Beijing Restaurant Review: Nosh Indian Bistro
By Noelle Mateer
Nosh’s location is ludicrous. The “Indian-Mexican bistro” is in Tongzhou district’s Wanda Plaza. To get there from our offices in Dongzhimen, we have to take Line 2 to Line 1 to the Batong Line, past the Fifth Ring Road. And we thought that would be the hard part.
Wanda Plaza Tongzhou has a fleet of colossal buildings, sparsely earmarked by terse information panels that are peppy and fun-looking despite their ultimate inutility. To find Nosh, you need more than just a sign. To find Nosh, you need unshakeable determination. You need a precise location pin on your phone. You need conversational-level Mandarin, and you need a hand to hold. You need a timeless piece of art or literature – Monet’s ‘Water Lilies,’ perhaps? Li Bai’s ‘Lamentations in the Tranquility of Night’? – to remind you that life is not meaningless. We don’t give restaurant awards based on location here at That’s Beijing, but if we did, Nosh would win Editor’s Choice for Most Ridiculous Place to Put a Goddamn Indian-Mexican Bistro.
But then, 45 minutes after exiting the subway, we find the tacos. The chicken tikka tacos.
Nosh serves Indian classics – Tandoori chicken, curries – plus some Mexican dishes with Indian twists in a small bistro whose decor is, frankly, underwhelming. (Think neon green-and-orange wall paint and Indian pop music videos blasting from the flatscreen TV.)
But what Nosh lacks in style it makes up for in comfort. Owner Daya Prasad is a warm, friendly man who bounces around his restaurant chatting and clasping his hands together with joy when customers are pleased with his dishes. Longtime Beijing residents may recognize Prasad from his previous restaurant Masala, arguably Beijing’s most popular Indian restaurant from the Olympics-hysteria years of 2006 to 2009.
Prasad and Indian restaurants go way back – like pre-insanity-NLGX way back – but the Mexican cuisine is a new development. At Nosh, Prasad’s authentic chicken tikka masala is wrapped in roti like a corn tortilla, then drizzled with yogurt sauce (RM28). His freshly made tomato salsa sits on piles of fluffy, airy baked roti (RMB18). The more traditional Kashmiri rogan josh (RMB50) is excellent Indian comfort food, best with garlic-and-shallot naan. The dishes are top-notch, even if presented in a low-rent manner in this literally low-rent location.
Ever the kindly chatter, Prasad tells us he learned to combine Indian and Mexican food “on an American site, YouTube,” which is a weird thing to say. But if you haven’t gathered by now, Nosh is weird. And its location is more than weird – it’s insane.
If you live or work near Tongzhou, by all means, run to this place. (Our Tongzhou-based colleagues are sprinting there right now.) But if you don’t have the drive, emotional stability, Mandarin abilities or bravery to face the monolith Wanda Plaza, we hear there are some taco-making videos on YouTube.
Daily 11.30am-10pm, B3-207 Ximen Gold Street, Wanda Plaza, Tongzhou 通州区万达广场西门金街B3--207号, 东头星巴克二层对面 (8088 3780)
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