Do people still post stuff about new restaurants on this forum or is it under Busan Food or whatever the title of that other one is called? Anyway, if this is the wrong forum, then one of the mods can move this thread over there.


Anyway, I just want to big up the new Indian restaurant in PNU. It's called Punjab. It's right next to Welcome Pho (PNU's only(?) Vietnamese restaurant). It's above 미스롤 (Miss Roll), which is one of those roll-style sushi (cho-bap) places. If you're at the Burger King intersection and walk over to Starbucks, keep walking, go past Starbucks. Take it down a dozen meters or so past the Adidas Store to the next intersection. Cross the street at the next intersection (if you were walking away from Starbucks so that it was on your left, you should cross the street on your right at the intrsctn.). That's it right there. It's on the second and third floors. "PUNJAB" is written in pretty big letters and there's pictures of the dishes on the outside. The food is pretty good. I had a lamb curry and a nan and vegetable samosas. It was a wee bit pricier than I would've liked (I heard there's a cheap Indian rest. in Nampo-dong(??)), but there was a lot of food and def left satsified. Decent wine and beer on hand as well.

How much is 'a bit pricey' and is it worth going all the way to PNU and not going to Kebabistan (which by your directions must be about 2 doors down)?

Good review (mmm, lamb curry, samosas, and naan). But yes, how pricey is "pricey"?

I've walked past this place more than once. Punjab has a big name-sign, and is impossible to miss. It's just around the corner from Kebabistan, I believe. Kebabistan faces north; Punjab faces east (and the Vietnamese place on the 2nd floor corner in between the two is pretty good, too.) I'm really looking forward to trying it (provided of course it's not unreasonably "pricey").

I've been to Kebapistan about a thousand times so breaking out the wallet for a little something different is not a problem.

Also, I live in PNU, so . . .

Anyway, like 15,000 for a main dish and it was about 6,000 for the appetizers. I won't be a regular there or anything. I mean, it won't displace Kebapistan, but, you know. . . If anything take a date there and impress her by spending more than 4,000 on kebap. Knowwhatimsayin.

Don't you know girls are attracted to value?

Take girls to Kebabistan and go "man, can you believe how cheap this is? the Turkish restaurant in Haeundae charges..."

Major Rip Off, Major Disappointment!

Prices- some things are the same price as Ganga, some are more expensive. This place is NOT a good deal.

Portions- ridiculously small for the price.

Taste- okay, not great.

I was happy to hear of a new Indian place in the neighborhood. Indian Village was here, but it was really not good- very disappointed.
Anyway, the decor is very nice, but I was surprised at the prices. They will not survive in PNU with that pricey menu- uni kids have no money.
The chicken tikka masala was W25,000- it's W16,000 at Ganga. I took a chance because I love the dish. My companion ordered the fish
curry and was informed later that they had no fish. She went with the prawn curry.
They brought out the dishes that were so small I wanted to get up and walk out. It was shocking how small the portions were for the price!
What was most insulting was that the prawn curry was not prawns. It was those tiny shrimp that go for W2,000 a frozen pack at Emart.
It was ridiculous to try to pass these off as "prawn" and they were charging W18,000 for this dish. We complained about the size and were
informed that we would not be charged for that dish.
The taste was just okay. It wasn't bad, but for the price, it should have been much better.

To reiterate, I was VERY DISAPPOINTED with this place- insulted by the price to portion/taste ratio. If this had just been one of those W5-7,000
a dish type places, I wouldn't have been disappointed. This place is expensive and not worth it.
I'm sure they didn't charge us for the prawn rip off because they are a new place and worried about bad reviews.
Well, I have to tell the truth about this place. Don't go there. Go to Ganga!

Benny, you're a saint. You give far from short shrift to every one of these new fangled Indian places in PNU. I tried that one joint "Devdas" about 5 years ago, and learned my lesson then.

Even still, I only visit Ganga about twice a year, and they're nothing if not consistent.

I try to give every new place a chance.
There have been 2 previous attempts at Indian in PNU.
-Devda's was cheap and just okay.
-Indian Village was rather cheap, but not very good. The place was kind of dirty, too, like they
didn't really care.

I wouldn't come down so hard on this place if they weren't so expensive.
Ganga prices and sometimes much more than Ganga prices just ain't gonna cut it if the quality is mediocre
and the portions are so tiny. I guess they are really trying to make the rent payments on a 2 level place.
They won't be around for long if they stay this way!

Many complain that Ganga is just too expensive, but it has been consistently the best quality.
You get what you pay for there.
Most of the cheaper places have been of much lower quality to varying degrees.
I kind of liked the Shabana place in Kyungsungdae*, but I heard it's gone now.
I've been told there's a new Indian place there- any good?

*This was over 2 years ago that I went to Shabana. Maybe they have changed in that time.
I've read some negative comments in the other thread.

How come I never ever met such a rich guy...

Nah 김밥천국 and 김밥나라 are comparable in price.

Once I took a girl on a date to the food court in Homeplus, she loved it. I think she even paid because I had no money.

