Vijay Dhaba

Victory is mine! And can be yours too!
Do you sometimes find yourself riding your bicycle down the lane looking up at eatery signs wondering where the name comes from? No? You have better things to focus on like the hottie across the street or the idiot in front of you that is swaying within the biking lane blocking your procession? Well in case you were ever curious about the Indian restaurant Vijay Dhaba on Amstelveenseweg, I, along with my companion Google Translate, are here to satisfy your linguistic thirst for knowledge!
Vijay = means victory and is often a dude’s name
Dhaba = food stops often found along the highway next to petrol stations
I feel like this is a perfect description of this place as my stomach was screaming VICTORY after what seemed to be an endless and welcomed invasion of Indian yumminess sending praises throughout my large and small intestines! Although this establishment is not next to a petrol station, it certainly is a destination where I would like to stop for food on frequent occasions and fill up my own tank!
First of all, the owner is super nice! For purposes of this review, I shall call him ‘homeboy’. Homeboy is Indian, grew up in Bern, journeyed through an eight month trip from Miami to New York and has been to Japan five times this year alone. What does that have to do with the food? Nothing! But just saying that homeboy wants to be your bff and will MAKE SURE that you have a pleasant dining experience. I had two types of Indian beers that were never empty, which is hard to achieve with my alcoholic @ss around. We were promptly greeted with some crispy papadums with sauce as we waited for our feast. VD has a normal menu, but homeboy slyly coaxed us into the feast for a day. Basically we were told to sit back, relax and enjoy. Little did we know what were in in for!
First was the appetizer plate. We EACH got our own plate that consisted of ALL items on their appetizer menu!
Veggie Samosa — my ALL-​TIME fave and it was delicious here
Tandori Sheesh Kabob — Interesting flavor and quite yummy!
Tandori Chicken Wing — Noticing a trend here… Yummy again!
Onion Bhaji — This reminds me a veggie pakoras and I will confuse I loved this! Usually these kind of fried things are two dry or boring, but this not so greasy fried addition was very welcome on my beginning plate as well as my belly!
Seriously I was ready to call it a day after the appetizer plate alone. Oh but wait… There was more!
Next came the naan… I’m very particular when it comes to naan… Like I want it all!
Crispy, but not burnt. Soft inside, but not soggy. Hot, flavorful, crazy, sexy, cool. All of the above please!
As soon as my eyes were exposed to a basket filled with steamy slices of bubbly flat bread shining with ghee, I KNEW I would love this naan. And it was confirmed as soon as my greedy hands shoved a piece into my masala mouth. Mmmm!
After the initial shock of the yummy naan and garlic naan, our main meal came. Just like a rijsttafel, they placed warmer platforms on our table and began to present a line up of Indian food!
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Vindaloo
Aloo Mater (potato and pea curry)
Saag (definitely my favorite dish for the night)
Veggie Curry
And of course a huge plate of basmati rice
The only negative thing that I wasn’t exactly thrilled with, was the fact that the chicken seemed a little tough and overcooked. Luckily, I would 10 times rather take a piece of naan, dip it in the various curries and munch on that… so it was not a big problem.
Now… imagine five grown men sitting around a table filled with food already full from the appetizer plate, but taking advantage of the curry feast spread out in front of them. Now picture our shocked faces when we heard the distant sound of sizzling platters hastily approaching our table. Before we knew it, there was yet ANOTHER addition to the already huge feast even too large for a six armed Vishnu and a masala hungry Ganesh to handle… We were now faced with two large platters of tandoori delights! More chicken, veggies, kababs… you name it. Homeboy told us he would take care of us, but little did we know he was planning to feed our stomachs for the rest of the week!
I can’t really say much after this because I, along with my companions, were in complete fomas (food-​comas) after this experience. Of course, I wasn’t going to turn down one of my favorite desserts of kheer (indian rice pudding).
Can you guess how much it cost us for the beers, appetizers, naan, entrees, more entrees, dessert and coffee???
€ 30… Like really? I feel like we are putting them out of business eating all the food they had in the kitchen for only 30? Unfortunately, I live too close to here and I will be drawn to stretch my stomach again like I did tonight…
So with that, we all went to see an opera show as part of Grachtenfestival and I was surprised we were able to keep it together with the Bollywood party going on in our stomachs.