Masala Theory lets you celebrate a feast of modern Indian flavours by tweaking some of the old time favourites. The restaurant is decorated with vibrant pictures on the walls that capture the eyes upon entry. If you like Indian food then you will find the small dishes fun and intriguing. Traditional curries can also be found here for those who are craving for the rich creamy goodness.

Chicken Curry Bombs $15

These tiny balls of deep fried pastry were stuffed with with minced chicken and served with a warm curry sauce. With the unique presentation, these crispy balls were interesting to look at and fun to eat. Each ball was bursting with flavours, you can easily gobble one after another.

Egg Hopper (Appam) $16

 A simple way to describe this dish is an "Indian Wrap" with toppings including chicken, egg, eggplant, pepper, pickled onions, and coconut sambal. The correct way to eat this is to mix everything together and roll the wrap up and eat it. The flavours were complex, you can taste the sweetness, sourness, savoriness and spiciness.

Masala Theory Butter Chicken $25

Butter chicken is a classic Indian dish that Mr Piggy and I love very much, it is also something that we tend to get whenever we visit an Indian restaurant. Every place has their secret recipe and this one here was on the sour side, which isn't my favourite, I prefer something that's less sour. Other than that, it was buttery and creamy.

Salli Boti $27

"Salli Boti" literally means "meat with potato sticks". This dish usually uses lamb meat on the bone cooked in a dark rich gravy made using onions, tomatoes, cardamon, cinnamon and a range of different spices and is topped off with crispy potato sticks. We found the flavours very intense which we quite liked. The downside was there were whole chunks of spices in the gravy, which we had to fish out as they weren't very pleasant to bite into (the flavours were too strong to handle). The potato sticks were sadly stale as opposed to crispy. 

Lemon Rice $7

When browsing through the menu, this lemon rice sounded interesting so we got one to try. The rice was fluffy and had a light lemony fragrance. There were also crispy lentils, crushed peanuts, green chili and fresh coconut blended in the rice. 

Flaky Naan $6

Lavender Lassi (Left) $5 / Rose & Pistachio Lassi (Right) $5

Lassi is a popular yogurt-based drink in India. Mr Piggy and I each got one flavour to try. The lavender one was made using lavender oil extract and lychee, so there was a nice floral and fruity taste to it. The other one was a rose flavour with crushed sweetened pistachios on top. Personally I prefer the consistency of the lavender lassi, which was more runny.

Masala Chai

I like how the chai was served in a clay cup, just like how it's done in India. You can taste all the different kind of spices and herbs in there.

Turmeric Ice Cream $10

Turmeric and black pepper are a trendy pair these days, and apparently by putting these two ingredients together the health benefits are enhanced. So to conclude our meal with this ice cream we felt less guilty. The ice cream had a good amount of turmeric flavour and the coconut cream made the ice cream even creamier. 



Food: 8/10
Service: 7/10
Atmosphere: 8/10

Highlight:

• Interesting modern Indian food
• Great hospitality from the manager
• Curry bombs are a must try

Lowlight:

• Too much whole spices, and stale potato sticks in the Salli Boti
• Tumeric ice cream was small for the price

Website: http://www.masalatheory.com/
Address: 545 Crown Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
Hours: Mon-Wed 5-10pm
             Thu, Sun 11:30am-3pm, 5-10pm
             Fri-Sat 11:30am-3pm, 5-10:30pm 
Phone: 9699 9444