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Chinar Restaurant
Categories: Restaurants Halal Restaurants Pakistani Halal, Pakistani [Edit]
83 Kennedy Rd SUnit 8
Brampton, ON L6W 3G1
(905) 230-4222
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- No
One review for Chinar Restaurant
1 review in English
-
Review from Janelle W.
4/29/2010 3 photos
Times, they are a'changing.
Brevity is everything in this modern age of shortened attention spans. We gather news not from articulately-penned articles, but from 140-character tweets. We're flooded with a feed of friends recklessly mouse-clicking the "like" button instead of gathering their thoughts into an insightful review.
Yet, despite the quickened pulse of the modern world, Chinar clings to the slow, thoughtful patience of tradition. Their intensely aromatic, robustly flavored Pakistani food is prepared exactly as has been done for centuries. Sitting down around a dinner at Chinar, you can't help but feel a tinge of guilt that you've paid only $4.29 for a biryani over which the chef has slaved all day.
Chinar's chicken legs--arguably amongst the best poultry I've ever consumed--make a strong case for the philosophy of slow, methodical cooking. These fennel-and-cumin-rubbed drumsticks simmer in their own juices for hours, ending up perfectly succulent and tender. The flavor profile penetrates from the densely-flavored exterior, all the way in to the bone. These drumsticks are as fleshy and porcine as Lin Yu Chun [http://www.youtube.com..., and the meat slips off the bone as smoothly as he hits the high notes in Whitney Houston's ballads.
The chicken legs are then slow-roasted under layers of basmati rice, infusing their savory, meaty flavors into the fluffy biryani. And like the bosomy cheerleader your boyfriend would like to infuse with his meat, Chinar's biryani can be described as perky, spicy, and firm, yet tender.
Chinar's naan ($1.29 ea) is heavy and dense, yeasty and fluffy. Slightly drier and more 'bready' than Indian naan, Chinar's version is closer to a Yemeni flatbread. Use it as a utensil for the chicken karahi ($6.99), stewed in a spicy curry of black pepper and cloves, until the chicken slips off the bone like a size 8 ring on a gaunt finger. It is prepared mandi style, just like the classic Yemeni dish called mandi. An even deeper nod to Middle Eastern influence is the garlic- and ginger-spiced kabab ($4.99), precisely threaded around wooden dowels. They're grilled to achieve a crisp surface char which gives way to a succulent center filled with salty, spicy meat jus that drips down your chin as you wrap your lips around the log of meat.
Chinar is a plain, simple restaurant. The unadorned walls and squarish low wooden tables are unimpressive. The blocky counter, delineating the separation between dining area and kitchen, is awkward. The kitchen is out of view, except for the peek one gets through a tiny sliding window when one's order is called back. Yet even in the split second that window is open, through it billows a warm cloud of fragrant spices and rich, savory aromas from the kitchen.
One doesn't go to Chinar for the ambiance. One goes to Chinar for the food, slow-cooked and created with passion. One goes to Chinar to experience Pakistani cuisine prepared in the exact, laborious way that it is done in the motherland. One goes to Chinar because slow and steady always wins the race.
