I tried the BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT in CUSCO 🇵🇪

Introduction to Garwal Indian Restaurant

0:05 Hey YouTube, Alex Living Abroad here, and I'm at the Garwal Indian Restaurant in Cusco, Peru. Of course, this is the top-rated Indian restaurant in Cusco on Google. Every single review is fantastic. People have been telling me through the reviews that the customer service here is above and beyond, and that there's really nothing better here in Cusco as far as Indian food goes.

0:33 So, I've come here today to meet with Chef Amit and to experience the thali that he offers here, and to share the experience with the viewing audience. So, what I'm going to show you a little bit of the restaurant and then we'll meet the chef and the owner of this restaurant.

0:50 As you can see here, he has some wonderful Hindu-inspired decorations and paintings. Very, very detailed. For those who don't know, I used to sell arts and crafts, and I have a sharp eye for artwork, even if I'm not the most talented artist. And this is just incredible.

1:18 I do want to make clear before I get into this video, it's not a sponsored video. I have not been compensated. This is just me kind of reaching out because I loved what I saw online.

1:29 Hello, Chef! So, what are you making here? Mango lassi. I'm making tea also. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, and so with the mango lassi, is it challenging to get mangoes here, or do they grow mangoes here in Peru?

1:46 We have a good mango in the Chinchero. It's the best mango, and we import the green cardamom to India. We make our own yogurt here, and we buy fresh milk in Urubamba. We have good vendors for the milk, and then we make the mango lassi.

Mango Lassi and Spice Preparation

2:08 I want to try. Okay, okay, thank you. I'm excited to try it. Oh, one wonderful mango lassi here. The mango yogurt and green cardamom. So, this is the mango lassi here at Garwal.

2:24 And I'm really looking forward to trying this. Wow. Wow, it's the best I've ever had in my life. Thank you. Thank you. First, yes, that's incredible. Yeah.

2:37 This guy is working magic here. I mean, that's the best lassi I've ever had in my life. When you have it in some other places, you get this kind of a flat mango, like yogurt flavor, but this is vibrant. And it's like, oh wow, and here's this flavor. And you put the actual cardamom in too, which some people don't do because the cardamom can be quite costly.

3:04 But wow, that's something that you're going to really enjoy here in Peru. Is that the chefs and the people who cook here, they make really good use of the big variety of ingredients that can be found here?

3:22 But I'm going to pause for a bit, and he's got some wonderful creations he's coming up with. So, I hope you enjoy. This is the brown onion we put on top of the rice. And this is a mustard, green cardamom, fenugreek seed, garam masala, coriander powder, clove, and black peppers, roasted cumin. And then some spices here, the cinnamon stick, bay leaf, and clove, and black pepper are easy to find here.

3:59 But some spices like mustard seed, green cardamom, and fenugreek seed, and garam masala are not easy to find here. And then we import it to India. But garam masala, we make ourselves.

4:10 Oh, okay. We make ourselves because I'm a chef, and this is not a big deal for me. We need whole spices for importing to India. Bring to India, and then I make myself our secret recipe for making the garam masala. We have some spices for sometimes I make myself, but importing the whole is tied to India.

4:27 Oh, wow. Because we don't want to compromise with the food. We don't have a big menu, but we have a small menu, but our menu has all that we want. We're making the menu perfectly. No complaints, no compromise with our guests. We want to be perfect with the spices.

4:47 Yeah, and that's something that I absolutely really appreciate and respect about this gentleman is that he's focusing on doing some things incredibly well. Something that makes me nervous when I go to an Indian restaurant is seeing two or three hundred different menu items. To me, there's no way to get that many different things done really well.

5:08 So, this is, yeah, I'm really excited to be here. But yeah, let's go ahead and check this out. So, this is, we're making the tea masala tea here. We're making masala tea.

Masala Tea and Chef's Journey

5:19 And here we have fresh milk, we have mango layers. Also, explain you Urubamba. And they are coming in the morning. And here's boiling the milk for the tea and milk for the yogurt. And here, we're making the masala tea. Masala tea, we put the spices: black tea, green cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon sticks, ginger, and black peppers. This is our masala tea.

