I was back out in San Diego earlier this year for a trade show and I went out with a colleague to have dinner one evening. I had mentioned seeing an Indian restaurant a few blocks north of our Gaslamp Quarter hotel when I was out for a walk earlier in the day and my colleague said that he would be up for some Indian food that evening. He was actually one of the first people to introduce me to Indian food a number of years ago, so I knew he'd want to go with me if I suggested Indian food that evening. We made about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to the front door of Urban India.
Surinder Singh moved to San Diego at the age of 12. He got his start working in restaurants as a teenager bussing tables and running food. When he was in high school, his parents bought a small neighborhood Indian restaurant by the name of The Indian Tandoor. Surinder started working for his parents part time moving into a full time position when he graduated from high school. He learned to make many of the traditional Indian foods served at The Indian Tandoor.
The Indian Tandoor was a success and the Singh family opened other locations around the greater San Diego area. But Surinder was looking to do something on his own - sort of a combination modern Indian restaurant and sports bar. Partnering with a friend, Surinder Singh looked to open his spot in downtown San Diego and they found a spot on 4th Street that used to house Joey's Smokin' BBQ. Urban India opened in April of 2012.
We walked up to Urban India around 7:30 on a nice, but somewhat humid evening in San Diego. (see map) Folding front windows were open to the street. It was a long and somewhat open space with brick pillars in the middle of the room. With the exception of a family of eight having dinner at a long table and two couples seated up front by the open windows, we pretty much had the pick of where we wanted to sit that evening.
The bar had a couple of flat panel televisions on the back wall showing the replay of an exhibition football game that was played earlier in the week. It was a full bar with a large selection of liquor, wine and beer. There were other flat screen televisions mounted throughout the place. I thought it was kind of unique to have a sports bar disguised as an Indian restaurant - and vice-versa.
We found a seat at a table opposite the bar and we were greeted by - who I figured out later on - was Surinder Singh, the owner/chef at Urban India. He gave us a couple of menus and we ordered up a couple of tall Kingfisher beers to start out with.
My colleague is still much more worldly and adventurous when it comes to Indian food. He just started to order a couple appetizers - things I was not familiar with. The first one was completely confusing to me. I thought he had ordered papadum - the Indian-style chips made from lentil and chickpea that come with mint or tamarind chutney. But this was something completely different from what I thought my colleague ordered. It had the papadum chips in it, but it had some sort of a vegetable sauce on it along with fresh cilantro. We shared half of the plate each and I'd have to say it was pretty good.
The second appetizer was much easier - onion bhaji, or basically Indian onion rings. The batter was light and flaky, and had a wonderful taste quality. The onions were sweet and fresh. I liked the onion bhaji immensely.
There were so many things on the menu that jumped out at me for my main entree that evening that I was having some difficulty as to what to have. My colleague had turned me onto Butter Chicken when I was at his favorite Indian restaurant in Montreal with him about three years ago. (He said that it was supposed to be mild, but it ended up being pretty spicy. I didn't mind the spiciness, but it did sort of detract from the overall taste of the butter chicken.) I thought about getting the butter chicken with a bit of spiciness at Urban India, but I saw that they had Lamb Tikka Masala on the menu, too. And they had Chicken Curry, as well as a spicy lamb vindaloo. So, you can see that my mind was in a tussle with my stomach as what to order.
I ended up getting the Rogan Josh, tender lamb chunks in a garlic, ginger and multiple spice gravy. Surinder asked me how I wanted it, spice-wise. I ordered it medium - and I'm glad I did. The sauce was had a distinct spicy bite to it, but it wasn't overpowering.
We got some garlic naan to go along with our meal and it had a great and forward garlic taste to it. I haven't been eating much rice lately and I used the garlic naan to dip into the sauce and to put some of the tender and flavorful lamb chunks onto the bread. I had been suffering from allergies while I was in San Diego and this turned out to be exactly what I needed in terms of a good comfort-style meal.
My colleague went with the lamb kabobs. Once again, I was sort of confused with the presentation as I was expecting chunks of grilled lamb with veggies on a skewer. But it was brought out on a sizzling iron platter similar to how you would get fajitas in a Mexican restaurant. The lamb chunks were seasoned with a chili sauce before grilling and served with onions, peppers and fresh cilantro. While it was something that I would have never thought about ordering, he thought it was outstanding.
My colleague and I were both very happy with our choices at Urban India. We had passed a couple three other Indian restaurants on our walk between the hotel and Urban India, but I'm not certain if they could have been any better than what we had that evening. My colleague and I talked up Urban India so much so the next day that another colleague took a couple guests there for dinner that evening. Urban India was a pretty unique place - an Indian sports bar. While it wouldn't be the first place I would think of to watch sports, it would certainly be uncommon for me to be eating Indian food while watching a football game. But the Rogan Josh with the garlic naan, as well as the onion bhaji with a cold Kingfisher beer would be a great meal while watching sports.
Comments