Padma
Padma is now closed.
Padma Indian dining is centrally located in Hiroshima city center right behind the Chisun Hotel. Padma means lotus flower in Hindi and does offer a very tranquil dining experience as the name suggests. The restaurant has a lot of table seating and quite a spacious layout making it good for group meals of all sizes. There are a huge variety of curries and side dishes to choose many of which are vegetarian.
There is a big, easy-to-read menu in English and Japanese featuring 37 curries to choose from with cashew nuts, tomato base, creamy, with lentils and meat. Eighteen selections are vegetarian specialties, and two are vegetarian with egg. Staff seem to have a good understanding of vegan needs, but vegan diners have reported mixed experiences, particularly with regard to soy cheese (please see the comments below). Nine curries feature chicken and two are made with ‘mountain sheep mutton’. There are tandoori meats, seafood, and even mushrooms available, an assortment of 10 different nan breads and 6 varieties of chapati flat bread. More than 10 types of appetizers I haven’t seen at other Indian restaurants including vegetable and chicken samosa and biryani (rice dish), papad (cracker), chili paneer (Indian cheese), and kofta (savory veggie balls in sauce), raita (yoghurt dip) among other delicious options. For lunch and dinner, the set meals offer quite a lot of food at a great price. Lunch sets are available for under ¥1000 and dinner sets are under ¥2000.
I enjoyed dinner here with a group, we ordered the “ladies set” which was a very good value set for ¥2500 including 2 drinks, appetizers, salads, choice of 3 curries, nan bread and dessert. It was a wonderful meal, although it was a bit too filling for me and I left completely stuffed, it was my own fault. Some clever members of our group were more restrained and took some of the delicious foods home in a take-out tray. Doggie bags are completely fine for full diners, they also offer a take-out menu if you prefer to pick up and eat elsewhere.
There are many set meals available including a filling vegetarian set for under ¥2000, Tandoor Set, and a basic set with salad and choice of 2 curries, drink and dessert for only ¥1600. The sets come with Chapati bread (like a thick tortilla flat bread cooked in a pan) or nan (fluffier bread cooked with butter in the tandoori oven) or rice. You can choose how spicy you want your curries and although it depends on the type of curries you choose, I chose a “little hot” and it was at about a “normal” spiciness range to me, perhaps I have a higher hot tolerance than I thought. If you like it spicy you should aim for the highest level perhaps.
- Take-out OK
- Bilingual (English/Japanese) menu with pictures
- All seats inside are non-smoking
- Parking discounts are available from a nearby parking lot (RePark) for checks higher than ¥1800.
- Many vegetarian curries and a vegetarian set available
- Credit cards accepted
- Reservations accepted & many set courses available from ¥2000+ per person
- Seating for 50
Open Everyday 11am-3pm/5-11pm Located next to the Chisun hotel (back street)
Address: 1F Yoshimura Building, 10-10 Nobori-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Naka-ku
Reservations
Tel: 050-5872-6987 Restaurant Tel: 082-836-5838
URL: http://hitosara.com/0006031509/