5:43 This is a recipe of masala tea. Here is boiling and coming the flavors. Then we boil well. After then we add...

6:02 I'm definitely going to try them next time. Yeah, there's so many things I want to try here. It's incredible.

6:06 So, you mentioned that you're from India, of course. What part of India are you from? I am part of the north. Yes, I'm basically sturdy in New Delhi, and I'm born in the Garhwal, that was the place of the ones like Cusco, like one place of the north of India is the state of Bhutan. It's a famous place of life. It's similar like a hill place.

6:28 Oh, Nepal. Yeah, yeah, Nepal. And the China borders and the Bhutan Himalayas, like that's a place. Yeah, and it's so beautiful. And I love Cusco because it's so beautiful a place and it's good for living. And here come many people for traveling.

6:47 Do you feel that coming from this mountainous region that living here in Cusco, it's an easier adjustment for you? Yeah. You think so? Okay. Yeah, yeah.

6:56 I love Cusco. It's a nice place for living. And here, fresh air, you feel like a place plus the town, you know, like these good feelings and have a good climate. No, I'm living for the best place, and I love here. Then I opened the business here.

7:14 Yeah, and I also traveled. Oh, you traveled? So that's how you came here? Yes. I came for travels. And I came in 2017 traveling, and then I liked, 'Oh wow, a nice place. I'm a good chef, and people love my foods.' And I'm hotel management, and finally, I decided, 'Why not Cusco have one good best restaurant?'

7:32 Because you are coming, many travelers know, yeah, Indian restaurant here is missing that one Indian restaurant. They're not doing these jobs here.

Homely Ambiance and Shared Culture

7:39 It is. And something that I love about your restaurant is it feels very homely. It feels like I feel like I'm in India. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

7:50 You're feeling us. Just you are just a small India. We want to feel here the people coming here, and the people feel, 'Oh wow, I am coming just to India.' And yes, it's just one feeling. So you have just a little bitty India, and you can feel your like homely.

8:06 Yeah, like this. Yeah, it's incredible. I believe that my father, he was from Andhra Pradesh. Yeah, yeah. So I'm half Indian.

8:16 Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, I thought. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Oh, yeah, yeah. You're speaking a little bit.

8:20 Oh, no, no. Unfortunately, I know. Your mom is from Japanese-American, and Dad was from India.

8:29 Oh, wow. Then your first look, notice your face were coming in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. High cheekbones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Surely, yes. I won't say you they like the same things. Your face is a little bit coming the Indians.

8:40 But yeah, you told me you are from. Yes. And then I say, no, I think. But yeah, wow. But you speak some language for India?

8:47 No. Uh, no, no. Unfortunately, it's kind of a long story. I didn't really know my dad very well. But as I've gotten to be an adult, I've made some really wonderful friends from India.

8:59 Wow. And so, even though I didn't really grow up in that culture, I feel very much that it is the fatherland for me, you know? I'm looking forward to going. I haven't been yet. I intended to go about a year ago, but unfortunately, the lockdowns happened. I was in Thailand and hoping to fly there next.

9:19 But I know that when I go, it'll be a really wonderful experience. But I love meeting Indian people around the world because there's this kinship, this brother. And I, I don't have, being an American and being open-minded, I don't think about it like, 'Oh, this guy is from North Indian,' or 'I'm from South India.' No, we're all Indians.

9:41 Yes, we're all Indians. And you have blood of India. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. So nice.

9:44 And so, yeah, it's just a really good feeling to come here. And I'm, you know, this gentleman is from India, I'm from the United States. We're here in Peru, having this wonderful experience of shared culture, shared background.

9:58 I didn't eat Indian food for the first time until I think I was 18 or 19. Oh, and I loved it though, immediately. The first bite I had, 'Oh, this is amazing.' You have a lot of India then. Your body missing the food.

10:09 Yeah, yeah. Yes, the food. Yes. And, yes, and the hospitality, and the warmness, and the kindness.

