“Korma! That’s veggie korma! MIXED VEGGIES! Sorry. Go on.”
Kal Singh sits in the restaurant he and his wife opened a month ago, yelling across the table to curious customers uncertain as to how to fill their plates. Normally, buffet is a fairly hands-off affair. But in a community where international cuisine has been scarce, Singh is spending as much time explaining his food as serving it.
There’s good reason why Butter Chicken Express, along with its equally fresh competitor, Holy Spice North Indian Cuisine, prioritized the buffet when they first rolled out in late February: despite a prominent Indian community, Thompson’s restaurant scene has not seen much in the way of Indian cuisine.
Chillax WTF was the first to commercially bring the cuisine to Thompson in 2013, operating an ever-popular food truck in the summer, and offering delivery in the winter. Siddharth Varma, owner, noted the food truck was an easily manageable format for a first venture into the food industry. But for all of his caution, Varma says the reception was stellar: “People in Thompson have been wonderful and supportive. We’re really amazed to see how much people love East Indian food.”
Butter Chicken Express and Holy Spice are the first fixed-location restaurants to serve South Asian cuisine in Thompson, opening up a new option for service: the buffet. For an unfamiliar public, buffets provide the most tactile, accessible opportunity to dip their toes into an unfamiliar cuisine. “That’s the whole idea,” Kal said. “You run the buffet, change the items, and let people try everything out. They ask me what it is, how to eat it, and I get to ask them for feedback.”
Kal’s wife, Belbebr Singh, primarily runs Butter Chicken Express. The two are both from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, a city where Malay, Chinese, Indian and Portuguese culture intersect to create a lush and varied culinary landscape. “I came here 17 years ago, and we never really had an East Indian restaurant,” says Belbebr. “I was hearing that people were craving one, so, we thought we’d try it.”
The Singhs’ shop is small, cozy and intimate, located in the small satellite building in the Plaza parking lot that has stood there, as it is, for decades. It’s hard for a restaurant to be located in a more noticeable place: the building sticks out like a prairie fire in a sea of concrete. Yet in spite of this, one gets the impression that they’re eating at the best-kept secret in town. BCX’s kitchen, and its menu, are on the smaller side. But like true specialists, what they serve they serve exceptionally well. “We’re getting very good response,” Kal says proudly. “People love it.”
In the opposite corner of Thompson’s downtown core is Holy Spice North Indian Cuisine, located in the Burntwood Hotel where Grapes operated just shortly before. Here, I met co-owners Kapil and Manny Sharman in the Burntwood Hotel’s Miner Room, chatting with brother and fellow entrepreneur Nama. Fresh out of a staff meeting in a fresh-pressed suit and slacks, Kapil is all business: he’s the financial brains of the restaurant, while Manny brings 35 years in the food industry, split between restaurants in India and his restaurant in Winnipeg - Dhoom. “For more than seven years, we’ve been thinking we need to open a new restaurant in Thompson, and we finally get to do it.”
Holy Spice offers a more traditional dine-in experience: the large restaurant space will fit a party of six comfortably, while their robust menu offers ample opportunity to explore North Indian cuisine to your heart’s content. The menu is huge, and Sharman says it’s only slated to grow in the coming months: already featuring a classically western breakfast menu, Sharman hopes to feature more Canadian-style food on the menu in the near future. “Most people aren’t used to East Indian food, and we don’t want to lose those people.”
But despite their differences, all restaurants meet at the same crossroads. When asked what goes into a successful restaurant, both Singh and Sharman, word for word, gave the same answer: “Good food, good service.”
