Road Tips

Bombay Cuisine/East West Brewing Co. - Grand Rapids, MI

While we were on vacation in Grand Rapids earlier this year, my wife and I visited a number of breweries in the area.  One evening, my wife was in the mood for Indian food, but I was still sort of in the brewpub mode thinking of a good place to get a meal with a good locally-brewed beer.  To the wishes of my wife, I looked up all the Indian restaurants in the area on my computer.  One immediately popped out at me - it was a combination Indian restaurant/brewery.  I said, "I think I found one that we'll both like!"  Later that evening, we headed over to Bombay Cuisine - East West Brewing Company for food and beer.  

Now, I like brewpubs and I like Indian food and there is only one other place that I have ever encountered that had that combination and that was Jaipur Brew House in Omaha.  (Click here to read the Road Tips entry on Jaipur Brew House.)  And the food and beer were both very good at Jaipur.  So, I had high hopes that Bombay Cuisine/East West Brewing would be a winning combination.  

About 22 years ago, Balwinder Bal opened the doors to his Indian restaurant, Bombay Cuisine.  He was soon joined in the business by his daughter, Monica.  The elder Bal became enamored with the burgeoning craft brewing industry in Grand Rapids and about 15 years ago he began to brew his own beers at home.  He figured that being a chef was similar to being a brewmaster - it was mixing ingredients to make things taste good.  

Pictured at right - Balwinder Bal.  Photo courtesy Grand Rapids Now.

Bombay Cuisine had a space next door where Balwinder Bal put in an English-style ale house/sports bar - Queen's Pub - in 2009.  That concept lasted for about 3 years until Bal brought in a young chef by the name of Jayson Leek to come up with a Southern-inspired restaurant by the name of Radix Tavern.  However, less than a year after Radix opened, Leek decided to head on and Bal sought another person to come in to run a restaurant in the space.  

Longtime local chef Dan Chudik stepped in to open Trattoria di Stagione in June of 2013.  Chudik was well known for his own Italian restaurant Tuscan located on the southeast side of Grand Rapids that closed a few years before he teamed with Bal to open the new Italian cafe.  Things went well for three years before Chudik parted company and took over a nostalgic 50's-style Fodero diner back on Grand Rapids' southeast side.  (COVID-19 and 2020 wasn't kind to Chudik and he was forced to close his diner.  However, it's been reported that he is moving the diner - all 20 tons of it - to Muskegon about 45 miles northwest of Grand Rapids.)   

Faced with another space that he had to figure out what to do with, Balwinder Bal decided to take his love for homebrewing to the next level and he announced that he was going to put in a brewpub.  Bal had an affinity for pale ales, but he also used spices that he cooked his Indian specialties for some of his homemade brews.  And he felt that bit of differentiation would make his new brewery unique in the face of an ever increasing market for craft breweries in Grand Rapids.  

First of all, Bal had Bombay Cuisine switch places with the space the other restaurants had been in and turned the old Indian restaurant into the brewpub.  Bal next hired a consultant to help him get his brewery up and running, procuring his stainless steel brewing tanks from a local Michigan company.  

Through a mutual friend, Bal was introduced to Teo Watson-Ahlbrandt, a brewery consultant based out of Ann Arbor.  Watson-Ahlbrandt - who consulted with a handful of start-up breweries before opening his own nano-cannery Edelbrau Brewing Company in 2019 - was intrigued with Bal's approach to combining culinary spices with craft beer brewing.   The two collaborated on some of the brews that Bal would later incorporate into his line-up of beers when he was getting close to opening his brewpub.  With beers in place and a bar manager hired, East West Brewing Company opened in December of 2016.  

Bombay Cuisine and East West Brewing Company are located in the Eastown neighborhood near the corner of Lake Drive SE and Robinson Road SE.  (see map)  We drove around the block and found parking on Richard Terrace SE and took a short walk to the restaurant/brewery.  

The combo Indian restaurant/microbrewery is a small and cozy place.  Bamboo light shades hung from the ceiling in the dining area that also had exposed duct work.  My wife especially liked the plant wall near our table as it gave the restaurant a bit of vibrancy, not that it needed it.  

We were seated at a table in the dining room near the bar.  The young lady who seated us was also our server that evening.  She gave us both a food menu and a beer menu to look through.  We both tried a sample of their Calipur IPA and we decided we liked it.  We ordered a couple of pints for us to enjoy while we looked through the menu.  

When East West Brewing Company first opened, there was a separate menu for the brewpub versus the Indian restaurant.  However, it all changed over to Bombay Cuisine's full Indian menu not long after East West opened.  Most of the items on the menu were typical of what you'd find in most Indian restaurants - lamb, chicken, and seafood dishes as well as a slew of vegetarian selections.  Bombay Cuisine also had tandoori items on the menu, as well as biryani dishes.  

Probably one of the more interesting items found on their menu was their melding of Indian and Quebecois dishes - Indian pub poutine.  They had four dishes that featured fresh cut fries topped with a choice of chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, a mushroom mutter sauce, and a chana pindi poutine with garbanzo beans mixed in a spicy tamarind sauce.  All of the Indian poutine dishes are topped with melted cheese.  The Indian pub poutine selections made me pause for a moment as I really thought about getting one just to see what it was like.  

We started out by ordering some Samosa, but we were informed moments later that they were out of them.  My wife decided to get the vegetable pakoras for an appetizer instead, but we never did get them.  I don't know if she forgot to place the order for them or what the deal was.  They weren't listed on our final bill.  

My wife selected the murg methi, a combination of two of her favorite sauces - butter chicken and tikka masala.  The murg methi intrigued me enough that we ended up sharing it family style.  We had also ordered up some garlic naan to go with our meal.  

The combination of the tikka masala and butter chicken was interesting.  It was a mild-plus sauce with a bit of a peppery taste on the back end.  The chicken was tender and cooked perfectly.  I complemented my wife on her choice of food.    

I was torn between the lamb rogan josh and the lamb saag in a spinach sauce.  And I have to say that I was still somewhat interested in the butter chicken poutine.  I wavered back and forth a moment before I finally pulled the trigger on the rogan josh.  

The lamb rogan josh was equally as wonderful as the murg methi.  It featured a slightly spicy curry sauce with cubes of tender lamb.  The spices and flavor were just outstanding.  And the Calipur IPA was a nice complement to the meal.  It was a lot of food, but since we didn't get either the samosa or the pakora for appetizers, I finished most of the rogan josh.  

Indian food is our comfort food and my wife felt she needed a hearty meal while I was still looking for good brewpubs to try in the greater Grand Rapids area.  It turned out Bombay Cuisine and East West Brewing Company was the perfect combination of what both of us wanted that evening.  The Indian food we both had was excellent and the house-brewed IPA they had on tap was a great complement to the Indian food.  The service was a little choppy - we had ordered an appetizer that we never received - but that was fine as the food we had more than satisfied our appetites.  I don't know if we'll make it back to Bombay Cuisine/East West Brewing Company, but if we do I really want to try the butter chicken poutine.  

Urban India - San Diego

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. 

Dhaba Indian Bistro - Middleton, WI

Traveling up to the Madison area earlier this year, I was sort of getting burnt out on burgers, Mexican food, and brewpubs that I'd been visiting a lot during the summer.  Staying on the city's west side, I found an Indian restaurant that wasn't far from the hotel.  I thought it was interesting enough to share my experience of dining at Dhaba Indian Bistro.  

The Singh family - father Sital and his son, Sumanjit (a.k.a. "Sonu") are well known in restaurant circles around Madison and beyond as they are also involved with the Taste of India restaurant in Madison, as well as restaurants in Brookfield, WI, Green Bay, WI, and Rockford, IL.  With the Madison suburb of Middleton continuing to grow, a number of restaurants have opened up in that city over the past few years.  The Singh's saw that there was no Indian restaurant in the line-up of new restaurants coming into Middleton and they decided to look for a place to put one in.  They found a space in a multi-purpose retail/restaurant building along Greenway Boulevard in Middleton that used to house an Asian fusion restaurant and opened Dhaba Indian Bistro in September of 2012.  

Actually, you have to turn on to Deming Way from Greenway Boulevard and then take a quick left into the parking lot to get to Dhaba Indian Bistro.  (see map)  The restaurant occupies the far west end of the building.  The place was relatively full when I walked in - a good sign in my book.  I was escorted to a table toward the back of the restaurant by the host that evening who turned out to be Sonu Singh.  

