Chilli Padi

Chilli Padi is also known as Chilli Express and Chilli India and damn difficult to find from a web listing!
Wish someone told me this — it’s right near the corner of Little Lonsdale and Elizabeth St up a diagonal set of stairs. If you go looking for it in Melbourne Central (as web listings suggested and I did) even the Centre Information desk won’t know what you’re talking about
OK now. There aren’t many Indian restaurants in Melb CBD doing hot meat curries — and if you’ve got that hankering. I satisfied it here one Saturday at about $ 23 for just enough vindaloo naan and rice for one. I consider this expensive since is a rather cramped café with cursory service. Granted they’re busy but no need to start clearing before Im finished!
They have a set lunch menu available during the week which is cheaper. There was lots of Indian patrons (who mostly seemed to be having Dosa) — always a good sign. Indian family next to me gave me recommendations for my next visit (and a taste of their food!)

Not the longest menu in the world but what they do is pretty yum delish. My favourite place to go for Nasi Lemak.

A good variety of dishes, all of which seem to come in substantial helpings.
My group visited on a Wednesday night and we had the upper level entirely to ourselves for a while, but apparently weekends are a different story.

I love this place. I’m there at least once a week when I’m working in the CBD.
Quality of food is really high, yet the speed of service is well tailored to the work crowd. Full seat down service too. Does a good Teh Tarik (milk tea drink), which is rare outside of Asia.
Brought lots of friends and work colleagues here and they all want to keep coming back themselves.
As a tip, if you work in the Melbourne Central Tower and have a VIP card, the 25% discount makes this a super cheap meal as well.

Pretty decent south indian cusine. Badly needed to have a dosa and headed to this place based on my friends suggestion. I had chiili bajji and masala dosa, quite good. Activated my taste buds since 2 weeks from my home. I felt this to a little bit expensive.
I loved the free wifi from the melboune town center which made me more excited to check in :)

Came here for a work lunch and got the set meal for one, with a side of eggplant chips.
Thought the first course was a little bland. The deep fried stuff were probably frozen. The eggplant chips lacked flavor and I personally disliked the taste.
The main course made up for it all. A very satisfying Beef Rendang helped me forget about the first two things I ordered. I will come back for the Rendang alone.

Great Indian Food :) good lunch menu and the best Chicken Biryani in Melbourne

As others have mentioned, this place is pretty cramped, but well worth it for the food.
They have a good variety of Asian dishes, such as Malaysian, Thai, Chinese. The food has lots of flavour and spice, and everything I tried is pretty good. One thing I keep going back to is the rengdang.

I’ve semi-​regularly come here for a few years when I’m in town, and it’s been a bit variable.
The good: The food, the atmosphere, the décor.
The bad: Service can be a bit hit and miss.
This place serves one of the better beef rendangs in Melbourne. It’s normally pretty tender, and the mix of spices and dessicated coconut is pretty good, but occasionally it isn’t that great. Some of the chicken curries that I’ve had here have been good too.
As I said, the service is up and down. Sometimes, it’s nearly faultless, and other times you’ll feel a little bit neglected.
The location makes it a good choice for stopping at if you’ve caught the train into town for the night, which is why I tend to go there these days.

Chilli Padi is ok. I probably expected more because I love its location, the look of it from the outside and most importantly — ASIAN FOOD!
Perhaps we caught them on a bad day, it did seem to be a particularly busy lunch time. Firstly, the greeting person seemed to not know if there was enough room for us, so while my friend and I awkwardly waited at the door another, stormy looking staff member approached and beckoned to us, hurrying us over to him. At least he had us seated.
We both had limited time available; my friend had to get back to work, I had a marketing deadline and a five year old to pick up from kinder. We kindly explained that we didn’t have long to the waiter who took our order. Due to our rush, we ordered just two dishes; no banquet, entrée and main, just a grilled teriyaki and hokkien char needles.
After 25 minutes I couldn’t handle myself fidgeting and the panic that was starting to take over. I asked how long it would be and the response was, «not long».
First, it pisses me off when I have to spend what’s supposed to be an enjoyable lunch date panicking if our food is going to come, and secondly not being given a friggin straight answer when I ask how long.
Luckily the food came about one minute later. My friend and I shared dishes and neither of us could complain. Both meals were delicious, and we chowed them down whole heartedly.
Nevertheless, the dismissive staff and worry we endured wouldn’t be worth another visit during a lunch hour. The food was great though, so perhaps a leisurely dinner date might be best next time.

The convenient location in Melbourne Central was the first thing that attracted us to this restaurant. The first time that we went here it was just for a light meal before a show but the food was so good that we agreed that we must return. We weren’t disappointed. Although there is a mix of Chinese, Malay, Thai, Indian and other Asian dishes on the menu. This is no run of the mill Asian restaurant.
The food is beautifully plated and it looks as good as it tastes. We had the Indonesian Beef Rendang which. The sambal calamari (so tender and delicious) and teriyaki that chicken, served with our favourite wakame salad. And the portion of steamed rice was an adequate size to accompany the main course.
I wish that it wasn’t such a small restaurant with such small tables that there was hardly any room for the three entrees that we ordered. The décor was that of a café but the food was several steps above that. The tables are so packed together that I felt we were practically having dinner with the couple at the next table. The service is good despite the cramped conditions.