10:17 It's ironic, but I befriended an Italian family, and they love Indian India, even though they're Italian-American. So they started telling about, 'Oh, we have an apartment in Gujarat, and we love going to India. We love staying in India.'

10:30 And yeah, I just opened my mind up and opened my world up. But this is really an incredible thing you're doing here.

Peruvian Ingredients and Food Philosophy

10:37 So, something that I kind of wanted to pivot to here, because I definitely want to inform people as much as I can about this wonderful restaurant, is what kind of ingredients do you get here in Peru? You mentioned some of these. Are there any Peruvian ingredients that aren't Indian or aren't traditionally Indian that you do incorporate?

10:54 Yeah, one basically, what is this? Some spice we find here. So they are local. Even though we're on a totally different continent, they're able to get...

11:05 Do you think part of that is perhaps some of the altitude? If you're at a certain altitude in India and then you come to Peru, and you're at a certain altitude, would you find comparable ingredients because they're at similar altitudes? And because right now, the climate is good for Cusco, which is a cold place. If people eat Indian food, they digest it very fast because this place is like a huge place for India. Our food is like a climate that's a basket for eating, for people to digest the food. If we have chana masala, and we know that chana masala, if you put fenugreek seed, we put the mustard seed, that is very digestible for health. Then we know that this is important for people. Our food has flavor on the inside, but it's not spicy. If people want it spicy, it's a choice, which we add some more spice. Hot like chili? No, spice flavors are different. Our food has good flavor but is not very spicy. If people want it, we do, but otherwise, the food has one level of spice.

Culinary Ingenuity and Flavor Layers

12:21 All right, well, thank you so much. I'm going to take a moment to have some more of this lassi. It's absolutely incredible. I'm so grateful to be here with Chef Amit Singh at his restaurant, Garwal, here in Cusco, Peru. This is magic, right? This is as close to magic as magic can be in reality.

12:51 So yeah, this lassi is incredible. I'm getting ready to join Chef Singh here in a couple of moments. I just wanted to show you that the thing I keep experiencing here in Peru is that these people are such incredible chefs. It attracts so many culinary masters. In a lot of places that I've traveled, the more you eat, the more tired of it you get. But here, in fact, many of these dishes, the more I eat, the more I drink, the better it tastes. The more flavors I notice, there's so many layers, ingredients, variety in the food here. It's really mind-blowing that sheer human ingenuity, coupled with Mother Nature's gifts, is able to manifest these kinds of experiences.

Naan Making and Thali Meal Presentation

13:53 In the world, I do myself, first time. First time I do is the first time in myself. Japanese? Right now, I am making. I will see. Okay, we are. First, we need one ball of naan dough, and then we add a little oil here. And then we put the green coriander, and then on top, the flour. And then we fold. And then we give the second edge for the one moment, for one minute.

14:41 Right now, we're preparing the thali. This is our thali, and this is called the Kheer in India, rice pudding and rice milk, green cardamom, and cinnamon sticks. Wow.

15:05 That looks absolutely gorgeous. The red onion, the tomato, and then this is the curd with roasted cumin and tomato, onions, green coriander, salt, and paprika. And this is something that's absolutely fascinating to me is that it seems like here you're doing this really wonderful job. You're bringing Indian food here, but you're showing respect to the Peruvian culture and the country of Peru, and that's really admirable.

15:43 Right now, this is the chana masala, chickpea, garbanzo, people call it here in the Spanish language. And this chicken curry, and the rice is here.

16:00 And yeah, so I just wanted to mention, some people might be wondering, am I vegetarian? I am not vegetarian, so I do in fact eat chicken, and I'm really looking forward to trying this dish. The smells here are absolutely incredible. Chef, it's like nothing I've ever smelled before.

16:22 It's almost like for me, coming here to your restaurant, it almost seems like the equivalent of watching an incredible movie, but with my sense of smell. Because that's something I think some people may not be familiar with, is that one of the things that you're doing here that's different from some other restaurants or some other folks is really special. You're not just appealing to our taste buds, you're appealing to our sense of smell. So when you come here, it's not just, 'Oh, I'm eating a good meal and it tastes good,' but also that the smells take you to almost like a different world.