After ordering a Kingfisher beer, I was looking through the menu to check to see what they offered at Dhaba Indian Bistro.  It was an extensive menu with a number of lamb, chicken and seafood dishes.  They also had some biryani items on the menu, and - quite interestingly - they had beef Indian dishes.  You don't see that in a lot of Indian restaurants, but I was told that it is Muslim Indian restaurants that offer beef dishes.  

Of course, I had to order some garlic naan bread.  When the waiter brought it out to the table, I could smell the garlic before he even set it down on the table.  The leavened white bread was pliable and pulled apart easily.  But the garlic taste in the bread was simply wonderful.  I definitely wanted to keep some around to dip in the curry sauce I ordered.

Along with my dinner that evening, I got a cup of the lentil vegetable soup.  It was actually pretty good.  It sort of looked like chicken noodle soup, but tasted more like bean and bacon soup.  I wasn't really certain I needed the soup, but I was glad I got it.  

For my dinner that night, I got the lamb curry.  My server asked me how spicy I wanted it on a scale of "1 to 5" with one being the most mild.  I thought about it for a moment and told him 3.5.  Well, I have to say their idea of 3.5 on their spicy scale would have been more of a 4.5 on my scale.  The curry had a vicious bite, but - to me - it didn't seem to have a lot of flavor.  I wondered if the spiciness masked the overall flavor of the curry sauce.

The lamb turned out to be somewhat disappointing.  Many of the pieces of lamb I was served were very fatty.  More than once I pulled pieces of the meat out of my mouth as it was just too fatty.  Along with the somewhat too spicy curry sauce that didn't have a lot of flavor, the lamb curry was disappointing.  

I'm still not what I would deem an expert when it comes to Indian food.  But I know what I like and I have to say that I was disappointed in my lamb curry at Dhaba Indian Bistro.  The lamb had too much fat on it and the curry sauce was sort of bland.  The spiciness of the sauce could be the reason it was wasn't as flavorful as many other Indian restaurants I've been to.  But the garlic naan was excellent, the service was prompt and professional, and the decor was tasteful and contemporary.  I just wish my meal would have been better than what it turned out to be. 

Maharaja Indian Cuisine - Omaha, NE

I had been the road a lot and I was starting to get into that food funk where nothing sounded good to me even though I was hungry for something.  Usually, I can break that food funk with sushi or Indian food.  The weather was cold and blustery and I got into Omaha late in the day after a long drive down from up north.   I decided on Indian food and found a place about a 10 minute drive from my hotel called Maharaja Indian Cuisine.  

For a number of years, the New India Gardens was a staple for people looking for Indian food in Omaha.  They had two locations on the west side of Omaha, one on S. 125th St. and a second location on N. 114th, just north of Dodge.  In May of 2013, Kusum Bhalla bought the N. 114th St. location and turned it into Maharaja Indian Cuisine.  He kept many of the same things on the menu including the popular wraps and dosas (crepes) that New India Gardens customers liked so much, as well as the lunch buffet that is served daily between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Their dinner offerings begin each evening at 5 p.m.  

Maharaja Indian Cuisine is located on the far south side of a strip mall known as Miracle Hills Square just north of Dodge at N. 114th St.  (see map)  It's located next to the Namaste Plaza international grocery store.  There was plentiful parking out front when I got there around 6:30 that evening.  

The decor at Maharaja Indian Cuisine is pretty spartan and basic.  The chairs were made of lime green plastic seats.  A wood floor and high ceilings in the long narrow space made it rather loud in there even though the place was about half full of patrons.

One of the guys from the back came over to greet me, dropped off a menu and asked me what I would like to drink.  They had Kingfisher on tap and I said I'd take one of those.  "A large one," he asked.  Sure - I didn't know what a large one was, but it turned out to be a 25 ounce glass.

Not long after he brought out my beer, another young guy brought out some leavened bread with chutney dipping sauces.  The two different types of chutney were mild and spicy.  I like the leavened bread with the chutney sauces to start out at Indian restaurants.

For dinner that night, I considered the shrimp biryani and the lamb vindaloo before settling on the lamb curry dish - boneless lamb cubes cooked in a curry sauce and served with rice.  The lamb was tender and the curry sauce was a bit spicy, but nothing bad.  It was a hearty meal for a cold winters night.  I also got some garlic naan bed to go along with the meal.  Dipping the garlic naan in the curry sauce was a great taste combination.  

Needing to get out of a food funk that I was in, Maharaja Indian Cuisine was a "spot-hitter" for me that evening.  The lamb curry was very good as was the garlic naan.  Maharaja Indian Cuisine wasn't anything fancy, the service seemed to be fine, and the food was above average for Indian food.  For comfort food on a cold winter evening, Maharaja more than fit the bill for me.  

TAVA - Morton Grove, IL

I can't tell you how many people who have found out that Indian food is my "go-to" comfort food have told me about TAVA, an Indian restaurant on Dempster St. in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove.  I have a dealer down the road who told me that the place is just outstanding.  An audio sales rep friend of mine swears that TAVA has the best Indian food he's ever had.  Another friend of mine said that he eats there at least twice a month.  "It's that good," he told me.  With all these glowing reports on TAVA, I had to give it a try.  

Now, I had been by TAVA many times since it opened in September of 2011.  It's located in a strip mall on the NE corner of Dempster St. and Harlem Ave. in Morton Grove.  (see map)   The owner of TAVA, Mahesh Sharma, started out as an electrical engineer.  But his love for cooking made him abandon that career for a new career working in kitchens at hotels in downtown Chicago.  

Living in Morton Grove, Sharma realized that there wasn't a good Indian restaurant in the immediate area.  He wanted to give back to the community by putting in his own Indian eatery, complete with upscale drinks, housemade curry dishes, and a menu that used the freshest ingredients.  No foods are ever frozen before they're made at TAVA and real charcoal is used in the tandoor oven.  Sharma named his restaurant after a tavah (or tawah) - a large disc-shaped cast iron griddle used to cook traditional South Asian foods.  Continued use of the tavah puts a seasoned zest into the metal.  

I had just finished up a long day of calls around the Chicago area and realized that I was about a 10 minute drive from TAVA.  I scurried around some back roads to get to the restaurant just before 8 p.m.  As soon as I opened the door that wonderful Indian spice smell from the food filled the air.  The classy looking restaurant isn't large and is very dimly lit.  There's a small bar area as you come into the restaurant that featured a large number of liquor bottles.  The dining area was off to the left side from the bar and it's center piece was an elegant gas fire place along the wall.

I was taken to a small table along a wall that featured banquette seating and given a menu.  The pictures I took of the inside of the restaurant didn't turn out because it was so dark in the room.  (Above photos courtesy of Yelp.)  I had to use the flashlight app on my phone just to be able to read the menu at TAVA.   A server came over with some crisp papadum bread and some chutney.  They had a mint chutney that was surprisingly spicy.  I normally don't find mint chutney to be that spicy at many Indian restaurants, but this one definitely had a kick.  

They have an extensive menu at TAVA with a number of chicken, lamb, seafood, and vegetarian dishes - they even have goat meat on the menu - and many of the entrees are gluten free.  And if you want spicy food at TAVA, they've got a number of entrees to choose from.  They have an potato cube and grilled onion appetizer that features something they call a "tangy volcano habanero chili pepper sauce" with apple cider.  Yow!  

Now, I had no idea that they were known for their great curry dishes at TAVA, so it was a complete shot in the dark when I ordered up some of their lamb curry.  I also got some garlic naan to go along with it.  And I got a large Kingfisher beer to go along with everything.  

The lamb curry came out with a generous portion of steamed rice.  The curry had a slight spicy taste and the lamb was tender and very flavorful.  They signified on the menu that the curry was spicy, but it was far from what I would call as spicy.  The garlic naan was fantastic - really full of garlic and very forward in taste.  Dipping it into the curry sauce, it just heightened the taste of the garlic in the naan bread.  It was a lot of food and I put a significant dent into all of it.  It was that good.  

