Walking into an Indo-Chinese restaurant for the first time and staring at a menu that has forty items on it, all of which are unfamiliar, can be genuinely overwhelming. Here's the ordered guide: start here, then try these, then graduate to these when you're ready for more.
Start here: the three essential dishes
If you've never eaten Indo-Chinese food before, order exactly these three things on your first visit. Together they give you the full picture of what the cuisine does.
1. Chicken Manchurian (Dry)
The dish that defines Indo-Chinese cooking. Order the dry version as a starter — it's the most concentrated expression of the sweet-spicy-savory sauce that runs through everything in this cuisine. If you like this, you'll like Indo-Chinese food.
2. Hakka Noodles
The essential starch. Lighter than the Manchurian, slightly spiced, packed with vegetables. Order it alongside the Manchurian and eat them together — this is how Indo-Chinese food is meant to be eaten, not as individual dishes but as a combination.
3. Hot and Sour Soup
The best introduction to the soup side of the cuisine. Deeply savory, tangy from vinegar, with a satisfying heat and a thick, comforting texture. Start a meal with a small bowl and it sets the tone perfectly.
Next: once you know you like it
Chilli Chicken: arguably even more popular than Manchurian in parts of India. Boneless chicken pieces tossed with whole dried red chillies, fresh green chillies, capsicum, onion, soy sauce, and vinegar in a wok over extreme heat. Less saucy than Manchurian, more about the individual flavors hitting at once. Order dry for a starter, semi-dry as part of a main course.
Schezwan Fried Rice: fried rice coated in Schezwan sauce — fiery, garlicky, deeply savory. This is the dish to order if you eat spicy food regularly and want the rice to carry as much flavor as the protein dishes. A step up in intensity from plain Hakka Noodles.
Manchow Soup: the most distinctly Indo-Chinese of all the soups, topped with crispy fried noodles that add texture as you eat. Darker, more intensely flavored than Hot and Sour, with a satisfying richness. This is the soup serious fans often choose over Hot and Sour once they've gotten comfortable with the cuisine.
Chilli Paneer: the vegetarian equivalent of Chilli Chicken, and equally good. Cubes of Indian cottage cheese (paneer) tossed with chillies and capsicum in the same style. If you eat vegetarian, this is the dish that converts people — paneer handles the high-heat wok cooking better than most Western cheeses, and the texture contrast with the sauce is excellent.
For when you're ready for more heat
Schezwan Noodles: Hakka Noodles coated in Schezwan sauce. Considerably hotter than the plain version. Order this when you've established your heat tolerance with the dishes above and want to push it.
Dragon Chicken: a newer addition to the Indo-Chinese canon, not found on every menu but increasingly common. Fried chicken strips with cashews in a fiery red sauce — spicier and more complex than Manchurian, with a sweet-hot balance that's different again from Chilli Chicken.
Crispy Corn: corn kernels fried until crunchy, tossed with butter, chilli, and spices. A side dish or starter that sounds simple and tastes extraordinary. Order it if it's on the menu — it's one of those dishes that surprises people who aren't expecting much from corn.
How to order for a table: Indo-Chinese food is best shared. For two people, one soup, one starter (Manchurian or Chilli Chicken), one noodle dish, and one fried rice is about right. For four, add a second starter and another main. The food is designed to be mixed and matched on the plate rather than eaten as separate individual courses.
What to skip on your first visit
Not bad dishes — just dishes that are better appreciated once you have context. Spring rolls are fine but generic; they don't tell you much about what makes Indo-Chinese food distinctive. Chicken fried rice is a safe order but a boring one for a cuisine this interesting. Save the experimentation for once you know the classics.