17:01 For me personally, growing up, I didn't really eat a lot of Indian food, as you may know from what I had said before. So to be in this kind of environment is a real treat, and this is an experience I'm going to appreciate and remember for a long time.

Chef's Vision and Restaurant Concept

17:33 And I mean, it's almost like this chemist mindset. So, Chef, when you traveled here in 2017, you had mentioned before, you didn't notice an Indian restaurant doing what you're doing here.

17:50 So that's really part of what prompted it. In 2019, a lot of Indian travel, they are leaving the U.S. and Europe. Many Indians are coming for traveling. Also, many people know about Indian food. They are missing the Indian food in Cusco. Me also, when I am traveling, I say, 'Oh, Cusco is a nice city, but there's no Indian restaurant.' And I feel, 'Wow, I know I am a chef, and I love cooking.' Then I opened up. It's my best, and I love the talk the people give my food. I'm very happy to do this job. And so, why not? It's a good place for me living and for my restaurant. When I opened my small restaurant, it's my first business. Before, I never did business. I was only doing a job. But then I created my experience working in a lot of places, and then finally, I'm doing this job here.

18:56 And something else I really want to give the chef credit for, for those who are not familiar, if I'm not mistaken, here in South America, we're about as far as you can get from India. If you look at the globe and go straight through, you'd be on the opposite side of the planet. So, in my mind, it's quite daring and adventurous for a gentleman to move to this part of the world from India. And I don't say that as a critique or criticism of South or Latin America, but it's literally the farthest place you can go. And I think it's incredible because, like the chef mentioned, there are Indian people that are traveling here that want a taste of home, they want the real thing, they don't want perhaps a westernized version. And this is fusion done right in my mind. This is really fusion done right.

19:49 And I've definitely had a lot of fusion done wrong. So, I definitely recommend if you're interested in trying that to come here. And yeah, I can definitely attest to the chef mentioning there's just not tons of great Indian restaurants throughout South and Latin America. Of course, I love Colombia. I came here from Colombia, but in Colombia, there really wasn't very much good Indian food. And that's very different than here. In some of the Indian restaurants in Colombia, you don't get this symphony. That's the only way I could explain it. It's like one-man symphony.

20:32 But yeah, I'm really excited to try this thali. You can see it's piping hot. The chef is just finishing up the naan, his very unique and special take on naan. And so, Chef, how did you come up with this creation?

20:47 Because what happened, I'm living in Jaipur in India, and Jaipur is my favorite place, and it's a historical place in Jaipur. It's a nice place in Jaipur. And when I'm visiting and traveling many times of Jaipur, and when I was a baby, I was living in Jaipur. I love Jaipur. And Jaipur has one club they call the Sari, Jaipuri Sari. These are so famous cloths, and they are putting in the leg for the ladies. And this bread has the side, you have the green corner, like, yes. And then the lady puts in the base. That's coming the folding like this. And then I am creating, 'Oh wow, is that so nice? Why not I create like a Japanese?' And people love this brand, the Japanese.

Tasting the Thali and Ingredient Quality

21:44 Okay, your food is ready. Excellent. Well, guys, I really have enjoyed sharing some of the wonderful conversation that we've had here with Chef Singh. But I'm going to sit down and dig in because this smells incredible. I can hardly wait to dig in. And certainly, after I eat, possibly midway through the meal, it smells so incredible. I'll let you know how it goes, and we'll have a chance to talk with Chef Singh more. So anyway, this is Alex Living Abroad, and we'll see you soon.

22:21 The green chutney is spicy, and tamarind is sweet and tangy. And this is Japanese bread. It's brilliant. Japanese bread is my own creation. And that's the veg raita, your yogurt curd with the vegetables and salad. The desserts, Kheer, rice, and chicken curry, and chana masala. Please enjoy your meal.