Given the amount of glowing reports on TAVA before I went there, my expectations were very high.  And I certainly wasn't disappointed.  The lamb curry was exceptional, the garlic naan was some of the best I've ever had, and the amount of food I got for the price was an excellent value.  The only quibble I would have about TAVA would be the choppy service.  But I've learned that happens at most of the good Indian restaurants.  You just have to go with the flow and hope to get their attention if you need anything.  While I'm far from an Indian food connoisseur, I know what I like and the food I had at TAVA was some of the best Indian food I've ever had.   (Picture courtesy Chicago Reader.)  

Bombay Mahal - Montreal

I had to go to Montreal for some meetings earlier this spring and when I made my plane reservations I found that if I went up a day earlier I would save our company about $500 bucks on a ticket.  Getting the OK from my boss that he would rather have me spend an extra night in a hotel in Montreal considering it was much cheaper than popping more money for a plane ticket, I flew into Montreal on a Sunday night.  My colleague, Todd, picked me up at the airport and we went directly to an Indian restaurant that he and many of our colleagues had talked highly about in the past - Bombay Mahal.  We met one of our colleagues, Francois, there for an evening of Indian food that they promised was some of the best in Montreal.  

There's not a large Indian population in Montreal, but Bombay Mahal is located in what is the Little India area on the west side of the city not far from Parc du Mont Royal (Mount Royal Park).  (see map)   We parked down the street from the place and found a table in the second of the two small and dimly-lit dining rooms that are in the place.  Francois showed up not long after we sat down.  

Bombay Mahal is a B.Y.O.B. establishment and Todd and Francois were kind enough to bring along some beer.  Todd brought his favorite beer - the St. Ambroise pale ale from the McAuslan Brewery in Montreal - and I had asked him in advance to pick up a six pack of the Boréale Blonde ale that is brewed outside of Montreal that I like so well.  He told me that he couldn't find any Boréale (I'm almost sure he didn't try very hard - it's all over Montreal), so he picked up a sixer of the Griffon Extra Blonde ale, also from the McAuslan Brewery.  It was all right, but not as good as the Boréale, in my opinion.  

Francois is a tremendous home brewer - I've had a number of his homemade beers in the past - and he brought along a pale ale that was very good, as well as a homemade pilsner that was more hoppy than bitter, but still quite good.  Francois may be the best home brewer I've ever encountered (with apologies to my neighbor Greg who used to brew some very good beers in the past).

Set with the beer for the meal, we took a long look at the menu decided to just order a bunch of stuff and divvy it up, family-style.  We ordered up the butter chicken entree, I insisted that we get some of the lamb saag, Todd decided on getting some of the spicy lamb chili to counter the mildness of the butter chicken, we ordered up some of the chicken madrasi, and we also got a plate of assorted vegetables to go along with the entrees.  Interestingly, basmati rice - which usually comes with entrees at Indian restaurants in the U.S. - was an extra cost order.   

We started off getting some appetizers that included naan bread - both regular and garlic - and vegetarian samosa.  The Vegetarian Samosa was a puff that is stuffed with diced potatoes and peas that were cooked in various spices and then deep-fried.  Along with some mint chutney to dip the Samosa into, this was a very good start to the meal.

We also got an order of the onion bhaji - basically Indian onion rings that are floured and cooked with chick peas and various spices.  I'd never had onion bhaji and I found the taste to be somewhat interesting.  But I felt the appetizer was left in the fryer a little too long.  

They started to bring out the food and it was overly apparent that we ordered way too much food.  The chicken madrasi (on the left in this photo) was a spicy dish cooked in a coconut-base sauce.  I didn't care for it all that much because I'm not big on the taste of coconut.  But the other spicy dish - the lamb chili (on the right in the photo) - was an attention-getter for me.  The lamb was tender and while the spiciness wasn't apparent at first, it really kicked in a few moments after savoring the taste of the lamb.  Good god, it was hot!  It just meant that more beer was going to be drank.  

Interestingly, the butter chicken - which Todd swore was supposed to be mild - was pretty spicy.  It was served in a rich cream sauce with coriander added, but they must have dumped in some curry with it, as well.  It was good, but more spicy than butter chicken should have been - or at least what we thought it should be.  

The highlight of the meal was the lamb saag.  The sauce had a deep green color to it and the lamb was tender and flavorful.  The spinach sauce was thick and savory - it tasted great as I scooped some of it out and placed it on the garlic naan that we had left over.  It was spicy, but not the "burn-your-face-off" spicy that the lamb chili turned out to be.  This was some of the finest lamb saag (or saagwala) that I've encountered at any Indian restaurant.  

We were completely stuffed by the time we finished trying a little bit of everything.  Todd - and many of my colleagues - had raved so much about Bombay Mahal over the past few years since I began to really get into Indian food as my new go-to "comfort" food that I was worried that my expectations would be too high.  Bombay Mahal met my level of expectation based on all the positive comments I've heard about the place. Trying a little bit of everything was absolutely fun, but I was almost uncomfortable as Todd drove me to the hotel.  My colleagues don't even consider any other Indian restaurant in Montreal.  Bombay Mahal is all they need.  

Korma Sutra - Overland Park, KS

Indian food is fast becoming my go-to for comfort food while I'm on the road.  There's something about a good curry sauce that opens up my tastebuds, especially if I've gotten into a food funk when I'm on the road.  It was a cold, rainy night in Kansas City and I was staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park.  (Click here to see Road Tips entry on the Overland Park Hilton Garden Inn.)  I contemplated staying in, but then I did a quick search on the Internet and found an interesting sounding Indian restaurant less than five minutes from the hotel - Korma Sutra.

Korma Sutra is a play of words on the Kama Sutra, the ancient Hindu guide to a guide to "a virtuous and gracious living that discusses the nature of love, family life and other aspects pertaining to pleasure oriented faculties of human life."  Oh, and it's a sex manual, too.  Baljit Singh is the owner of Korma Sutra (Korma is an Indian dish consisting of braised meats in spiced yogurt/cream sauce) which hails the "sensuous cuisine of India" served at the restaurant.  Chef's Inderjit Singh and Makhan Singh run the kitchens at Korma Sutra.  In addition to the Overland Park location, there is also a Korma Sutra in the Westport area of Kansas City, and a new Korma Sutra opened in late November of last year in the north Kansas City suburb of Liberty, MO.  

The Overland Park Korma Sutra, which has been open since 2004, is located in a small strip mall on the northwest corner of Metcalf and College Avenues just south of I-435.  (see map)  The restaurant is actually hidden from both streets.  It took me awhile to find the place tucked into a corner on the back side of the mall.   

As I went in, I was greeted by Baljit Singh, a gregarious host who is also somewhat of a comedian.  When I told him that it was just myself that evening, he asked, "Whatzza matter?  You have no friends?  Here, I'll put you at the 'no friends' table.  You can make friends with these people."  The tables were rather close to one another and there was a threesome of younger people eating at the table next to me.  Neither of us had any intention of starting up a conversation with one another.  

The dining room is a lively combination of colors, wall decorations and light ornaments.  Linen table cloths are under glass table top.  The place was over half full when I was there that evening.  

There is a buffet that is very popular during the lunchtime hours at Korma Sutra.  They also seemed to be popular with "to-go" orders as a number of people stopped in to pick up food while I was there.  

As I was looking through the menu, one of the servers came over with some papadum bread and an interesting sauce to go along with it.  I'm not quite certain what was in the sauce, but I could taste some sweet plums as well as something spicy.  The papadum was crisp and tasty.  The sauce was very good with it.  

The menu at Korma Sutra was very extensive with a number of lamb, chicken, seafood and vegetarian entrees to choose from.  It was what I like to call a "true Indian restaurant" because they also had tandoori items, biryani dishes and entrees made with goat.  My colleague, Todd, likes goat meat in Indian food.  I still haven't been able to cross that line. 

For someone who doesn't care for lamb all that much, however, I've grown an affinity for Indian lamb dishes.  They had five different lamb entrees at Korma Sutra and after almost jumping on the lamb vindaloo, I ended up with the lamb curry with some garlic naan.  They also have wine and Indian beers available at Korma Sutra.  I got a Kingfisher beer to go along with my meal.  

The lamb curry featured tasty chunks of lamb meat in a garlic, ginger and curry sauce that was somewhat spicy, but not the type that will burn your face off.  Mixed with the basmati rice, it was a great tasting meal for a cool and rainy late fall night.  The naan was mixed full of garlic and fresh cilantro.  I couldn't get enough of the curry sauce using the leavened bread as a sponge to sop up any that was left over in the dish and on my plate.  

