Jewel of India Restaurant, Vancouver

We are frequent indian cusine patrons and as such know a good lamb korma. We recently moved to Gastown and were excited to explore its many indian establishments and pick our favorite. Prior visit was to the Sitar which boasts a great friendly atmosphere, good food and friendly patrons. Sadly, none of this was the case with the "Jewel". Oh, the irony of the name...maybe it's fake? As per our usual, we went hungry and anxiously awaited the great aroma of spices to hit us as we passed through the gates, instead we were met with the smell of old carpet and a stong scent of mothballs. The Citar player was just finishing up his set as we sat down only to turn on a Celine Dion radio station in the upstairs section of the restaurant and 80's mix FM pumping out for the "party" downstairs. The first course was vegetable Pakoras, which were nearly frozen in the middle. The second course consisted of bland tomato based butter chicken and over-sugared lamb korma. Before the main arrived however, we wanted to get out of there, mainly due to the blaring 2 radio staions and mostly due to the increasingly irritated drunken party goers from downstairs not having their beer demands met as they congrigated around the moth ball couldren aka the kitchen. We left, with our tip in our pocket and a hurried doggie bag, looking for some homless rag to pawn the food off to, hopefully the same one who robbed us that morning. Welcome to Gastown. Don't eat at the Jewel. Keep your wallets close and enjoy the Citar restaurant instead. Parker.