Just a little bit of background on the Beaufort Street cafe strip. This area has a night life that is comparable to that in Northbridge, but on a smaller scale. This is mainly thanks to the Queens, which is always overflowing with pub-goers. There are many restaurants along this strip, including the highly-acclaimed (i.e. yuppy) Jackson's. You can get cuisines from Greece, Vietnam, Italy and Indonesia just to name a few. It's a good area we're living in - 20mins walk from Northbridge and the city, 5mins walk from the Beaufort Strip.
Back on topic, Gogo's curry house offers typical Indian dishes such as tikka masala, vindaloo and dhal, as well as lesser known dishes like saag paneer and paneer makanwala which are made using baked ricotta cheese. Prices for the main meals ranges from $14 up to $20. The main meals do not include accompaniments like rice, and you'd need to order it separately. Rice, naan bread, paratha cost $2.50 to $3.50 extra. The service at Gogo's was impeccable, however somehow I'd ordered rice as well as the naan bread. It was sometimes kinda difficult understanding what the Indian waiter was saying. It was just as well we had the rice anyway, otherwise the meal wouldn't have been satisfying. Gogo's is catered very much to the western taste and wallet size. I doubt I would see an Indian person coming to this place to have curry when they can choose from dozens other Indian places in nearby Northbridge offering much cheaper curry dishes.
Rob and I ordered the "Gogo's Selection" entree for $12.50, which included a
- coconut prawn,
- lamb samosa (big deep fried pastry thing),
- chicken tikka (small chicken pieces grilled with tandoori spices and garam masala),
- cheese kurkurie (goat cheese rolled in rice paper and deep-fried - looks like spring roll, but tastes nothing like it. Goat cheese has a strong taste, and is an acquired taste, I think. I didn't really like it that much because I only like mild tasting cheese like swiss cheese), and
- shammi kebab (looks like meatball).
Now, to our main meals. I went for the "Goan Fish Curry" - fish fillets cooked in a tomato and coconut curry. It has 'fiery' as its description on the menu, but it wasn't really that chilli hot. But then I guess this place caters for the western tongue, and not mine which is used to my mum's delicious hot curries. The fish curry was nice, but like the waiter said, it's not an authentic Indian dish, but was adapted using the Malaysian and Singaporean style of cooking curries. Which would explain why it has fish in it (the Indian curries I'm used to utilises vegetables or red meat). Hence the fish curry was similar to the curries I'm accustomed to.
Rob went for the "Baby Goat Curry Rogan Josh Style" - 'Kalbarri baby goat marinated in yoghurt and garam masala and cooked in kerala, muslim style' was the dish's description. We went for this dish primarily because we wanted to try goat meat. It tastes like mutton to me, and Rob said it tastes like red meat. This was nice with thick curry (as is typical of Indian curries), although not chilli hot. Kinda like beef rendang.
Like I said before, we had rice and garlic naan bread to accompany our main dishes. The rice was yellow, prepared with turmeric, and the naan bread was nice although I thought it was swimming in a bit too much oil. I think I should have stayed with my original order of paratha (the waiter suggested naan bread).
Rob ordered mango lassi, which was quite delicious. It had quite a nice strong mango taste and was thick and yoghurty.. Yum..
Overall, we liked the service and quality of the food at Gogo's, although we do think it is a bit pricey for the serving sizes offered (we paid $58.50 for our meal). At Red Turban on their 5 star buffet nights on Saturdays, for $28.50pp, we can get quality all-you-can-eat Indian food (with a huge selection of 8 salads and cold dishes, 12 hot dishes, choice of 6 desserts and free mango lassi), so I guess the next time we want Indian, we'll go back to Red Turban.
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