It was also a lot of food.  I was getting pretty full when a lady brought over what amounted to a sweet Indian dessert for me to try.  It was all I could do to take a couple bites of that before I threw in the towel.  This was a very good Indian meal.  

I waited for my check to show up and I sat there for a long time before I decided to just go up to the register and get my check from Baljit Singh.  When I went up to the counter, he came over and started to protest.  "No, you musn't go," he pleaded.  "We have more food for you!  Lime juice and towel!"  (I guess their closing act is providing the customers with a warm moist towel and lime juice to squeeze onto the fingers to get rid of the smell of the spices.)  But I declined - I'd had enough.  Baljit Singh feigned hurt feelings.  "Next time, you stay the whole time," he said as I waved goodbye.

And there will probably be a next time.  I like to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park when I'm in Kansas City and since Korma Sutra is close by, I'm sure that I'll be swinging back at some point.  The lamb curry was very good, the service was impeccable and efficient, and the floor show with Baljit Singh's interaction with his customers was rather entertaining.  Korma Sutra is somewhat tough to find, but it's worth it once you get there.    

Anokaa - Salisbury, U.K.

On our first night in the U.K., my co-workers and I were pretty burnt out from the overseas flight and subsequent meetings with Naim Audio.  We were taken to our hotel for a much needed shower and beers in the hotel's pub.  For dinner that night, our company's Naim Audio "expert" Manu (sort for Emmanuel) suggested an Indian restaurant that he has frequented on his many trips to Salisbury over the years - Anokaa.  "It's sort of Indian/Asian fusion meets French cuisine," he told us.  Indian food was on my list of things to try while I was in the U.K., so I enthusiastically welcomed the suggestion.  

Anokaa - which means "exceptional" in Hindi - features a number of modern twists on traditional Indian foods and not another "curry house" that proliferates the U.K. culinary landscape.  That's been owner Solman Farsi's mission since he originally opened the restaurant in 2004.  Farsi imports many of the spices he uses in his kitchen directly from India.  

It was about a 5 minute walk through the streets of old Salisbury from our hotel to Anokaa that evening.  (see map)  The restaurant has a very contemporary design inside and out, a stark contrast to buildings up and down the small streets of the city of about 60,000.  

Inside Anokaa, the decor was sleek and stylish with subdued lighting throughout the place.  We had a short wait near the bar up front before we were seated at a long table in the far back of the restaurant.  It was very busy in Anokaa, the sign of a very popular restaurant.  

The menu at Anokaa is self-described as including "only the freshest of ingredients, authentic herbs and spices plus rare and unusual specialities to offer a modern twist on traditional Indian cuisine."  They had a number of starter appetizers on the menu ranging from strips of Welsh lamb meat with ginger and coriander, to hand-picked crab cakes with toasted coconut, to goan beef which were cuts of tenderloin beef filets that are soaked overnight in a yogurt and rum marinade.  

For the main entrees, it was far from the normal Indian food that you'll find stateside.   They had a cinnamon-glazed duck breast, a spice crusted chicken breast, char-grilled guinea fowl breasts, and a steak filet marinated in a medium-heat spiced onion marinade.  They also had their own interpretations of Indian food including an Old Dehli chicken curry that was glazed with honey and orange and placed in a rich tomato and cream sauce.  There was also a tandoori-seared rack of lamb cooked with sweet chiles and marjoram, a corn-fed chicken biryani, a curry lababdar with a choice of either chicken or prawns, and a chicken masala stuffed with avocado.  Anokaa also had a number of vegetarian entrees, seafood entrees and traditional Indian food such as vindaloos, tikka masala, bhuna, korma, etc., etc.  

We decided to just let Manu order up a bunch of stuff and we'd just dig in family-style.  But our host, Doug, was sort of wary of this.  "The last time I was here with Manu we had so much food on the table after the appetizers, when the main courses showed up we about died on the spot!"  Manu promised he'd not go overboard this time.  

The first thing they brought out to us was the papadum bread - the thin chip-style bread - along with an impressive array of chutneys and sauces.  There was a sweet and somewhat spicy chutney that I damn near drank directly out of the bowl, it was so tasty.

The starters came out soon thereafter.  Above left is the goan beef slices.  The beef was exceptionally tender and the chile sauce had a bit of a bite on the aftertaste.  The presentation was very French, hence Manu's explanation that Anokaa was an Indian restaurant with a French flair.  

The duck tikka (lower left) was a big hit on the table.  It had a citrus flavor and covered in a seared onion chutney sauce.  I'm not big on duck, but those little guys were fabulous.  

The pankoras (above right) were a delectable little vegetarian appetizer that were shallow-fried nuggets of spinach, mashed potatoes, onions and crushed coriander seeds.  The chutney sauces that came with the pankoras were delicious, as well.  

Quite honestly, after the appetizers were over I was nearly satiated.  But then the main entrees came out with many howls of protest and derision toward Manu.  But everything looked so good that we had to give it a try.

The rogan josh-style Welsh lamb shanks were something that was placed in front of me.  I usually don't care for lamb shanks, although I do like a good rogan josh, vindaloo or curry with lamb.  But the lamb was so tender and fell easily from the bone without a hint of fattiness in the taste.  They really do know how to do lamb correctly in the U.K.

The Old Dehli chicken curry (above right) was also wonderful in taste.  It wasn't overly spicy and had a great overall flavor.  The chicken was also tender and easy to cut with a fork.  I took some of the naan bread that we had on the table and dipped into the curry sauce.  It was just wonderful.

Now, I believe the picture lower left is of the duck jaalsha.  I remember having duck at the table and how we thought there would be a fight that would break out over the duck.  The duck jaalsha featured lean duck breast pieces that were quickly crisped over charcoal, then mixed with apricot, ginger and white wine, then simmered in a strongly spiced sauce with cream of coconut and cardamon.  I can't even begin to describe how good it really tasted.  

One of the other popular dishes at the table was the curry lababdar with the prawns.  The curry had a great little spicy kick and the prawns were good-sized and meaty.   The Kingfisher beer that I was drinking helped cut the spiciness of the sauce pretty well.  

We also had a medley of sauces that I don't quite know what they were that were served with the naan bread.  They were probably a chutney sauce, but they were different from the ones we had gotten with the papadum earlier in the meal.  There was one that was sort of sweet and spicy, one that was sort of spicy and the third was a "burn-your-face-off" spicy.  I really liked the combination of the sweet and spicy sauce on the naan.  

The meal at Anokaa was a great start to our trip to the U.K.  I'd heard that the Indian restaurants in England were top-notch and would put many of the ones in the States to shame.  While I don't quite know about that (as I have eaten in some pretty good Indian restaurants in the U.S. over the past four or so years), the food at Anokaa was not only excellent, it was very interesting and intriguing.  We had exceptional service all evening long with two or three guys taking care of us at all times.  I was full, spent, and needing a bed after finishing our meal and the 10 minute walk back to the hotel.  Our meal at Anokaa was truly a culinary experience. 

Funky Desi - Moline, IL

A shout out today to my friend, Shawn Eldridge, for the heads up on the new Indian restaurant in downtown Moline - Funky Desi.  Desi is a Sanskrit term for people, foods and cultures of the Indian subcontinent.  The name Funky Desi is a nod to the Indian culture, plus the fact the restaurant becomes a night club after 10 p.m. on the weekends.  We gave it a try on a recent Friday night.  

Funky Desi is now in the spot of the former Taj Oriental/India Rasoi in downtown Moline. (see map)  The thing that my wife and I remember about India Rasoi is that it was freezing in there in the winter time and they didn't have hot water in the restrooms.  So, we were sort of happy to find out that India Rasoi had closed down and a new Indian restaurant would take its place.  It opened on April 15, 2013.  

We liked the food at India Rasoi, so we were happy to hear that their former chef, Kevin Lal, would be one of the partners in Funky Desi.  In addition to traditional Indian cuisine with a full lunchtime buffet from 11 to 2 everyday (except on Monday, when they're closed), Funky Desi also has a Sunday brunch complete with bloody mary's and mimosa's. 

On Friday and Saturday nights after 9 p.m., Funky Desi turns into a dance club with karaoke on Friday and a D.J. on Saturday.  They have a full liquor bar and 24 beers on tap.  Interestingly, it also has about a half dozen or so flat panel televisions on the wall behind the bar for the sports enthusiasts.  If I'm not mistaken, I think they were also showing a cricket match on one of the TV's.  

