Tasty Indian Food By The Isar: A Maharani Munich Review

Welcome to Foodie Friday! This is a special weekly feature from @whatandieeats, featuring a new restaurant recommendation every week. For more tasty food photos, be sure to follow her on Instagram.

Is it Friday already? It seems like this year is zooming past us.

Luckily, I’m here to bring you more delicious food to get you through your week!

This week we went to Maharani, an Indian restaurant at Baldeplatz, near Wittelsbacherbrücke along the Isar.

Here’s a review of our experience.

First Impressions of Maharani Munich

I was really craving Indian food this week so we searched around Google and looked at a lot of different places. Ultimately, we decided to try out Maharani Munich.

This cozy Indian eatery can be found right on the corner at Baldeplatz. NOTE: The garden is actually located behind the restaurant, so you have to walk along the side to access it because there is no way through.

We took a table in the garden, which was nicely tucked away under trees and surrounded by a fence and lit with candles. All this made it the perfect place to enjoy a cozy meal with friends and loved ones.

(Note: While the overall vibe is cozy, I should note that everything still adheres to current hygiene standards, with tables spaced far enough apart.)

What We Ate: Starters

We began our meal the way it always starts, with three typical Indian dips: cilantro chutney, tamarind chutney and riata which is a yogurt-based dip.

I really love having this at the beginning of any Indian meal. The dips are so diverse that you start to warm up your tastebuds for the intense flavors to come, plus I love the padadum that comes with it.

These thin, crispy chips that are so airy and light that you don’t feel like you’re getting full right off the bat. Perfect for starting your meal!

We wanted to try something new as a starter so we asked our waiter for some suggestions and one of the top ones he mentioned was the Chana Chaat, which was chickpeas with tomatoes, cucumber, onions, chili and different spices.

We were really impressed with this dish.

To be honest, at first it tasted a bit off and very pungent, but after a few more bites, it just got better and better.

This dish has a very tangy and vinegary taste at first, but it’s balanced well by the creaminess of the chickpeas and the crispness of the cucumber.

We weren’t really sure how to eat it because it looks like a dip/topping combination but we didn’t have any more papadum to eat it with, so we just ate it with a spoon and my goodness it was so delicious!

If you’ve never tried this dish I fully recommend it.

They had another Chaat as well with chicken but we opted for the veggie option.

Next up: a classic.

One of my favorite things to order at Indian restaurants (and I’m sure not alone in this) are Samosas. They are such a classic Indian street food and I think it’s quite tough to go wrong with them.

The ones at Maharani definitely hit the spot. They were just the right size and just the right amount of flavor.

While sometimes samosas can be a little dry, I was very impressed at how moist they were at Maharani.

I also have to say that I added some of the Chana Chaat on top as I bit into it and they paired really nicely together. I think this combination was a good shout, and I’d recommend it for sure.

Main Dishes

Have you ever ordered a Thali?

At Maharani, this dish comes with six different types of curries, salads or dips.

I love ordering Thalis because you get to try a bunch of different flavors in one meal, which really gives me the sense that I’ve really had a full experience at the restaurant.

Each Thali can be different depending on the restaurant, with a selection of various dishes from the menu served on a single platter.

I had their house platter called Maharani Thali which consisted of three curries, one yogurt dish (top right), a small salad (top left) and a bean-based dish (bottom right).

Probably my favorite one on this Thali was the mango coconut chicken curry (middle right). It was sweet and tangy and (for my taste) SO delicious.

My second favorite was the (and forgive me if I am wrong) Andhra Mutton Curry (middle left) which is made with beef.

This one was a bit more tangy and flavorful and I really liked how tender the beef was. The third curry not yet mentioned was a coconut cauliflower curry which was alright in my opinion (bottom left).

I also just noticed that I didn’t get the chapati bread that was supposed to come with my meal… However, it came with a bowl of rice and I was super stuffed really fast, I didn’t even finish all the dishes.

However, we did get some delicious garlic naan bread because well… when do you go get Indian and NOT get garlic naan bread…? Almost never.

We also ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala.

We ordered this because we wanted a spicy dish, and it was much to our surprise that it was not spicy at all.

While it tasted great as a non-spicy dish, it was definitely a shame that the server didn’t clarify the spice level beforehand, because we wanted it spicy-hot.

Apart from our need for spiciness though, the chicken was tender and the dish was decently sized and definitely enough for one person.

NOTE: We met up with a friend who’s from India who gave his opinion on the place, and said that the food was decent but that it’s more tailored to fit western appetites, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for an authentic Indian place to eat.

Drinks

We also enjoyed two lovely drinks with our meal. They have a really great cocktail menu with awesome prices!

We had a Mai Tai which was made perfectly (not too strong, not too weak) for only €4.50, honestly a great price for a cocktail, which leads me to say that this would be a great place for after-work drinks!

We also went with a classic Mango Lassi, which I thought was really tasty. My Indian friend did mention that it wasn’t the best he’s tasted, but to me, (since I’ve not had the honor of trying as much authentic Indian food as he has), I liked it.

Lasting Impressions

Overall, I think Maharani was worth the visit.

The food was pretty delicious for my taste, and I did like most dishes. That said, I think it’s important to clarify how spicy you actually want your meal. Everyone is different and they don’t want to ruin a meal by making it too spicy for those who can’t handle it, so be warned – let your server know your preferences!

As a final note, this place does have limited seating outside so it’s best to make a reservation if you want to sit on the terrace.

For more info on Maharani, you can visit their website here.