I was walking around the streets of Hirano-Machi on a weekday afternoon when I stumbled upon Mayur, an Indian restaurant. There was a big and colorful sign board in front of the shop displaying the various lunch menus. I was hungry and craving for something spicy and the menu on display seemed too tempting to ignore.
Mayur is located on the second floor. I was welcomed by a pungent smell of Indian spices and flowers as I was climbing upstairs to the restaurant. There were pictures and posters of famous artists who visited the shop on the wall, adding to my comfort that the food should be quite good. As I entered, there were already a few businessmen and young working ladies seated at the table. Since I was alone, I settled to one of the counter seats.
The shop can accommodate about 45 people at a time, and as noon approaches, the seats starts to fill up very quickly. You can see the kitchen through the glass window by the counter. It gets more enticing to see how the nan bread and tandoori are baked in the charcoal clay oven just by the window.
Mayur is a value-for-money restaurant and offers a variety of course and set menus. Perfect place to go if you are craving for curry and a lot of nans. At a mere 750 yen (Lunch A), the cheapest lunch set comes with a curry, salad, naan and rice. And for all nan lovers out there, Mayur offers an all-you-can-eat policy on its naan!
For an additional 200 yen, you will get a 2-piece skewer set. I went for the Tandor Set, at 980yen I could get the same thing as the Lunch A set, plus a skewer, a piece of tandoori chicken as well as a drink!! Indeed value for money. For curries, you can choose from fresh vegetables curry, butter chicken curry, seafood curry and the curry-of-the day.
The curries and nans are served hot from the kitchen. I ordered butter chicken curry and it was creamy and went really well with the oven baked nan. The nan was grilled to perfection. I normally eat my curry really hot so the owner gave me a bottle of chili paste to add to my curry to make it spicier. Unlike most Indian shops in Japan where they ask for the level of spiciness of your curry when taking orders, Mayur lets the customers adjust the level of spiciness by themselves. As I was one third through my nan and curry, the skewer and tandoori chicken came, yes, fresh and hot! The skewer and tandoori chicken comes with a green mint chutney that was simply delicious.
The lunch was indeed value-for-money, all for less than a 1000 yen. For my drink, I had a choice to choose from various soft drinks, lassie or chai tea. I chose the plain lassie, figuring it would be good to get some cold lassie to offset the hot and spicy meal. Mayur also serves various other menus like samosa and kebab. The restaurant is also open at night and they have various course menu that comes with papadum, tandoori chicken and shrimp, kebab, samosa, curry, nan and drinks.
Despite nestled slightly on the south side of Osaka station hidden amongst office buildings, this restaurant is accessible from 4 main subway and train stations, namely Yodoyabashi, Kitahama, Honmachi and Sakaisuji Honmachi. And since Mayur is not too far from Nakanoshima Park or Shinsaibashi, it would be nice to drop by if you are game for some hot and spicy Indian food!
