SAROOR is Urdu for sensory pleasure, and it’s a fitting name for this top-notch curry house in South Fremantle.

We ended up at Saroor for an impromptu Sunday lunch after I spotted the $15 lunch special in the Chook.

I’m pretty sure my mate Catherine had her eyes closed, experiencing an epiphany, as she described her chole bhature.

“It’s when you tear open the bread to get a little bit, and the chick pea, onion and sweet chutney mingle in your mouth. It’s manna from heaven.”

She and I both ordered the Indian street food, which is served on tin plates.

Bhature is a fluffy, deep-fried bread, that puffs up like an oily balloon.

It’s softer than naan, but equally delicious.

It came with a chickpea curry—red onion soaked in vinegar to reduce the heat—mango chutney, a yoghurt dish and a mouth-burning brinjal.

“Manna indeed,” I thought.

Brigitte ordered the vegan tadka dal.

“The finest you could taste,” was her verdict of the sensationally spicy dish.

D’Angerous Dave ordered honey cauliflower ($16) and a garlic naan ($4.50), which was golden brown and arrived in a crisp, noodle basket sprinkled with sesame seeds.

“The sweetness of the honey doesn’t overpower, and allows the other flavours to come through,” Dave opined.

Adding dal and it was also manna: “You can still taste the individual flavours,” he concluded.

Having sampled each others dishes, Catherine summed up the group approval of the markedly different flavours of the dal and the chickpea curry.

“Sometimes with Indian it tastes like they use the same sauce for everything, but not these dishes.”

Saroor’s signature sweet is a gorgeous igloo ($16), a tear-drop shape hollowed out and filled with kulfi, a traditional Indian ice cream.

And the mango, pistachio and hazelnut Indian ice cream tasted as good as it looked.

Our one criticism was the huge TV screen in the corner, which wasn’t even playing Bollywood music.

At least it wasn’t showing bloody football.

by JENNY D’ANGER

Saroor
388 South Terrace, South Fremantle
9335 1366
open Mon–Thurs 5–10pm,
Fri–Sun noon to late
licence, BYO wine only