Kanna Curry House, PJ Seksyen 17 – Banana Leaf Rice so -so but BEST for sotong goreng!

There was one point in my life when Sunday lunches were solely banana leaf & we would go around PJ hunting for our BLR fix. Eventually we settled for our favourites at the lesser known Purnama Cahaya, the grumpy Kavitha’s (of which after one particular grumpier than normal incident, I refuse to head back there anymore) & Annalakshmi & Vishals. Other than these, I like Nirwana’s @ Bangsar, Devi’s @ TTDI & Sri Paandi’s too.

But I could never comprehend the popularity of Kanna’s & Raju’s. I personally thought they were both crap overrated & overpriced. The last I’ve been to Kanna was nearly 2 years ago, and it had left me with such a lasting impression that I never went back. Blame it on some tweets recently; all of them of which had positive remarks about Kanna, that gotten me curious enough to give it another shot.

During my last visit, I remembered crappy service, awfully salty fried chicken & pretty miserable vegetables for the basic set. You see, for most people, the basic set is not significant, as they would focus more on the add-ons – the curries, the fried goods, the meats. For me, the vegetables that comes with the basic set is VERY IMPORTANT, as I love my vegetables & I also view it as the fundamentals of how an outlet set the standards for their banana leaf rice.

2 years ago.

The basic set. RM4.00. 

Vegetables that comes with the set: Potatoes in curry, cabbage & cucumbers in yogurt.

At least back then there was this cucumber + pineapple + onions yogurt coated mix. The one I was served last week was just plain cucumbers cubes.

Douse your rice in fish curry.

The famous fried chicken. It’s a must order for most, though I can’t understand why. I find it way too salty.

The norm: Add-ons of mutton, chicken, fish curries, etc.
I find that the staff would normally bug you to add these extras and would even show you the sour face if you decline! Anyone felt that before?

Your options of fresh seafood for the deep fryer.

To give credit where’s it’s due, the deep fried squids were additively good. I think that’s probably the only thing good going for Kanna.

I added an order of this “fish ball cake” & frankly, it was pretty terrible.

Some overpriced, so-called 3 layer tea.

De-shelled prawn sambal curry. Not too bad.

I can’t say much has changed, for my chicken was still salty but fortunately bearable. At least it was still tender & moist. The basic BLR set still came with 3 vegetables, all of which was disappointing.
The first was simply coarsely cubed plain cucumber (not even mixed in yogurt!), followed by cubes of radish in dry-ish curry & lastly the “kurma” curry vegetables which consisted of cauliflower & some carrot cubes. The last one was literally more kurma gravy than anything else. I certainly didn’t hit my vegetables quota with this!

The Basic Set. RM5.00.

Fried Tenggiri. Not very fresh or flaky enough. RM5.00 for this small piece.
Fried chicken. How can you not order the famous fried chicken right? RM5.50. Still salty.

1 mutton curry.
This was good & tender; not much chewing required. Thumbs up! For RM6.80, the portion sucks though. LOL.

The sotong goreng (deep fried squids). Addictively yummy! RM6.80.

1 watery teh-ais – RM1.60.

1 mango lassi – RM5.00 . This was a HUGE disappointment. It didn’t even taste like lassi; more like a milk + mango syrup.
I will NEVER order this again. That is if I ever even step into Kanna again.

Conclusion:

Like: Deep fried sotong (squids). Flavoursome curries. Mutton curry.

Dislike:
The fact that the basics (the banana leaf set) is pretty sucky compared to other BLR places. If you are here for that, then you’re pretty much eating nothing satisfying since the accompanying vegetables seems to be more of an afterthought rather than as main dishes of your banana leaf.
If you are willing to fork out extra $$ for the mutton, fried chicken, curries and other add ons, then Kanna’s would still be a viable option for your BLR fix. Otherwise, head elsewhere where you’ll get more bang for your buck.

So there, I have re-visited a place that I swore off after 2 years. Now, should I do the same for Raju’s? ;-)

Kanna Curry House

GPS:  N03° 07.10′ E101° 37.47′
Jalan 17/45
Petaling Jaya.

 

banana leaf, indian food, PJ