New Nupur

Tonight we decided to go for Indian.  We usually go to the Light of India or Coconut Lagoon, but wanted to try something different.  New Nupur is located at 589 Bank street in Ottawa.  When I walked in, I was struck by the bright artwork on the walls - in particular, a painting depicting a Shiva-like character surrounded by some very well endowed Indian ladies.  "Nupur," as I discovered reading the menu, is the name of the bells that Indian dancers sometimes wear around their ankles.  There was bollywood style music playing softly in the background.

We were given papadum - described on the menu as "India's answer to a large potato chip". My husband and I ordered some Cheetah Indian beer.  Their menu was quite extensive, and I was impressed to see some south Indian dishes included - like vegetable sambar.  My mom and I ordered Mulligatawny soup to begin with, while my brother-in-law sampled the vegetable samosas.  The soup was pretty good, although mine was long gone before my mom received hers.  The vegetable samosa was verging on bland, but good all the same - not too greasy.  We chose a selection of dishes to share: a Persee (Persian) prawn dish, butter chicken, sag paneer, aloo peas, tarka dahl, and the usual rice and naan.  The service was rather slow, and we were pretty hungry when the food finally showed up (without the aloo peas, mind you).  The prawn dish turned out to be really good - a flavourful tomato-based sauce with onions and garlic, simmered in delicious spices, and just a bit hot for the others at the table.  The dahl was nothing spectacular.  The butter chicken was made with pieces of tandoori-style chicken.  I don't eat chicken, so I only sampled the sauce - which had a very smokey flavour to it - it reminded me of smoked gouda.  Although this dish had been recommended by several people in reviews I had read on-line, and the menu described it as "most essentially flavourful", everyone at the table was disappointed. The sag paneer was also a major let-down, very bland, no sauce, just plain spinach with paneer that seemed to have been deep-fried and was unlike any I had ever had before.  The aloo peas did not show up until we were for the most part done the meal.  It was okay, but again, nothing to write home about.

Overall, the service was pretty friendly but slow, and I was not impressed with the poor timing with the soup and the aloo peas.  They made it up to us by giving us as extra naan, but I was too disappointed in the sag paneer to be overly forgiving.  The only saving grace was the Persian prawn dish.  We also enjoyed the naan.

Tastiness factor: 5/10.

My advice: Stick with the Light of India or Coconut Lagoon for good Indian food in Ottawa.  If you do find yourself at Nupur, order the Persian shrimp, and hope it shows up on time.