"Keeps Getting Better and Better. I dine at Curri several times a year, as it isn't far from my home. And while I have always liked it, the last few visits confirmed for me that Curri is now one of the very best neighborhood ethnic restaurants in all of Omaha.
The menu is extensive, partly because there is a section where you can choose a protein (or vegetarian), then pair it with a choice of about ten sauces, then select your spice level. By my math there are 70 possible pairings. Vegetarians will also appreciate that there are about 30 vegetarian main course options.
Recently I selected the vegetables with the rich korma curri sauce. It was outstanding, and one of the best vegetarian main courses I have ever had anywhere!
Beer lovers will be very happy to see the wide selection of both Asian beers as well as American craft brewery options. Beer goes excellent with Indian cuisine, and Curri gets it.
I also love the relaxing atmosphere, with Indian music playing unobtrusively in the background. Service is friendly and attentive.
Prices are reasonable, but not cheap. You can easily dine here with a bread selection and maybe a split appetizer plus your main dish for about $20 per person, before beverage or tip.
-----02 Mar, 2014-----
No Soup for You. We've been coming to Curri for dinner for several years. And we have really enjoyed the food. Finally we stopped in to sample the lunch buffet. It was great, with one exception.
The large luncheon buffet is now offered 7 days a week, and is the ONLY thing offered at lunch. You cannot order off the menu. So, if you really have a hankering for something not on the buffet, you are, as they say, out of luck.
The good news is that there were at least six main courses offered, plus two breads and salad, and of course rice. And each and every item I sampled wasn't just good...it was fantastic!
I am not a big fan of tandoori cooking, as many times the meat or seafood is dried out and tough. Not so at Curri. The tandoori chicken was the very best example of tandoori cooking I have ever had, with the meat very juicy, and not over seasoned.
The other main courses were each fine examples of what those dishes should taste like...moderately spicy and full of flavor. Most dishes contains chicken, but there were several vegetarian options. Sorry, no shrimp or fish.
Unfortunately, on the Saturday of our visit I really wanted mulligatawny soup to help me fight back the frigid outside weather. But the buffet contains no soup, and the kitchen wasn't cooking up anything that wasn't going on the buffet. I will admit this left me in a bit of a funk for a while...until I got to sample what WAS offered. The pouting ended in short order.
The weekend buffet is $12.95. It is a bit less during the work week.
Indian restaurants as a group seem to have an over abundance of quirkiness not found in other ethnic eateries. Mostly it seems to be related to the management, and not to the food. So I will chalk up the lack of a signature Indian dish such as mulligatawny soup to quirkiness of the management at Curri. If you want your soup, you must go there for dinner, or it will be no soup for you.
-----02 Sep, 2012-----
Excellent breads, ample portions. Curri is fast becoming one of our favorite little neighborhood restaurants. Our most recent experience featured a waiter who happily tried to answer our questions. He said he didn't drink, so we were left on our own concerning the large beer selection, however (try the Kingfisher, it is delicious.)
I recommend the bread basket, which offers a nice selection of their wonderful Indian breads. The garlic naan is oh so garlicky and delicious!
I will also highly recommend the chat samosa appetizer; it was scrumptious.
We ordered the chicken tikka masala and chicken chettinad for our entrees. Each was good, with the former having a very smooth, rich flavor. Entree portion sizes are large enough that most people will be taking leftovers home. The bread basket was overwhelmingly large as well.
I enjoyed the Indian music playing throuout our dinner, which added to our dining experience (this was a vast improvement from our first visit, when the music only irritated).
On the Friday night of our last visit the restaurant was near deserted at 8:15 pm, but had nearly filled up by 9 pm. Most customers were Asian or Middle Eastern, it appeared.
About my only criticism is that a portion of the menu is written in minuscule typeface that is difficult to read. This is true particularly of the drink menu.
Is Curri a well run restaurant? From our experience the answer is yes. Great food, nice atmosphere, reasonable prices and generally good service is what you are apt to encounter.
The manager checked in on us twice during our meal, which was much appreciated.
We have not tried their lunch buffet, so we cannot comment on it.
-----07 May, 2012-----
Satisfying. We decided to sample Curri, as it had been open more than a month and should be up to speed in terms of food and service. We enjoyed our experience, despite a few rough edges.
The restaurant is fairly simple in terms of layout, but is attractive all the same, with earth tones predominating. They have a weekday lunch buffet, but we were there for Saturday evening dinner, which is served off of their extensive menu.
The appetizer/bread menu is large, and features some items not offered in other Omaha Indian restaurants. One item I can highly recommend is the bread sampler basket. Curri's breads are top notch.
On the other hand, their mulligatawny soup was very bland. There are better choices to be had.
The two main courses we ordered were both vegetarian, and both good. I chose the Gutthi Vankaya, which is described as "Stuffed mini eggplant in a flavorful Curri sauce." I ordered it as a 5 on their 1-10 spice scale, and found it fairly tame, but still flavorful. My spouse selected the Paneer Tikka, describesd as "Cubes of homemade cottage cheese marinated in yogurt, lightly spiced to preserve its delicate taste, skewered & barbecued." It was also a worthy entree choice.
The large menu (70+ items overall) offers many interesting vegetarian options. The vegetarian selections even tempted non vegetarian me to skip the meat. And, for those so inclined, goat is also on the menu.
A bar is also available. Many good beers are listed on the menu, including several Indian brews.
Despite the fact that our server was working her first day, she was quite knowledgeable about the menu, and could answer most of our questions without hesitation. Service was prompt and friendly.
I will add that while I appreciate what must have been authentic Indian music playing on the sound system, some of it began to irritate, as the male singer sounded as if he was suffering some sort of medical emergency. How about just instrumental music?
Bottom line: Curri has great potential if they work on some of the little details.
Food: B+
Atmosphere: B+
Service: A-
Menu Sophistication: A"