Shame on you...... You should buy the head-damaged girl an expensive meal....Bali Hae

Um... back to Indian Food in PNU:

I saw this posted in the Classifieds:

"New Indian Restaurant near PNU
Fri, 08/15/2008 - 06:09
New taste of Indian food. We are very pleased to invite all of you to Wazwan (old Indian Village) restaurant near Pusan National University after remodeling. We are going to open tomorrow Saturday 16Th August at 11:00AM. There should be some free food for all of you. We are also happy to inform you that our cook has 15 years of experience in more then 10 countries. So we believe that we are able to make the taste your looking for. Our price are really reasonable in whole Korea and specially in Pusan City. There is some special discount or service for Students. We are located near Pusan Bank near main gate Pusan National University. Hope to see you soon in Wazan Indian Restaurant. Phone:051-517-1947 cell: 010-9293-2944"

Is this a different place from PUNJAB then?
Sounds promising, but that doesn't mean much around here...

ive eaten at punjab twice now and both times i was surprised at the portion sizes. i got different kinds af paneer, the first time it was saag paneer and it was awesome, but the second time i got a veggie paneer and it tasted like steamed spinach. what sucks about this place is that you dont get any free stuff, like kimchi or radish, or the indian equivalents. you pay 10,000 won for two cups of spiced spinach, and then you have to pay even more for naan or rice. plus more if you want a drink. plus the bathroom was gross and creepy. it would be kind of hard not to spend 15,000 on a decent dinner at this place, which is about three times too much in my book, even if is indian food.

if what you're really after is just something besides asian food you can try ganeshi nearby. you can get a wrap and a lassi for under 5,000 won. go towards pnu from kebapistan and take a right at the dead end, and its on your right after a few restaurants. its a tiny place with no real eating space, just a kind of bench, but for the money its pretty good.

Ate here On Friday night.

While being put off by Benicio's review I don't think Chicken Tikka Massala is a good Indian dish regardless of how its cooked (only IMO of course) so decided to give it a try.

My friend had onion bhajis to start which were one of the best I have ever tried and got my hopes up. I had papaddums which were poor but the dips they came with were good.

For mains my friend had the mutton Karahi. It was damn spicy (even by my spice loving standards) but the meat was good although there wasn't enough sauce. He gave it 7.5 out of ten, a 10 being the same dish they serve at Moghul in Itaewon (one of the best Indian dishes I have ever eaten, but 30,000 at Moghul compared to 20,000 here). I ordered the regular Indian Curry which was a major dissapointment. It tasted like creamy chicken curry in a can - even the lamb tasted like chicken. The Korean rice was bad but I don't want to pay 4,000 for Basmati. At Ganga it's 6000 for their Indian rice!!

My friend also ordered a Raita which would have been great to cool the spicy Karahi but it didn't turn up until we were almost done. For some reason there was no nan available too.

I wanted to like this place because the owners looked very nice and genuine and it's near my house but sadly I can't recommend it over Ganga.

On the subject of price Indian is almost prohibitively expensive in Korea. If you like to eat it at least a couple of times a year, as I do, i would only suggest Ganga in Busan and Moghul (Mutton karahi for two at 55,000 won!) in Itaewon. My seoulite friend did however show me a place that did killer samosas for 5 bucks in Itaewon.

I went again last night. Something I hadn't noticed before, there is a 10% VAT added which is unheard of in Korea.

Actually that's fairly common atmost international style restaurants here.

For what its worth, I would recommend Punjab over Ganga, especially if you're already in PNU. It is almost as expensive, but the dishes are much better. I have never had a bad meal, or bad service at Punjab. The last time I had Ganga, the chicken was stingy, and dark meat (not okay for the price, in my opinion). Its got a really great reputation, but I think its overpriced. Punjab could do with some redecoration, and a toned down lighting scheme, but mmmm i love their food.

I found Ganga in Haeundae FAR superior to Punjab. Leagues and leagues ahead. The flavours, quality, portion sizes, beers, service and over all ambiance just made the experience so so much more delicious. I went to Punjab in PNU around one month ago and it was pretty terrible.....the food was so almost cold, so bad that we had to ask for our dishes to be heated, the waitresses seemed angry, or even a little patronizing.....anyway SOMETHING was going on with them, and, while they cleaned up a table opposite ours, they ate off the customers left over food.

It was bad. Ganga was superb.

Oh, and it was clear that the veges they had used in our dishes were of the frozen kind. Not even slightly fresh.

I've never had a superb meal at Ganga. It does have a nice atmosphere, and the food is never terrible, but its not great. Especially for the price. I am surprised at all the complaints about Punjab, because I have to admit that I eat there as often as once a week, and have never had any kind of problem. All of the staff are super friendly, and the portions are a great size, and delicious. The Hara Masala is my favourite, but Chicken Jalfrezy is always great, too. Their samosas could be better. And the basmati rice is way too expensive. But overall, its the best Indian I've had in Korea. (Just had to stick up for them here, cause they're really great people, and I love that place!)

Sorry, Heather--I can't concur--if I've ever been disappointed at Ganga, it's because I ordered something that I didn't care for, not because it wasn't tasty. They're easily the best I've had in Korea or otherwise, and I've had some great Indian dishes abroad.

They've got some stock dishes there that never miss. I'm curious whether or not they've raised their prices since the drop of the won, however. I've yet to try Punjab, and with the decent standards set at Wazwan, I don't think I'll bother.

I went to Ganga last week. Food was excellent but the waitress was completely oblivious to our requests for one dish to be mild and one dish to be extra spicy. Prices were still the same as far as I can tell but the servings of Nan seemed to be smaller (or perhaps we were just hungrier).