After meeting up for a glass of wine, a friend and I wandered into Curry Pizza House for a bite. The new Palo Alto location had opened softly in August a few days eaerlier. It’s the 7th restaurant for this local chain that started with Fremont’s Bombay Pizza House. This one has an upmarket beer selection.
We tried the Gunpowder potatoes that failed to be crisp as described by our server and Julie couldn’t wrap her head around the ranch dressing dip. The heat on these does build up on the palate after awhile and I appreciated the cool, creamy relief.
A large pizza was ordered with thin crust, but this rimless pie was thicker than what I’d consider thin. In large and x-large sizes, one can order half-half on toppings and I went with Butter Chicken and Palak Paneer. They do load on the toppings, which might be why the crust is so thick and wet in the middle layer. It made me realize that what I like about both of those Punjabi classics is the saucing and not so much the protein choices. I was amused that the cubes of paneer and cubes of chicken looked almost identical. They would have been tastier with more sauce and less of the protein. Not a craveable thing, and the pizza execution itself was not so good.
It just can’t compare with my memories of Mirchi Cafe in Fremont, the first place where I had a desi-flavored pizza 15 years ago on an excellent NY-style crust base. And just as well that I was no so wedded to this pizza, as when i tried to box up the more than half remaining, I managed to flip over the pizza plate and lost most of it on the floor (luckily not hitting the folks at the next table).
Service was cheerful and running pretty smoothly, considering this place is so new. Very packed on that friday night. The server said that the chain is looking to expand to San Francisco next.
Curry Pizza House
320 University Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
650-509-5900
