Common knowledge to most Darwinites, Hanuman Restaurant is one of the city's most awarded and pre-eminent restaurants (I think they'll have to expand the hallway to the toilets to accommodate all of their certificates and plaques)

The menu is a bit of an eclectic Asian mix, with mainly Indian, some Thai and a tiny bit of Nonya (Chinese/Malaysian) thrown in. Such a combination might sound a bit weird at first, but the items on the menu complement each other quite well, rest assured you won't find any beef and black bean stir fry or sweet and sour pork on the menu (you can go across the street for that...)

Hanuman is a place where you go to impress, whether it be a date, clients, friends or if there is a special occasion of some sort. The decor and furnishings are fancy, the lighting is very dim, the paint job exotic and all about there are staff dressed in suave black scurrying to and fro taking orders and serving drinks. The price of all this is a bit on the higher end to match, with the starters averaging $15 and the curries $25. In their defense, the curries have truckloads of spices and meat in them. It's not a place you would go to take the kids every week though, unless your name ends with Jolie-Pitt.

My partner and I arrived at 7pm on a Friday night, with the indoors area about a third full. It didn't take long for it to fill up though and the noise levels went from relaxed to loud. Many have accused the Hanuman service to be hit and miss, on this occasion it was positive as we had one lovely lass looking after us very well throughout the night despite the fully packed house.

We started with trumpet mushrooms and minced pork. They should reverse the order of the name because there was a tiny bit of mushroom compared to the pork, but that's ok as it was delicious. Next was chicken tikka, very flavoursome but tasted a bit too much on the salty side for my taste buds.

From here we got a bit ambitious and ordered threemains; perennial Indian curry favourite butter chicken, a fiery chicken chettinad (chicken curry) and a sweet and smooth aloo mutter (potato and pea curry). I'm no top notch food critic, but my taste buds don't lie and concurred that these were all first-class. We didn't finish but were allowed to have the leftovers packed up and taken away in a fancy paper bag.

Chicken chettinad, fiery and will possibly result in the formation of sweat beads.

All in all and $120 later, it was a great meal with great service. Hanuman definitely deserve their reputation of Indian curry excellence. Too noisy for a romantic date, but great for entertaining in groups and emptying wallets.