Last updated: January 21, 2021

International Eats

The restaurant

Located at the corner of W. 24th and N. Graham streets near Camp North End, in a tiny building that used to be a below-average Chinese restaurant, Curry Gate is quite unassuming — until you notice the enticing pictures of their menu items that line the exterior of the restaurant. Blown up to the size of movie posters, this bit of advertising draws you inside. The interior continues in the mood of the exterior, modest and slightly worn. There’s a handful of booths and a few tables, and a counter for ordering. The interior walls, just like the exterior, are covered in delicious-looking food photos. And that food is as vibrant in spice and flavor as the building is bland and dull. One thing I’ve noticed across my visits to Curry Gate is that they take their spice seriously. I’m a fanatical spice evangelist myself. I’ve done the insanity wing challenge at East Coast Wings. I’ve tried Carolina Reaper chillies, ghost pepper sauce, and Costa Rican tabasco peppers, so take it from me when I tell you that you might want to re-think ordering a nine or ten at Curry Gate. The rush of endorphins to the brain might be worth it for a small few, but it’s important to remember that spice has nothing to do with your taste buds or taste in general, according to research by author Bianca Bosker, it’s simply a chemical reaction happening in your brain.

The cuisine

If you’re ordering Indian food in Charlotte, you’re more than likely ordering food items that hail from states of Punjab, Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh in the far north of the country. That holds true for Curry Gate, with the addition of some Nepalese classics. Though I wish there were more restaurants in Charlotte specializing in the foods of Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and the other south Indian states, one cannot deny the attractiveness of the bold, super-filling, and exceedingly spicy dishes of the subcontinent’s northern regions. The Nepalese food items on the menu are similar to their Indian cousins, heavier, laden with handfuls of spices like ginger, cardamom, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and long, thin Kashmiri chillies, and often have a gravy or stew-like consistency that’s perfect for sopping up with the variety of Indian rotis on offer. The Chinese and Tibetan influence on Nepalese cuisine can be found in the momo dumplings, and the Hakka-style noodle dishes. 

Our must-order

King of Spicy’s momo dumplings might be better than Curry Gate’s, but the contest is close. I’d go with the vegetarian momos so you don’t fill up before the rich main dishes. Another one of their starters, the chole bhature, a dish consisting of puffy maida bread the size of my cat served with a simple, yet effective chickpea curry, is perhaps the best thing on their menu. The maida bread is loaded with ghee, leaving your fingers slightly greasy, and reminds me of a Cherokee or Navajo fry bread. The maida bread’s airiness and abundance makes it easy to build yourself a little pita pocket stuffed with the subtle and satisfying chickpea curry. The slight firmness of the chickpeas is a notable contrast to the soft richness of the bread and the tomato, onion, and coriander of the curry add another dimension of flavor to an already memorable dish. Chicken 65 is a dish with  a mundane name, a lava red color, and an explosion of flavor with lingering heat. A great way to enjoy the chicken 65 is to order the Curry Gate special biryani, which comes draped with a large serving of it on top. The biryani is a basmati rice dish loaded up with saffron, mace, cardamom, nutmeg, garlic, ginger, cloves, onions and your choice of lamb, chicken, goat, or shrimp, or you can have it vegetarian. 

The tandoori-cooked shrimp is a welcome detour from the heavier tandoor meats, and still maintains the trademark char from the clay oven. The best rotis other than the maida bread are the kashmiri naan baked with cashews and dried fruits, the paratha, a naan stuffed with spices and paneer, or the keema naan, which is baked with minced lamb.

Why we go

Twenty years ago, it was hard to find good quality Indian food in Charlotte. Thankfully times have changed, and as more and more south Asians move to the city, the culinary variety grows even richer.  Curry Gate doesn’t wander much from the Indian classics like korma and vindaloo that you’ll find at nearly every other Indian restaurant in the city, but they imbue their dishes with so many different flavors, textual variety, and well-cooked ingredients that it is easy to forgive them for not straying too far from crowd-pleasing dishes. These past few months, and especially these past few weeks, have brought to my mind Baby Huey’s hit song “Hard Times” where he sings: “Havin’ hard times in this crazy town, havin’ hard times, there’s no love to be found.” When times are tough, we crave the foods that bring us the most comfort. For me, north Indian food, especially the food served at Curry Gate, is my new favorite comfort food. You can tell it is made with love, and we could all use a little more of that.

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