Goa Review
From Moscowiki
| Goa |
Cuisine: French, Indian, Japanese, Mixed
Address: Myasnitskaya ul., 8/2 (entrance from Zlatoussky per.)
Metro: Lubyanka
Tel: 504-4031
Open from 12:00 until 2:00
All major credit cards are accepted.
Restaurant is closed.
By Polly Dented
I had walked past Goa in the past many times before - never actually knowing that it was Goa. I'd always wanted to go in, but I was worried it was either elitny or out of my league financially. The fancy blue sign above the door made me think so. But I was pleasantly surprised when jheisel and I went to try a dinner at Goa and discovered that it is not elitny and not way expensive.
The interior struck me right away, with extremely dim lighting for that whole ambience thing. There are two floors, and we were seated on the first floor, which also has a bar. Jheisel, who had been to Goa before but had not eaten there previously, told me that the second floor has some pretty cool couches that are great if you come with a bigger group of people.
The tables on the first floor are all glass with fake flowers directly underneath the surface - something that is pretty unusual and unique for Moscow. Say what you will about fake flowers, but this was a nice change from this town's typical restaurant set-up. Whoever designed Goa did a fantastic job of completely eliminating the "ubiquitous wood factor," which is a big plus in my book. The chairs were also not wood (hooray!) and featured their own little weirdness with armrests fashioned out of thin strips of leather.
Now when I had been asked to check out Goa, I obviously understood from the name that it was an Indian restaurant. Much to my bewilderment, when we were presented with the menus (which have pictures of all of the dishes) I learned that Goa offers three different menus: French, Indian and sushi. I find this an odd, yet interesting, combination. Naturally the sushi menu was immediately disregarded and we set about checking out the French and Indian fare. The French menu seemed a little pricier than the Indian menu, but even so both selections were, for the most part, affordably priced. The beer was a little expensive for my taste (0.5L Stella Artois runs at 160Rbs), but Goa ain't no beer drinking place - which is why they have an entirely separate cocktail menu with several creative and interesting items.
We decided to try only some shrimp from the French menu (grilled tiger prawns with rocket salad, 530Rbs) and stick with a mostly Indian theme. After all, as expats it is our duty to test the spiciness of allegedly spicy foods around town, and Indian food is known for its genuine spicy goodness. Our appetizer wasn't the spiciest choice, but it was a necessary one - samosas. Goa offers both your usual vegetable samosas (310Rbs) and chicken samosas (340Rbs). We went with the veggie option. We also ordered some garlic naan (120Rbs). My entree choice was murg palak (420Rbs) - chicken 'peaces' in a spinach sauce. Jheisel opted for the rara ghosht (350Rbs) - a 'dry preparation' of beef in a garlic and onion gravy.
The shrimp and the samosas arrived more or less at the same time. It was good, but not quite as garlicky as we had expected. The shrimp were presented on a large square plate, with four large specimen surrounding a vertically built salad, which included the oft-mentioned 'rocket salad.' The rocket lettuce was piled on top of layers of very thin slices of cucumbers, peppers and mushrooms. The vinaigrette dressing (note: no mayonnaise - hooray!) was lovely, so much so jheisel lamented that he had not ordered a full-sized salad. The shrimp were also good, despite there being so few of them. I am learning that tiger shrimp are a pretty safe bet in Moscow. You may not get a lot of them, but the few you do get will generally be tasty. These shrimp were decent but nothing to write home about, and although the menu had stated they would be served in some sort of apple sauce, neither of us were able to discern anything apple-like about the shrimp.
The samosas were of an unusual shape and size for me, but jheisel assured me that this is what they are typically like in Moscow's Indian restaurants. We were served three fairly large vegetable samosas with two sauces - one was red, and I don't know what it's called, and the other was a mint sauce. Both were very tasty and mildly spicy in their own way. **Warning for people allergic to nuts**: the samosas had some sort of nuts in them, which I thought was a little strange, but they mixed well with the overall flavor. It was too dim to see what kind of nuts they were, but I think they may have been cashews.
Next came our main courses. In the pictures in the menu, my dish had looked like a big green mess, and jheisel's choice looked like a big red mess. The pictures in the menu are pretty accurate. My murg palak came with a side of rice, but jheisel's rara ghosht did not for whatever reason. Again, pay close attention to the menu pictures. We were a little disappointed by the presentation, which was just a glop of stuff on what really looked like Mexican plates. The appetizers were presented much more nicely, especially the shrimp from the French menu.
Since I had opted for an entree with a spinach sauce, I knew better than to expect it to be even the least bit spicy. It was very tasty, the sauce was delicious and packed with flavor. The only thing I didn't like so much was that most of the 'peaces' of chicken were fatty and chewy, forcing me to eat around the chicken and use the rice and naan to soak up that spinach goodness.
Jheisel's rice-less rara ghosht was ordered from the "spicy" page of the Indian menu, so we had high expectations. He updated the spicy status throughout the meal. His first impression after the first few bites was "only mildly spicy." Then about halfway through, it was "not not spicy." The not-not spicy status then later treaded into actual spiceland, manifesting in a light sweat and runny nose. Mind you, this was not fire-in-your-mouth hot, but there was some definite hotitude going on.
About halfway through the meal I began to feel a little barfy, which allowed me the opportunity to check out the bathroom. (NOTE: I would like to state clearly that any ralph vibes I was feeling had nothing to do with the food or drink at Goa. It may have been Indian food, but even so it couldn't possibly have moved through my system so quickly.) Anyway, I ended up not hurling, but the bathrooms were kinda nifty. There is no men's room / women's room - there are two (or three?) separate, unisex rooms with little sinks and mirrors for those who have really great night vision ,because it's just as dim in there. The walls are red and they have this CD of bird sounds playing. Jheisel said the birds got on his nerves pretty quickly but I thought they were neat. It sure beat the stupid "ethnic kiosk lounge" crap muzak they played all night.
Since I was feeling kinda crappy and because we were already pretty stuffed, we decided not to try any desserts, unfortunately.
There were not very many people in the restaurant, even by the time we had left. I think we may have been the only people dining on the first floor. There were a few more groups on the second floor, but compared many of the other restaurants I have been lucky enough to review, Goa was relatively empty. Maybe because most Russians have yet to develop a taste for Indian food (that must be why they added the sushi menu).
Overall, this is a place I would definitely like to try out again and would be happy to do so on my own dime. The service good, the waitstaff are pleasant enough and efficient without going overboard. I would probably turn the lights up a bit and change the music but that's just me.
08.12.04.