22:41 Absolutely, Chef. Thank you. Absolutely. That's much appreciated. So this is just mind-blowing. It's so beautiful. I almost feel guilty to eat, but I'm so hungry that I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. It's just gorgeous. I was just telling the chef here, Chef Amit Singh from India, about what I think about his food. He's curious, and I just have to say, this meal is absolutely incredible. The fact that he is able to use this big variety, I find that in some places, some circumstances, you get kind of a flat flavor. Some places, Americanized Indian restaurants in America, you taste the dairy or maybe you taste some kind of peppery heat or something. But here, it's you get the spice, and then you get the umami, and then you get some like an acidic acid from the onion and the tomato.

23:36 The rice here is incredible. A lot of the times when I'm eating rice in the U.S., even at some Indian restaurants, it's very, very flat. You get the rice flavor and maybe some cilantro. If you're at a Mexican restaurant, or maybe you get like fried rice. But this is beyond that. This rice is soft. It's you have the sesame seeds, you have this onion or um.

24:08 Yeah, this is the brown onion, brown banana. So that's something else that's incredible here is some of the ingredients that he uses. He doesn't just go one way, he's got the brown onions.

24:19 He's got the brown onions here, and then he's got the red onions here. It provides this contrast where you don't just get this flat onion flavor, like you're at a ballpark eating a hot dog. You get the layers of the onion, and it's mind-blowing what he's doing here in the mountains of Cusco.

24:37 I never imagined coming to what many would consider a remote region to have this quality of food at a reasonable price. That's something else I'll mention here too: this chef is very clear that he's using high-quality ingredients. You taste his mango lassi, you can taste the cardamom; he's not using these cheap substitutes that some places do.

25:05 It's very clear that he's not willing to compromise when it comes to the quality of this. He has an idea in mind that he is trying to reach every day and also improve upon it every day. That can't be understated: his hard work, his effort, his dedication, his focus, his creativity. These qualities cannot be understated, and I feel very fortunate to have found this restaurant.

25:30 I will say I've tried one other Indian place in Cusco; I've only been here for three days, and this is far beyond that at roughly comparable prices. I'm not going to name it, but if you could only go to one Indian restaurant in Cusco, if you're only here for, say, one night, come to Garwal Indian Restaurant.

Masala Chai Preparation and Menu Creation

25:52 Like I said, this isn't sponsored; it's just my mind is blown. This is far better than the vast majority of Indian food I've had throughout my life. I haven't had Indian food in India yet, but all that being said, this is beyond the Indian food I had in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That Indian food was fantastic, but this is on another level.

26:13 So I want to thank Chef Saint so much for cooking this wonderful meal for me. He made it look so easy, and these are the red onions that went into this. Just incredible.

26:27 Chef Singh, what do we have going on here? Masala chai. Right now, we're adding the milk. The milk is already boiled, and the tea is boiled with all the spices.

26:50 With the milk, something I've heard, and I know you're quite experienced at this, is that it can be easy to burn milk. What do you do to prevent that from happening? Your milk is very, very good.

27:00 If you are boiling the milk, that's a need to use a slow flame. Milk not, not never. Okay, that's one because we are similar. If we boil the milk, we use a slow fire. Okay, that makes so much sense.

27:20 Okay, that is, it takes time, it takes more time, but it's a better product. And that's something that I really admire about what you're doing here: you don't take any shortcuts. Some of these things that you do, I can tell it takes a lot of preparation.

27:39 And I definitely would love our viewers to know that because, you know, in the U.S., when you have this kind of tea, it wouldn't be surprising to just have some kind of a powder mix, and that's it. But here, you're using all these fresh ingredients, all the fresh vegetables and the spices.

28:09 We put it to India, good qualities, and some spices in Peru. So here we have the tea, and it's wow. You can even see the cardamom bits right there. Wow.

Restaurant Consulting and Vegetarian Options

28:50 So, I guess I have some questions that come to mind. Chef, you came up with this idea. Did you plan this menu, or how did you come up with this idea?

29:06 Because I'm a chef, and before, when I was working and finished my job, like 2015-2016, then I was working on online concepts for many restaurants. I do many concepts for people, and I am creating the menu, doing the concept of the restaurants, managing the food qualities and quantities and everything. Managing the food cost, no? And finally, deciding, oh, why do I do this one project for me, for one of my dreams? And then I'm doing this thing, and I create the whole menu.