 
They really spruced up the place from the last time we were there for dinner at India Rasoi.  They changed the lighting and the decor to make it more elegant than before.  But, much to the delight of my wife, it was WARM in there.  

We were seated in a booth toward the back of the restaurant and given menus to look over.  Our server for the evening, Christopher, came over to greet us and take our drink order.  I got a Kingfisher beer while Cindy got a glass of the house cabernet wine.  

The menu hasn't seemed to change much from when Keven Lal was the chef for India Rasoi.  Funky Desi has traditional Indian cuisine in addition to a lengthy list of vegetarian dishes.  They have a number of tandoor entrees as well as the wonderful biryani dishes that we liked from before.  

Cindy ended up ordering the Rogan Josh and I got the lamb vindaloo.  The menu said that the vindaloo was spicy, but that was fine with me.  We also got some lassan (garlic) naan to go with the meal.  

Our meals came out to us in a quick enough fashion - probably 12 to 15 minutes after we ordered.  The deep red lamb vindaloo was served in a small bowl with another small bowl of rice on the side.  The vindaloo had large chunks of lamb in the sauce.  Oh, and GOD - it was spicy.  Not quite "burn-your-face-off" spicy, but it certainly grabbed my attention.  I drank all of my beer and most of my water during the meal.  The vindaloo was very good.  And there was plenty of sauce in which to dip the garlic naan.  

 
Cindy's rogan josh was more brown in color, but still had the same chunks of lamb the vindaloo had.  It wasn't as spicy as the vindaloo and she really enjoyed it.  The garlic naan was a great complement to the meal.  Compared to the other couple of very good Indian restaurants we frequent in the Quad Cities, Funky Desi is in the ball park.  

We both enjoyed the food at Funky Desi.  Although we didn't stay for karaoke, we did run next door to have a couple beers with friends at the Bent River Brewery.  And I needed a couple beers just to tone down the spices still swirling in my mouth from the wonderfully spicy lamb vindaloo.  We both were impressed with the food and Christopher's service was good, as well.  And the place had a nice atmosphere - and the full bar is a plus.  Once again, we have a choice of three pretty good to very good Indian restaurants in the Quad Cities.  It will be nice to put Funky Desi in the rotation.   

India Sizzling Indian Restaurant - Fishers, IN

Staying in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis on a recent trip to the "Circle City", I was sort of hungry for something warm and comforting.  Since Indian food is my now "go-to" comfort food, I decided to seek out a place that I hadn't tried before.  I found a place during an online search that had a unique name - India Sizzling Indian Restaurant - and it wasn't far from my hotel.  I decided that would be my eating destination for the evening. 

Owner Basil Vaz has been involved with ownership and management of other Indian restaurants in the Central Indiana area.  He was the involved with the popular Passage to India restaurants in northwest Indianapolis and in Columbus, Indiana, just south of Indianapolis.  He opened India Sizzling in 2010 in a strip mall off of Allisonville Road in Fishers.  In 2013, the Passage to India location on Lafayette Road in Indianapolis became India Sizzling II.  

Main Street in Fishers, IN is 116th Street and just south of the corner of 116th and Allisonville Road is the Village at Main Street shopping complex.  India Sizzling is on Village Square Lane just east of Allisonville Road. (see map)  It's back off the street and tough to see from Allisonville, so don't expect to be driving by and being able to see it if you head that direction.  Parking is available in front of the restaurant.

I was greeted at the stand up front by a young man who introduced himself as Basil.  It turns out it was Basil Vaz, himself.  The dining area was less than half full - their lunch buffet is evidently a huge draw during the day - and I pretty much got to pick out where I wanted to sit.  I took a table back in the corner.  Basil asked me what I wanted to drink and I told him that I'd take a large Kingfisher beer.   

The dining room at India Sizzling features a silk canopy hanging from the ceiling.  Not only does it help with the acoustics in the place, but it gives the impression that you're dining in a somewhat opulent tent.  The tables all have glass tops with table cloths underneath.  It's a welcoming and somewhat cozy atmosphere at India Sizzling.  

The menu at India Sizzling is not unlike your typical Indian restaurant - tandoori entrees, curry dishes, vindaloo, and more.  They also have a number of vegetarian entrees at India Sizzling.  But that evening I decided that I'd get lamb saag - made with a creamy spinach and mustard leave sauce - along with some garlic naan.  

Basil brought out some of the papadum bread - the thin, brittle bread that I used to call Indian chips until I found out what the name of it was.  Two different chutneys - a mint chutney and a tamarind chutney (once again, I recently found out the name of that type of chutney that I'd been eating over the past couple three years, but never knew the name of) - were included along with the papadum.  The mint chutney had a little spicy bite, but a very fresh and flavorful overall taste.  The tamarind chutney was a little more bold in spiciness and in overall taste.  They were both very good.  

 
The lamb saag was delivered in a rectangular ceramic bowl on a matching ceramic plate with a mound of steamed rice included.  Now, 30 years ago, I would have run away screaming if I saw this set down in front of me.  This is a color not of the earth.  It had sort of an olive green tint to the saag and looked rather drab.  But from the first bite, any misconceptions of the look versus the taste went out the window.

The lamb chunks were moist and easy to chew.  The saag was a bit spicy, but very flavorful.  The chopped mustard leaves and spinach sauce was hearty and savory.  The rice was steamed perfectly, easily separating from each morsel.  This was a fine comfort-style meal.  

The garlic naan was similar to other garlic naans I've had.  It had a forward garlic flavor with a hint of cilantro.  Along with dipping it in the saag sauce or adding some of the tamarind or mint chutney, it was a perfect compliment to the meal.  

During many of my experiences at Indian restaurants early on, I found that service was spotty to downright horrible at times.  I heard a couple guys at a table near me complain about their service before they got up to leave and when I was finished with my meal, I was the only one in the dining room (it was around 8:30 p.m.).  Basil was nowhere in sight and I was ready to get my bill and pay it.  There were a couple other guys that were back near the bar area talking, but I couldn't get their attention.  I finally had to go over near them and announce that I was ready for my bill.  It took Basil another three or four minutes before he showed up with my tab.  

So, other than the service hiccup at the end of the meal, I thought my meal and experience at India Sizzling was fine to very good.  I thoroughly enjoyed the lamb saag, the garlic naan and the chutneys.  It was a very elegant setting for an Indian restaurant and I felt comfortable eating by myself.  Basil's service was quick and efficient up to the time he served me the meal, but then he forgot about me after that.  I've eaten at a couple three good Indian restaurants on the north side of Indianapolis and I was pleased enough with my experience at India Sizzling.  

The Oven - Lincoln, NE

A friend of mine in the audio industry told me that he likes to drive from his home in Central Wisconsin out to Denver for the annual Rocky Mountain Audio Festival each fall.  His reasoning, he told me, was so he could spend the night in Lincoln, NE going to and from Denver and have dinner at his favorite Indian restaurant - The Oven.  With that kind of dedication and drive to center his travel plans around going to a restaurant, I wondered how good The Oven was.  On a recent overnight stay in Lincoln, I had the chance to give The Oven a try.  

Ngawang Rinchen is a native of Bhutan and he was the former chef for the 4th Bhutanese King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck.  Rinchen cooked meals for the King, his four wives (all sisters), and their children.  In 1978, he made his way to the United States cooking in Bhutanese and Indian restaurants.  He ended up in Omaha in 1984 as the head chef at The Indian Oven restaurant.  In 1988, he was recruited by Steve Gordon to help open and be the head chef at The Oven in Lincoln's Haymarket entertainment district.

Rinchen eventually bought out Gordon and became the sole owner of The Oven.  He opened a second location in east Lincoln in 2007 and in 2012, Rinchen took the empty space beneath his restaurant and turned it into a wine bar/cafe by the name of The Cellar.  The Cellar features self-serve wine dispensers and a wine list that features some of the best wine selections in the Midwest.  Wine Spectator magazine has awarded The Oven/Cellar with their Award of Excellence for their superior wine list for 11 years in a row.

