Fantastic Indian Food in Belize City and One Swami: Sumathi Restaurant

When I travel through Belize City, I generally eat the same old thing for lunch.  Chon Saan Palace.  A big comfortable Asian restaurant in town with powerful air conditioning, good internet, reliable & tasty food and a menu/tome that has over 20 pages…from Japanese to curries to Belizean.   You can’t go wrong.  And it seems to suit my Belizean friends nicely.

Here is my friend, the jolly Buddha at Chon Saan.

Belizeans, I find (yes, I generalize and therefore apologize), do not have the most adventurous palates.  And Chon Saan does good Belizean-Chinese…fried chicken and fries with lots of sweet ketchup.

Alone or with those with more daring tastes, I have branched out a bit…Chap’s for Mexican (delicious), Riverside Tavern for burgers (very good), Celebrity (not so good) or some local spots.

Yesterday, with a few hours on my hands before my viewing slot for the FIFA World Cup, I tried Sumanthi Indian Restaurant.  And?  I loved it.  It’s the real deal.

Here is the logo outside.

And the front door.  They are located a few roads back from the Princess Hotel.  Your taxi driver will know where it is…

I walked in and met Stella, the owner.  She opened the restaurant 18 years ago in Belize City.  Perhaps she was appealing to the Brits…when I lived in London, one of the first things that I noticed is that there is an Indian restaurant on almost every corner.  And the food is eaten by many at least once a week.

And the menu at Sumathi.  Yes please.

 

They have everything I want…curries, kormas, biryani, rogan josh, tasty appetizers, masalas in lamb, mutton, chicken and a few seafood offerings.

The food is not what I’d call cheap.  Standard local lunch in Belize City is $8bzd to $10bzd for a huge plate.  This food ranged from $25 to 35 bzd for a main dish and $15 to 25bzd for appetizers.

But oh was it worth it.  I ordered the Chicken Korma when she explained that this creamy coconutty, cashew, spicy dish was not too sweet.  Just how I like it.

For $30bzd, this huge dish of korma with rice and naan and a delicious crispy carrot condiment could have easily fed two.  I would have packaged up my left overs but do you really want to walk into a conference room full of people smelling like curry?

I think not.

As I feasted, a man robed in yellow handed me a card.  He was too shy to be photographed.  Or perhaps too mystical…maybe he doesn’t show up in pictures!

Wow!  This guy is powerful!  Solutions for mistakes?  I decided to leave my future unexplored  But I guess a nice option with lunch?

Mmmmm…so good.  This is my new go-to spot in Belize City.

And GET THIS.  BREAKING NEWS!   They can easily put 2 or 3 dishes on a Tropic Air flight for you in San Pedro.  They say that they do it all the time!

I left happily picking that classic Indian restaurant post-curry fennel seed/sugar/whatever-it-is breath freshener out of my teeth.