken marinated in yoghurt and seasoned with traditional Indian spices and curried mashed potatoes. This plate comes out sizzling and the tandoori chicken was moist. We probably went overkill ordering this dish as we had a box of leftovers at the end.

In a nutshell, Guru is decent but I just can’t recommend it when you factor everything into consideration. Unless you’re coming to celebrate something, I’d go elsewhere to get my Indian fix. Your wallet will thank you.

Guru
http://gururestaurant.com/
17021 100 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
(780) 484-4300

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