I was staying at the new Hilton Garden Inn in the Haymarket district on a cold late fall night.  The Oven is on the corner of N. 8th St. and P St. in downtown Lincoln.  (see map)  To get there, I walked down two flights of stairs, out a back door to the hotel, across the street and down a block and a half.  It took me about three minutes to get to the front door of The Oven.

There, I was met by a hostess who sat me in a banquette seat in the back corner of the restaurant.  The place was fairly full of people around 7:30 with more coming in.  The decor was tasteful and didn't have the garishness that you find with some Indian restaurants.  

My hostess had left off a menu with me and my server for the evening, Audrey, came over to greet me.  She asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I asked her for a Kingfisher.  They had two sizes of Kingfisher at The Oven - I didn't know that until she brought back the larger of the two bottles.  If she would have asked me if I wanted the 22 oz. or the 12 oz. bottle, I would have gladly told her to bring me the 22 ouncer.  She must have read my mind.

The menu at The Oven is a combination of Northern Indian and Bhutanese dishes with Rinchen's twists added to some of the food.  They had Kheema Matar on the menu, but instead of ground lamb, they made it with ground beef at The Oven.  They had seafood entrees with an Indian flavor, as well as a lot of biryani dishes to choose from.  The Oven also has a large selection of vegetarian dishes on their menu, as well. 

I was just thinking about getting lamb vindaloo that evening - a hearty meal with a bit of a spicy bite to help warm me up on that cold evening.  That's what I ordered when Audrey came back to take my order.  I also ordered some garlic naan to go along with the vindaloo.  Audrey informed me that I also got a bowl of mulligatawny soup with the meal.  I usually don't order the mulligatawny, but I was happy it came with the meal that cold evening.

The mulligatawny had a pleasing flavor to it.  The pureed lentils were mixed with a multitude of spices to give it a good taste.  A dab of rice and some cilantro leaves were part of a garnish on top of the soup.  It was a great opener to the meal.  

 
The lamb vindaloo and the naan came out not long after I finished up with the mulligatawny.  Tender chunks of lamb were in a heavy tomato sauce that had just a hint of a bite of spicy curry.  I tasted hints of ginger, tamarind, and paprika in addition to the curry.  Along with a big bowl of steamed rice, it was a hearty comfort food meal.  After eating about half the vindaloo, I realized that it had more of a spicy kick than I originally thought.  I had to take my napkin and wipe my forehead a couple times as it was causing me to sweat a bit. 

The garlic naan came with a spicy mint chutney that had a nice little bite, as well.  The naan had a very forward garlic and cilantro flavoring to it.  It was light and chewy, and it went well with the vindaloo sauce when I would dip it in the serving bowl.  

The food at The Oven was exceptional.  I was thoroughly impressed with my meal and thoroughly full because I couldn't stop eating - it was that good.   Was it the best vindaloo I've ever had?  Tough to say.  It was some of the best I've had.  Audrey's service was very good, she was accommodating and on top of things.  I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant and I can see why it can get packed with a waiting list on the weekend.  I'll have to tell my buddy that I tried The Oven and can see why he would make the effort to stop there when he drives to and from Denver.

Little India - Denver

During the recent CEDIA Expo that was held in Denver, I had a couple of busy days in a row.  We had a dealer event on a Thursday night and after a long day of talking with dealers on Friday we were supposed to go out to dinner with the people from Focal to a sushi restaurant.  I was beat.  I was tired of talking.  I didn't want to go out and do anymore talking.  And as much as I like sushi, YOU KNOW that I had to be beat to not want to go eat sushi.  After everyone left to go to dinner, I sat in our suite that we had at the Marriott City Center and enjoyed a couple three beers in peace and quiet.  Finally, around 8:15, I decided that I needed to get something to eat.  I thought about getting something simple from room service, but decided to try and find something close by.  I used the "Around Me" application on my smartphone and found an Indian restaurant - Little India - not far from the hotel.  I set off into a cool damp night to go to Little India.

Little India is a family-owned local restaurant chain with four locations around the greater Denver area.  There is also a Little India food truck that pops up around the city from time to time.  The first Little India opened on S. Downing Street in Denver in 1998 and has regularly been voted "Best Indian Food" in Denver.  The chefs employed by the Baldwin family all got their start at restaurants in Northern India before coming to the U.S. and eventually to Denver. 

From my hotel, it was basically a two block walk down 17th St. to Champa St. and a block and a half walk down to Little India.  (see map) It's just a half block off the touristy 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. When I got into the place around 8:30, it appeared that I had the place all to myself.  However, I spied another man eating alone in the dining room, and another man came in by himself about five minutes after I got in there.  It was quiet - just what I wanted.  

The interior of Little India had a contemporary look to the place.  Subtle lighting made it warm and inviting.  A large and colorful mural greeted diners as they walked in from the outside.   

My server for the evening, Rekha, came over with a menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  I asked if they had Kingfisher beer and she began to rattle off a list of beers that they had in addition to Kingfisher.  I stopped her and said, "I'll just take a Kingfisher."  

The menu at Little India had the full gamut of Indian food - vindaloo, saagwala, tandoori, buryani, masala, etc. - with your choice of seafood, lamb or chicken to go along with the dishes.  Little India also has a number of vegetarian dishes on their menu, as well as specialty entrees such as chicken or lamb madras - a very spicy dish for those fans of Indian food who like to have their faces burned off while they eat.  

I ended up ordering the lamb saagwala - medium-hot - with some garlic naan.  After Rekha took my order another server came out with the crisp flatbread that I finally found out what it is called - papadum.  I call it "Indian Chips" like you'd get with chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.  It came with the mint chutney that I like so much - when it's done right - and a slightly hotter tamarind chutney for dipping.  The mint chutney was very good and the tamarind chutney had a nice kick.

 
The lamb saagwala showed up, served in a little serving bowl with rice on the side.  I combined the two on my plate and dug in.  The lamb saagwala had a wonderful flavor to it.  It had a hint of a spicy taste, but it wasn't overwhelming to me.  The lamb was tender and easy to cut and chew.  It was the ultimate in comfort food for me on a cool, drizzly night in Denver.  

The garlic naan didn't disappoint, either.  It was a misshapen flat bread cut in half and had a wonderful flavor to it.  The garlic was more of an afterthought in the taste of the naan.  The bread was light and fluffy, and when I dipped it in the saagwala sauce it was a wonderful taste combination.  

About the only thing that went wrong with the meal was that Rekha disappeared.  The spicy nature of the lamb saagwala made me drain both my beer and most of the water in my glass.  I wanted another beer, but she was nowhere in sight.  There was another young lady who was cleaning up in my area and I asked her if I could get another beer.  She cheerfully said, "Yes!", and left to presumably get me my beer from the bar.  But it was Rekha who brought it back out to me.  She asked me how my meal was.  I had to tell her that it was excellent.

And it was excellent.  I liked everything about Little India.  The food was a spot-hitter in terms of comfort food for me.  The service was a tad spotty, but it didn't detract from the overall experience.  The restaurant, itself, was very comfortable and - as I needed - very quiet.  Even though it was a Friday night, I relished my solitude, not having to carry on a conversation or hear multitudes of voices talking in unison until it turned into a sea of white noise.  Little India was my oasis of good comfort food in a quiet setting that evening.  

The Great Indian Restaurant - Moline, IL

A place we've heard about over in Moline, but never had been to before, is a little Indian restaurant that is somewhat audaciously named The Great Indian Restaurant.  I always figured that if it had a name like that, the food had better be damned good.  On a recent Friday night, we made the trek over to Moline for some Indian food.

The Great Indian Restaurant is located on Avenue of the Cities in Moline, just across 44th Street from the Hy-Vee grocery store.  (see map)  It's been in business for 12 years, but the current owner - Sam Singh - has been in charge for the last five of those years.  Before that, the Arora family - who now own and run Mantra Indian Cuisine in Davenport (click here to see my entry on Mantra) - owned The Great Indian Restaurant from 2004 to 2008.  

The building that houses The Great Indian Restaurant looks like it may have been a Mexican restaurant at one time with stucco walls with arches over the windows and over an opening that looks into a side dining area.  They feature a buffet at lunch - like most Indian restaurants - with a full menu of chicken, lamb and vegetarian dishes served at night.  (Great Indian Restaurant is open every day with the exception of Tuesday.)

Pictured at right - the front dining area with buffet at Great Indian Restaurant.  The other dining area is through the entrance in the background. 