29:56 It's a big challenge for me because I'm learning, I'm studying, and then I do the menu. This is just incredible.

30:06 And so, I wanted to get on a tangent here. If somebody were owning a restaurant here in Cusco or looking to open one up in, say, six months, a year, two years, would they be able to hire you for that as well? Would they be able to come to you to ask, perhaps, for input, advice, suggestions?

30:22 Excellent. Yeah, if somebody wanted somebody like that, they want to help me, and then I have the ideas. And if they want to make the plating something new, then I can. Wonderful, wonderful.

30:35 I just want the audience to know that you're not just a restaurant owner, not just the chef, but that you also have this cerebral approach to it. You're not just thinking, 'How can I present the food?' but 'How can I make this a sustainable business? How can I win over time?'

30:55 And also treat people to incredible food. I mean, this food, this guy right here, the food is just absolutely incredible. I can't say enough good things about the meal that I had here. You have to get down here and try it.

31:10 So, another question that came to my mind: you prepare both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, right? Yes. So, if somebody is a vegetarian, they're coming here to Cusco, what kind of dishes would you recommend them to have at your restaurant?

31:31 Yeah, I recommend the Thali meal combo. We also have an option in the vegetarian. And you know, we make the paneer ourselves here because it's not easy to find paneer. It's not possible, it's not here. Don't have no paneer, then we make ourselves because we have good cow milk. We are fine. You hear the urban? We have one blender for the milk.

32:01 And for my best recommendation, also the veg Thali and Palak Paneer. We have Chana Masala. We have many dishes. I also have gluten-free. We have gluten-free bread. We have vegan also, vegan dishes. We have many vegan dishes. Chana Masala is our vegan dish, and it's vegetarian and vegan also.

32:21 So, we have many options, and my recommendation is Masala because the Chana Masala is my other recipes, my personal recipe food. We have a lot of recipes, but Chana Masala is the best, and it's our signature dish. If people love non-veg, then Chicken Curry is our signature dish.

32:39 Yeah, also we have Indian lentils, Palak Paneer, and we have option samosas. You know, other things, the pakoras, paneer pakoras. And we have many options of the foods.

Restaurant Location and Contact Information

32:52 Yeah, paneer. That sounds really wonderful. I love that you cater to the vegetarians and the non-vegetarians. There's really something for everyone here.

33:04 Wow. Well, I really want to thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for you also. Absolutely. I can't say enough positive things about this experience. I want to thank Chef Amit Singh for joining us today, for taking time from his busy schedule to help us make this YouTube video.

33:24 He's in Cusco, Peru. And can we give the address? What's the address? My address is Calle Umanchata, Cusco 117, and it's near to San Pedro, the center of Cusco. It's the boundary of the center, and near to San Pedro is the Plaza de Armas, and then next San Francisco, next San Pedro. And then is coming one street, Calle One Street, and the Calle Umanchata. This is our address.

33:54 And also, we have our people can see how we are in the Indian Restaurant Garwal in Google Maps. And then if you put your search as Indian Restaurant Cusco, then we have all details: your Facebook page, Instagram, TripAdvisor, and other HappyCow and Foursquare. And many also, we have our YouTube channel, but it's not famous, it's small. And there have all the links.

34:20 And if somebody is busy or perhaps they can't do things, they can order your food through delivery, right? Yes, we have also delivery options. And in our Google Maps, we have our website. On the website, we have our number, then they can also call these numbers. And also, we deliver the food.

34:41 Okay, well, I can't thank you enough for this time and this meal today. I'm going to be thinking about this meal for a long time, probably until the next time I come and eat here. It's so incredible.

34:51 I just want to once again encourage you to come here and check out the Garwal Indian Restaurant in Cusco, Peru. We'll see you next time. Here you have food and with love.

35:07 Yay! I can feel the love here. It's definitely a loving, warm, sweet, kind environment. A very peaceful, very peaceful. So anyway, take care.