Dakshin's offer a selection of some of India's best-Ioved dishes under their Dakshin's Jewel of India and Nalini's brands.

Indian cuisine offers a 'riot of sensory stimulation' with its vast variety of spices - whole, ground, roasted and stewed. Indian food presents a range of flavours, intense and subtle, as vast as the country itself.

The cuisine has evolved from an assortment of influences: the diversity of Indian culture, religions, beliefs, geography, climatic conditions, and traditions, to name a few. The influences manifest themselves in the often-subtle differences in taste, texture, colour, appearance, ingredients, and the cooking methods.



Essentially spicy, the cuisine is, however, not always hot. It is the different combination of a handful of spices that produce the most delectable dishes.

In India, preparation of food is an art, perfected over time and passed through generation by just word of mouth.
Consider the expertise required for the preparation of our meals. Blending the spices and marinades to achieve traditional flavours requires familiarity, skill and experience.

Dakshin's meals epitomise these elements. The dishes are created by delicately blending in the spices (not your average 'curry powder') in meticulous proportions. Each dish has its own distinctive flavour and aroma, which cannot come from any curry powder, but from the spices, which have to be separately prepared for each individual dish.

The blending and preparation of spices is a centuries-old craft and indispensable to Indian cuisine.

It is normal to find whole spices and pieces in authentic Indian dishes. We leave them in the meal as they enhance the flavours during the re-heating process. While reheating, the flavours are blended in thoroughly, and then the pieces may be discarded before serving, or left aside on the dinner plate.

For customers not familiar with Indian spices, they can be a worrying find. In fact, some have complained about finding "cockroaches" in our meals, which turned out to be whole cardamom! The large cardamom in particular (see picture above), can be rather deceptive! We have also received complaints about finding “bark” in meals. These too have turned out to be cinnamon sticks (see picture).

To find out more about the spices used in our cuisine, visit Indian Spices - A Catalogue.



Dakshin's Plain and Garlic Naan breads are cooked in Tandoor ovens. The beehive-shaped Tandoor is kept at a high temperature to heat the walls of the oven. Radiated heat and the smouldering coals do the cooking. This process seals in the taste, and the coal lends that special smoky flavour.



We only use genuine chicken tikkas in our Butter Chicken meals, a fact that is guaranteed by the staining of the chicken pieces (due to the marinade), and the appearance of scorched portions on the pieces, just as you would expect from a barbecued product.

Preparations such as Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Tikkas are marinated for up to 24 hours in yoghurt together with a special blend of herbs and spices to suit.

Although each of our recipes differ, the process we use for making Butter Chicken is an example of the time that is required for traditional Indian cooking:

1. Slow (overnight) marinating in yoghurt, together with a special blend of herbs and spices, infuses the diced chicken pieces with subtle but mouth filling flavours.

2. The chicken is then barbecued in an oven where the flavour is sealed in.

3. Finally the chicken is simmered in creamy tomato-flavoured curry sauce, which has been prepared separately.

Our ancestors perfected the Indian cuisine over many centuries. Allow us to share some of the culinary wonders of India.

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