For many of us, half the fun of traveling is finding new places to eat that you don’t normally get at home. When we were planning our Brisbane, Australia trip, my dad read somewhere that there is a large Indian population in Brisbane so the food there is authentic and very tasty. Of course, we are always down for a good Indian meal so we walked just a few blocks from the Queen Street Mall to Indian Mehfil and got ready to indulge.

We arrived there a little after 5:30pm but because it’s almost winter in the southern hemisphere the sun had already set and it felt much later. The restaurant looked much fancier than we were dressed but being the hungry folks we were, we didn’t let that deter us. After being greeted by the very friendly staff we found our table and looked at the menu. Of course there was quite a bit of curries to choose from and being as hungry as we were we wanted to try everything. In the end Keao settled on the butter chicken with a side of garlic and cheese naan bread and I tried the lamb vindaloo (they also had a kids’ menu  and our less adventurous girls chose the chicken strips).

You know it’s going to be a good meal when upon taking our order, the waiter asks, “How hot do you want it? Medium, hot, or Indian hot?” We wisely chose medium which offered more than enough kick for us. The food came out fairly quickly and the portions were very generous. In fact, the waiter advised us that one order was probably enough to share with two people and he was very correct. Even the kids meal was big enough for both girls.

Overall, it was a very, very good meal. The food was very hearty and very well seasoned. My lamb vindaloo had large chucks of tender lamb and I almost couldn’t eat all of it (almost). Keao and my friend Shaina shared the butter chicken but they did let me sample a little of it. The sauce was so good you could have just poured it over the rice and that would have been plenty. The prices were very good considering the exchange rate and the fact that you could share an entree. If I’m ever in Brisbane again, this place is definitely on my list of places to eat.