Lucinda O'Sullivan's Ireland

About The Restaurant

It’s hard to beat good Indian food. The fantastic palate of spices employed by Indian cuisine brings out flavours and taste sensations that are indescribably splendid, and really tough to find anywhere else.

At Vermilion Indian Fusion in Terenure, the ethos of Head Chef Anil Singh and all of the staff is to provide their customers with an exceptional dining experience at a reasonable price. The restaurant itself is beautifully adorned with authentic Indian finery, from the light pictures to the artwork on the walls to the full wall of Indian antiquities on display. The whole room is dominated by the rich red colour for which the restaurant is named, and adds a real atmosphere to the place.

On my visit, starters included aloo tikki, pan fried potato cakes with green peas and spices; deep fried calamari peri peri served with a spicy tomato sauce; as well as a spicy Achari fish tikka with chunks of red snapper and five kinds of pickling spices, prepared in a clay oven and served with pickled aubergine. I went straight for the eral sukka, a fab dish of jumbo prawns marinated in a ginger, garlic and garam masala and hung yoghurt and then cooked in a tandoor oven. Full of flavour, these crustaceans were absolutely sumptuous. Friend Rena opted for a dry beef stir fry with crushed black peppercorns and curry leaves served on a baby naan, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

For the mains there was an extensive menu of meat, seafood and vegetarian options. The stalwarts of chicken korma, biryani and tikka masala were there, as was a jumbo prawn masala and a lamb bhuna, but there were so many other toothsome sounding dishes that we found it tough to make up our minds. I considered the lamb gosht ka salan, cooked in yoghurt with mustard, onion seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin and black cumin; as well as the chemeen manga kolambi dish of jumbo prawns cooked in a mango sauce and tempered with curry leaves and mustard seeds; and I almost went for the chicken dhansak, cooked on a slow fire with yellow lentils, red onions, tomatoes and fresh coriander; but, in the end, I chose the lamb Chettinad, a fantastic hot-hot festive dish of the Chettiyar Clan in Tamil Nadu, prepared with black peppercorns, chilies, coconut and fennel in a rich brown delicately spiced sauce. It was a fiery delight. My dining companion went instead for a still spicy, but less than red hot, Mangalorean fish masala cooked in a sour and spicy tamarind and coconut sauce with chunks of the East Indian Tilapia fish, and thought it was stupendous.

In the mood to spoil ourselves, we took a gander at the puds, which included an Eton mess; carmelised pineapple with a chocolate coconut sauce; not to mention selections of sorbets and ice creams. Rena happily tucked into a decadent, warm and sticky chocolate fudge brownie in chocolate sauce which was accompanied by a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, whilst I ordered the Kulfi, which I always love. A traditional Indian ice cream dessert, homemade, with pistachio nuts, cashew nuts and saffron, it is really tasty.

We couldn’t have been happier with our visit to Vermillion. I was never so happy to be seeing red!

They also do a live jazz night on the second Friday of every month at 7.30pm, check it out.

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