One of the things that determines for me if it's a good Indian restaurant is if I see natives of India eating in the place.  There were at least two groups of Indians in the restaurant and a well-dressed man who was ordering food for four to go.  We sat at one of the booths along the outer wall of the front dining area.  A young man brought us water and menus.  

In addition to the vegetarian and meat items on the menu, Great Indian also features tandoori cooked foods such as chicken, fish and shrimp.  They also have fish and shrimp curry on the menu.  But I've been on kind of a lamb jag lately when it comes to Indian food, so I was concentrating on that part of the menu.

They had Rogan Josh on the menu - cubes of tender lamb slow cooked in vegetable oil and a brown gravy sauce with herbs and spices.  But right below the Rogan Josh was the Lamb Saagwala - also featuring tender cubes of lamb meat cooked with fresh chopped spinach with ginger, herbs and spices.  I remember almost getting Lamb Saagwala at an Indian restaurant I had been to before that evening and I decided to pull the trigger on it this time.  The waiter asked how I wanted it on a scale on spiciness from mild - medium - hot.  I told him in between medium and hot.  

Cindy was asking about tandoori chicken and I cautioned her about making sure it wasn't overcooked.  That's been my problem with tandoori chicken that I've got in the past.  I usually stay away from tandoori cooked foods for that reason.  She ended up getting the Chicken Shahi Korma - boneless chicken cubes simmered in a cream-tomato sauce with a dash of vinegar and Kashmiri herbs added.  She got hers mild.  I got a Kingfisher beer and Cindy got a glass of cabernet wine.  

I did order up some garlic-stuffed naan bread for an appetizer before dinner.  It came with a green chutney sauce that was actually a little spicy, some red chutney sauce that was a little sweet.  The naan wasn't all that big and it was far from filling. 

Unfortunately, service was slow at The Great Indian Restaurant.  But it was understandable.  The place was nearly full and there were a lot of people who were coming in to pick up to-go orders.  But we weren't in any hurry, trying to catch up on conversations since I had been on the road so much up to that point.

After about a half hour after we ordered, our food came to the table.  I was ready to eat.  The lamb saagwala had sort of a thick brown gravy sauce with chopped spinach tossed in.  The portion in the picture below left looks pretty big, but it was a relatively small platter that it was served in.  

 
The spicy level of medium-hot for the lamb saagwala certain got my attention.  But it wasn't "burn-your-face-off" hot by any means.  The lamb cubes were tender and easy to cut with a fork.  The combination of the spices, spinach, herbs and lamb in the thick brown sauce was a great taste sensation.  I was very happy with my lamb saagwala.  

Cindy's chicken shahi korma was a culinary stretch for her, as in she didn't know what to expect.  Actually, I didn't know, either.  But it looked rather interesting.  There were large chunks of chicken in a thick cream tomato sauce with chopped cilantro on top.   

 
She told me that her "mild" spice level was actually a little bit too spicy for her.  I was sort of incredulous when she said that because I thought my "medium-hot" was spicy, but tolerable to my taste.  Still, she said her chicken shahi korma was very good.  We traded bites of our dishes - she said my lamb saagwala was too spicy for her; and I thought her chicken shahi korma wasn't all that spicy.  But compared to the spicy level of my food, it was pretty tame.  I was sort of surprised at her as she can handle spicy food.  Maybe her tolerance for spicy food was low that night.  

We've since been back on another visit and I had the Rogan Josh.  I got mine "medium-hot" again, even with the guy taking the order asking me, "Are you sure?"  Once again, the spiciness did get my attention, but it didn't burn my taste buds.  And the Rogan Josh was wonderful.    

Cindy got the lamb vindaloo on that visit - slow-cooked lamb cubes with a special blend of vindaloo spices.  She got her dish with "medium" spiciness again, but this time she didn't think it was all that spicy.  She gave me a couple bites of her lamb vindaloo and it was also outstanding.  There weren't very many people in the restaurant when we were there - but there were at least a half dozen people who picked up "to-go" orders while we were there.  Our food came out in less than 20 minutes after we ordered.  

We now have another good Indian restaurants to choose from in the Quad Cities if we want to get spicy comfort food.  We were both very impressed with the food at The Great Indian Restaurant.  The restaurants name lived up to the level of the quality of its Indian food.  Just be prepared to wait awhile for your food if the place is busy.  But the wait was worth it for us.

Maharaja - Rosemont, IL

I've been staying at the Hilton Garden Inn O'Hare on a somewhat regular basis (that is, when the room rates aren't outrageous), and I've been exploring the area to see what the options are for restaurants.  I had a list of restaurants around the hotel that a girl at the front desk had given me and I found an Indian restaurant that was listed - Maharaja.  It was just down the road and around the corner from the hotel, situated in a strip mall on the south side of Higgins Road.  (see map)

According their website, Maharaja boasts a celebrity chef - Durga Prashad Bhatt.  I have no idea what makes him a celebrity, but he evidently has 25 years experience working in five star Indian restaurants.  I couldn't back up the claim to where he worked or if he was even some sort of a celebrity, but I'll tell you now that there were a number of people from Indian descent in his restaurant when I walked in around 7:30 p.m.  That's always a good sign, I think.  

I was seated at a table near the distressed glass wall in one of two dining areas.  There was a large buffet area along the wall opposite where I was seated for their daily lunch buffet.  As I looked through the menu as one of the wait staff dropped off some of the puffy Indian naan -style chips and a green sweet chutney and a spicy chutney sauce.  The sweet chutney was different from other green chutney's I've had - it didn't have the forward coriander taste and wasn't as sweet.  It was good, but more mellow than what I've had in the past.  I figured out later that they didn't put mint in the chutney like I've had at other Indian restaurants.  I actually like the spicy chutney a little better.  

The menu features typical Indian fare - tandoori, chicken, lamb, seafood and vegetarian entrees.  They also have a handful of southern Indian entrees, as well as a somewhat full Indo-Chinese menu.  If you were a little crossed-up as what to get at Maharaja, they offered a dinner special with a little bit of everything - tandoori chicken, seekh kebab, shrimp, chicken tikka, rogan josh, and dal makhani.  They also had the Maharaja mixed grill which had tandoori chicken, fish tikka, chicken tikka, dal makhani and butter chicken.  

I've been leaning toward lamb dishes during my past few visits to Indian restaurants.  The Rogan Josh in the mild tomato and onion sauce sounded good, as did the bhuna gosht - tender chunks of lamb cubes cooked in a tomato, onion, ginger and herb sauce.  There was a hot pepper next to the lamb vindaloo denoting that it was a spicy dish.  Most of the time I get my Indian food medium-hot and I've always been willing to kick it up a notch at some point.  Well, this was going to be the point.  I ordered the lamb vindaloo with some garlic naan bread.  I also got a tall bottle of Kingfisher beer.  

My meal came out in less than 15 minutes.  The lamb vindaloo was in a small bowl with chunks of lamb and potatoes.  I took a little bit of the garlic naan and dipped it into the vindaloo sauce to give it a try.

 
I have to tell you, from the first bite, it was HOT!!!  Holy crap, was it hot!  I couldn't drink enough Kingfisher or water to make the burn go away from my mouth.  But the interesting thing was, it didn't detract from the taste of the lamb.  The chunks were big, tender and flavorful.  But, oh my GOD!!! Was it hot!!

Then I didn't do myself any favors - I spooned what I thought was a piece of lamb out of the serving bowl and took a bite.  Only it wasn't lamb - it was a hot pepper.  OH! MY!!! GOD!!!!!!  I'm now swishing ice water and beer alternately in my mouth to try and get rid of the spicy taste.  What an idiot I am sometimes.  Served me right for wanted to step up to the big leagues of spicy Indian food.   

But I have to say that I actually liked it.  Spiciness aside, the lamb was flavorful, I liked the garlic naan and the service at Maharaja was good.  It was a pleasant experience all the way around.  I probably won't sign up for the lamb vindaloo the next time, but the bhuna gosht is in my crosshairs.   There's no telling if the chef is actually a celebrity or not - maybe he is in India.  But all I know is that he certainly got my attention with the lamb vindaloo.  

(Update - I've since been back for the bhuna gosht and it was outstanding.  Let me put it this way - Have you ever eaten yourself into a painful state, but you're still pissed off that the meal is over?  That was me with the bhuna gosht with garlic naan.)   

