The first day into Cairns and after checking in, we are walking through the Esplanade. Its about mid day and we are extremely hungry. Its been a long day since we woke up at 4 in the morning to catch up the flight.
Being my moms birthday, I want to be sure that I take her out to a good place. When we introspect we rule out pizzas, grills and Thai. Shortlist is Indian. I guess because we are that hungry, we wanted rice roti's and curries. The driver had recommended the spicy bite, an Indian eat out. As I walk further onto Spence street, I am searching on the phone for good eat outs at trip adviser Urbanspoon and blogs. Suddenly a whiff of fragrance of Indian cooking reaches out. Its just overwhelming fragrance that triples your hunger. Its rare to find such a phenomenon in Australia and that too in a small town of Cairns. As we look around there is no Indian joint on our side of the road and I didn't think this strong a whiff would come from the other side. For some time I think may be its an Indian cooking up some wicked curry but no residential. I even go to the extent that may be I am hallucinating until I ask my mom and she confirms that she can smell it as well. A few steps further I see two Indian restaurants on the other side. Marinades and Tandoori something. I cross the road and enter. Confirmed that this was the place.
Decor and ambiance simple and good. Not too cluttered and stereotyped Indian. Big, really big restaurant. Inside there are private dining spaces etc. Orange walls, modern furniture.
We order the Kashmiri Chicken Tikka, A Non veg thali and roti's, and salted lassi. The salted lassi arrives first. Now any Indian would know that the sweet lassi can be thick and sweet but the salted lassi or chaach or mattha is usually very liquidy and of thin consistency. This one on the contrary is very thick. I don't like it.
The thali arrives after a really really long wait. I am tempted to get up and walkaway in view of the delay. Apparently there was a big takeaway order. The thali has rice, lentils, a mix veg, a chicken korma curry, lamb curry and another curry. Overall food is tasty to be honest. The daal or the lentils were yum. The chicken was thick mild curry with poppy seeds and cashew paste. I liked it.
The chicken tikkas arrived next. These were the Kashmiri Chicken Tikkas or to the counterpart of chicken Malai Tikka. Let me tell you this was really good. Highly recommended. It shows that Indian food is not just an over exaggeration of spices. Delicate and subtle with a fragrance of cardamom and cinnamon and the juicy chicken perfectly cooked. Yes if you have it before as entree its perfect. If you have it after having a meal or more spicy food, it may be bland a bit. The breads were good as well. I ordered a garlic naan and a keema parantha, both fantastic. Especially the keema naan which was made out of chicken mince. I think we under ordered or were too hungry so I ordered a chicken tikka masala which on the contrary arrived quite quickly. Finally we ended it with a Masala Tea.
Overall good food. I liked it. The fragrance was good. Decor was nice. If I am in Cairns I will go back there. The price for all this was about AUD 70 which sounds about reasonable.
Marinades Indian Restaurant
43 Spence Street,
Cairns QLD 4870
Ph: 07 40411422
Being my moms birthday, I want to be sure that I take her out to a good place. When we introspect we rule out pizzas, grills and Thai. Shortlist is Indian. I guess because we are that hungry, we wanted rice roti's and curries. The driver had recommended the spicy bite, an Indian eat out. As I walk further onto Spence street, I am searching on the phone for good eat outs at trip adviser Urbanspoon and blogs. Suddenly a whiff of fragrance of Indian cooking reaches out. Its just overwhelming fragrance that triples your hunger. Its rare to find such a phenomenon in Australia and that too in a small town of Cairns. As we look around there is no Indian joint on our side of the road and I didn't think this strong a whiff would come from the other side. For some time I think may be its an Indian cooking up some wicked curry but no residential. I even go to the extent that may be I am hallucinating until I ask my mom and she confirms that she can smell it as well. A few steps further I see two Indian restaurants on the other side. Marinades and Tandoori something. I cross the road and enter. Confirmed that this was the place.
We order the Kashmiri Chicken Tikka, A Non veg thali and roti's, and salted lassi. The salted lassi arrives first. Now any Indian would know that the sweet lassi can be thick and sweet but the salted lassi or chaach or mattha is usually very liquidy and of thin consistency. This one on the contrary is very thick. I don't like it.
The thali arrives after a really really long wait. I am tempted to get up and walkaway in view of the delay. Apparently there was a big takeaway order. The thali has rice, lentils, a mix veg, a chicken korma curry, lamb curry and another curry. Overall food is tasty to be honest. The daal or the lentils were yum. The chicken was thick mild curry with poppy seeds and cashew paste. I liked it. 
The chicken tikkas arrived next. These were the Kashmiri Chicken Tikkas or to the counterpart of chicken Malai Tikka. Let me tell you this was really good. Highly recommended. It shows that Indian food is not just an over exaggeration of spices. Delicate and subtle with a fragrance of cardamom and cinnamon and the juicy chicken perfectly cooked. Yes if you have it before as entree its perfect. If you have it after having a meal or more spicy food, it may be bland a bit. The breads were good as well. I ordered a garlic naan and a keema parantha, both fantastic. Especially the keema naan which was made out of chicken mince. I think we under ordered or were too hungry so I ordered a chicken tikka masala which on the contrary arrived quite quickly. Finally we ended it with a Masala Tea.
Overall good food. I liked it. The fragrance was good. Decor was nice. If I am in Cairns I will go back there. The price for all this was about AUD 70 which sounds about reasonable.
Marinades Indian Restaurant
43 Spence Street,
Cairns QLD 4870
Ph: 07 40411422
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