KG Indian Cuisine is an authentic Indian takeaway on Fernlea Avenue in Palmerston North's Kelvin Grove, where a qualified and experienced Indian chef cooks classic dishes fresh to order. The kitchen's focus is healthy, fresh food, any time — takeaway Indian done properly, from smoky tandoori entrees to slowly simmered curries and fresh naan.
The menu is unusually deep for a takeaway. Entrees include tandoori malai tikka, chicken tikka, chicken and fish pakoras, prawn fritters and vegetable samosas, while the mains cover thirteen non-vegetarian curries — butter, korma, tikka masala, kadai, vindaloo, rogan josh and more — that can be prepared with chicken, lamb, goat, beef, prawn or fish. Paneer dishes, a dedicated dairy-free section, biryani and rice dishes, nine naan varieties, curry wraps, raita, papadom and desserts like gulab jamun and mango kulfi fill out the list.
Combos bundle curries, rice, naan and a drink in small and large sizes, working for solo dinners through to full tables, and the whole menu can be ordered online for carryout or by phone on 06-3533517. Vegetarian and dairy-free options are clearly part of the lineup here, not an afterthought.
Tucked into Fernlea Avenue in Kelvin Grove, KG Indian Cuisine is an authentic Indian takeaway that its own website bills as one of the best in Palmerston North. The kitchen is run by a qualified and experienced Indian chef, and the promise is a simple one: healthy and fresh food, any time. It is a takeaway in the truest sense — order ahead, collect, and eat it wherever you like — and the menu behind the counter runs deep, from smoky tandoori entrees through thirteen curries, paneer classics, biryani and fresh naan.
The entree list alone covers a lot of ground: tandoori malai tikka made with boneless chicken marinated in cashew and cream paste, chicken tikka in garlic and yoghurt, chicken and fish pakoras, tandoori fish tikka, prawn fritters, chicken lollipops and classic tandoori chicken. Vegetarian starters include onion bhaji, potato and vegetable pakoras, paneer pakora and vegetable samosas stuffed with potatoes, green peas and dry fruits.
The mains are where the kitchen shows its depth. Thirteen non-vegetarian curries are on offer — butter, korma, tikka masala, kadai, nawabi, shahi, madras, jalfrezi, vindaloo, saag, rogan josh, mango and garlic chilly — and most can be prepared with your choice of chicken, lamb, goat, beef, prawn or fish. There is a curry for most moods: the butter and korma lean creamy, the kadai brings capsicum, onion and garlic with a smoky edge, the shahi cooks with coconut, and the vindaloo is built on a mix of strong spices. A good number, including the madras, jalfrezi, vindaloo, saag, rogan josh and garlic chilly, are dairy-free.
Paneer gets its own chapter: butter paneer in creamy tomato butter sauce, korma paneer, tikka masala paneer, kadai paneer, palak paneer and malai kofta — cottage cheese balls in a rich, creamy cashew nut sauce. A dedicated dairy-free vegetarian section rounds things out with dal tarka, chana masala, chana saag, jeera aloo, aloo saag, aloo mutter and a fresh vegetable curry.
Rice dishes run from plain, jeera and coconut rice to chicken fried rice, chicken bryani, lamb biryani and vegetable biryani — proper one-dish meals in their own right. The tandoor turns out an equally serious naan list: plain, garlic, cheese, cheese and garlic, onion cheese and garlic, butter, onion, allo and kashmiri naan, plus everyday roti. Alongside them sit the accompaniments — raita, papadom, mango chutney, mixed pickle, hot chilli sauce and mango lassi — with gulab jamun and mango kulfi to finish.
Curry also comes folded into a wrap — plain, garlic, or cheese and garlic — for eating on the move. For everything from a solo dinner to a full household, the combo menu bundles it neatly: each combines curries, rice, naan and a drink, scaling from one small curry with a rice and naan up to four large curries with five rice and five naan. Combos come in small and large sizes, so one person and a family are equally covered. The mix platter, a roll-call of the kitchen's all-time famous starters, is the easy way to open a shared order.
Everything is set up for pickup. Orders go through the website's online menu — build your curries, breads, rice and drinks, then collect from 7/3 Fernlea Avenue — or you can phone the kitchen on 06-3533517; email goes to [email protected]. With whole sections given over to vegetarian and dairy-free cooking, the hard part of an order at KG Indian Cuisine is not finding something to like — it is narrowing the list down before the naan comes out of the tandoor.