Kennedy Town is not a familiar area for me, in the three years I have lived in Hong Kong I have only been there once. If not for an invitation by the owner of The Clay Oven to try their Indian cuisine, I wouldn’t know when I would next venture into Kennedy Town.
The owner brought over the menus and looking through they do have quite a wide selection of dishes. I knew that I wanted curry that evening so that was easy for us to choose, but when asking for other recommendations the owner suggested we try the tandoori dishes as well as their garlic naan bread which are cooked specially in their clay oven to achieve a more authentic flavour hence the restaurant’s namesake.
Rather than normal papadums, we were given masala papadum as a complimentary starter. A base of crunchy papadum freshly fried with a smattering of chopped raw garlic, herbs and tomatoes. Nice herby flavour with a slight tartness maybe from vinegar, quite good.
When Mr. C picked the tomato soup I gave him a puzzled look. Tomato soup? At an Indian restaurant? Despite his assurance that it would be good, I was still skeptical when it arrived since it looked so ordinary, but after my first spoonful I finally understood. Unlike your normal tomato soup, this had curry flavours mixed into it making for a rich, fragrant combination where the texture was just the right thickness. Really good~ I would recommend this.
The cucumber raita looked refreshing on the menu and the spoonfuls of chilled sweet plain yoghurt and diced cucumbers was lovely and cooling especially as a palate refresher between bites of tandoori chicken and curry, but towards the end the sweetness of the yoghurt became a little overwhelming especially as the yoghurt reached room temperature.
Our tandoori chicken arrived all sizzling and aromatic on a hot plate. Coloured the usual orange tinge, the chicken was nicely tender, but the flavour was quite bland if there had been more salt in the marinade it would have been much better.
My long awaited curry soon arrived~ Lamb vindaloo and prawn masala. Vindaloo is the spiciest curry available up to four chillis worth of heat and it looked the part with its eerie dark red colour. Deeply flavourful with tender pieces of braised lamb, despite the slow burning of the curry increasing with every mouthful it was strangely addicitive.
If you are not the type for spiciness, the masala curry is a good alternative. Stewed with tomatoes, onions and capsicum there is more depth to the flavour with a subtle underlying sweetness. I liked the curry, but the prawns were another story altogether. Frozen prawns that were not the freshest, they had a distinct fishy taste with some already at a mushy stage, disappointing.
To accompany the curry, naan was a must order for me. A big portion with bits of garlic sprinkled on top, it did not have the strong garlicky flavour I was hoping for and it could have done with more time in the clay oven, but it was still fluffy enough for soaking up the curry.
Mr. C always needs his rice and when he asked for steamed rice, the owner came back with a bowl of pullah rice for us to try instead. Coloured yellow by tumeric and saffron the basmati rice was cooked to a dry sightly chewy texture with a heady flavour from cumin seeds. I enjoyed this more than the naan.
They only have two options for desserts either ice-cream or gulab jamun a traditional Indian fried cheese dumpling which is soaked in syrup, but we gave these a pass since we were already pretty full.When we asked for the bill, they brought it over with a large container of sweets and anise seeds as mouth refreshers which was a nice touch.
I was not expecting much, but a few of the dishes at The Clay Oven were more than decent. I do not know if I will be back since the location is inconvenient for me, but the invitation was appreciated.
Just Something About Me 