Amber Indian Restaurant - Carmel, IN

Indian food is becoming my "go-to" comfort food when I'm on the road.  Many times when I need a "stick-to-my-ribs" meal when I've been traveling for awhile, I'll look for a place that serves a good hot beef sandwich.  But that always lays so heavy in my stomach and I don't sleep very well because of that.  So, I've been turning more and more toward Indian food as a comfort food alternative.  One of my favorite Indian restaurants - Taj of India in Indianapolis (click here to see my entry) - had recently been sold to another Indian restaurant in the area - Amber Indian Restaurant.  I was staying in the north Indianapolis suburb of Carmel recently and I found out that the original Amber Indian Restaurant was literally across Meridian St. from the hotel at which I was staying.  Needing some comfort food that evening, I took the short trip across Meridian to have dinner at Amber Indian Restaurant. (see map)

Aulwinder Singh is the owner of Amber Indian Restaurant.  Singh bought Taj of India last year, but for some reason it doesn't show up on Amber Indian Restaurant's web site.  I felt the chicken curry I had at Taj of India was the best I'd ever had so I was hoping that the curry dishes at Amber Indian Restaurant were just as good, if not better.  

It was around 6:30 when I entered Amber Indian Restaurant located in a nice strip mall.  (Now, I have to tell you that none of the pictures I took inside the place turned out.  The lighting was dark and each picture I had taken was fuzzy.  I usually can't tell how bad a picture is until I download it onto my computer.  Doing that later that evening in my hotel room showed that the dozen or so pictures I took inside the restaurant didn't turn out.)  I was greeted by a young man and shown to a table near the front door.  As I sat down and began to look at the menu, I took a look around the elegant dining room and noticed a number Indian families dining at Amber.  While I was there another number of people of Indian descent came in to pick up orders to go.  I figured that if Indians eat at Amber, it must be pretty good.  

They did have a number of curry dishes at Amber Indian Restaurant and I have gotten over my distaste for lamb dishes.  At the top of the lamb part of the menu was the lamb curry.  And when the waiter came over to take my order, I immediately ordered the lamb curry with some garlic naan.  I got a Kingfisher beer to go along with the meal.  

Not long after my waiter left the table, another young man brought over three sauces and some chips.  Included in the sauces was the green sauce that I fell in love with at Viceroy of India in the Chicago suburbs.  (Click here to see my entry on Viceroy.)  I never knew what it was until recently - it's a coriander mint chutney.  It's flavorful and refreshing and helped to counteract the spiciness of the two other tomato-based sauces I had on the table.  I just love the coriander mint chutney.  

I was still devouring the chips and the chutney when my meal showed up.  The garlic naan was light and fluffy, but it was significantly smaller than other naan breads I've had in the past.  But that was OK, it was also only $2.00 and I usually can't eat all the naan I'm served anyhow.  The portion of the lamb curry they served me was sort of small, but they gave me a heap of rice and I knew I wouldn't eat all of it.  

The lamb curry had a deep red color and had bits of potatoes in with it.  I'd ordered the lamb curry to be "medium-hot" and I could have easily gotten the hot as I didn't think it was all that spicy - at least not to me.  The lamb was tender to the bite and while there was curry in with the lamb, it wasn't as forward as the curry taste I got at Taj of India.  I'll have to say the meal was good, but I guess I was expecting more from Amber Indian Restaurant.

I will say that I've had my troubles with service at other Indian restaurants, but the staff at Amber Indian Restaurant were superb.  They were attentive, but not hovering.  There were three young gentleman who helped out waiting on me that evening and they were all pleasant guys.  Once I finished my first Kingfisher beer, one of the guys magically showed up and asked if I'd like another.  I'd give the service at Amber two curry-stained thumbs up. 

While I may have been expecting more out of the lamb curry at Amber Indian Restaurant - it was far was bad.  In fact, it was very good.  I guess I was just hoping for the same taste explosion I got from the chicken curry at Taj of India.  I've now eaten at enough Indian restaurants to know what I like and I loved the coriander mint chutney at Amber, and the garlic naan was also very good, as well.  The lamb curry was also very good, but I thought for $15.49 it was a little too costly for what I got.  Still, if I were in the area and wanted Indian food I'd go back. I just don't know if I were over in Castleton or Noblesville that I'd drive out of my way to get there, though.   

Mantra Indian Cuisine - Davenport, IA

About seven months ago, a new Indian restaurant opened in downtown Davenport - Mantra Indian Cuisine.  It had been on our radar for quite some time.  One Friday evening with nothing to do, Cindy said, "Hey, we ought to go try the food at that Indian restaurant downtown."  That sounded good to me and we struck out for downtown Davenport. 

Jaspreet Arora owned and operated an Indian restaurant over in Moline - Great Indian - from 2004 to 2008.  He and his father, Raj, opened Mantra in August of 2012 in the spot (see map) that had been the old Italian Village restaurant when I first moved here years ago, then it was an Indian restaurant - the India House - for a number of years.  A few years ago, the group that owns the Azteca restaurants in the Davenport area put one of their restaurants in the spot along with a dance club.  They had a lot of problems with the dance club and ended up shutting down the whole facility a couple years ago.  The Arora's came in and took over the spot.  Raj Arora is the head cook at Mantra.  

The main dining room isn't all that large and we had about a five minute wait for a booth at Mantra.  I will have to say the room was very well lit.  There were two waiters working the room, one of which was Jaspreet Arora.  Once the table top was cleared, the other server called us over to the booth and handed us menus when we sat down.   

The food at Mantra is your typical Indian fare - vindaloo, tandoori, kebabs, and curry dishes.  They had an extensive list of lamb, chicken and seafood entrees, as well as a number of vegetarian meals on the menu.  While their bread selection wasn't quite as extensive as I've seen at other Indian restaurants, they did have a number of the typical Indian appetizers and soups to choose from.  

I've been kind of on a roll with lamb dishes as of late and at the top of the list for lamb entrees was the Rogan Josh - cubes of boneless lamb meat slow-cooked in a mixture of spices and herbs.  I'd had the Rogan Josh at the Jaipur Brew House Indian restaurant in Omaha on a recent visit out there and it was very good.  I was never a big fan of lamb before I had it with Indian food.  

For me, it was going to be either between the Rogan Josh, Lamb Vindaloo, or the Chicken Curry.  Cindy was looking at possibly getting Chicken Tandoori until I told her that it came with 8 chicken legs.  I also cautioned her that tandoori has to be cooked precisely or it will get overcooked and dried out.  I've had tandoori chicken a couple times and both times it had been overcooked, so I just stay away from it.  She saw something else on the menu called Chicken Saagwala - boneless pieces of chicken cooked with fresh spinach, cilantro, ginger and herbs.  

We were still looking over the menu when our server came back and asked what we'd like to drink.  I got a Kingfisher beer while Cindy was surprised to see a pretty good list of wine on their drink menu.  She got a glass of the William Hill merlot.  

By the time Jaspreet brought our drinks, we were ready to order.  The prices were very reasonable on the menu, indicating to me that the portions may not be all that large.  Cindy decided upon the Chicken Saagwala.  They cook it either mild, medium or hot.  Jaspreet asked her, on a scale of 1 to 10 - mild to hot, how she wanted it.  She said, "Oh, five, I guess."  He said that was medium.  Well, of course.  

I decided upon the Rogan Josh, also medium.  I figured that I wanted to taste the meal and not the burn. basmati rice came with our meals.  And I also ordered up some of the garlic naan bread.  Jaspreet asked, "Just one or two?"  I asked him how big the naan was and he said he could eat one by himself.  We stuck with one and said that we could order another if we needed.  

We sort of figured that we'd have a wait for the food as the place was pretty full.  The only problem was that a family was seated sort of toward the front of the restaurant and they had a baby - who was screaming - and a little two year old girl, who was screaming even louder.  I mean, it was bad.  The two year old was throwing a tantrum over something and the mother had to take the child outside a couple of times.   While that was going on, the father was trying to shush the baby who continued to scream.  Finally, to the delight of most everyone in the place, the mother came back in, gathered up the baby and the little girl and left.  The father of the kids stayed behind with two other people who were seated at the table and they ended up getting his wife's food to go.  Cindy said, "I can sympathize with the mother, but this is probably not a place to be bringing kids like that because this is not a big place."  

With the screaming kids gone, the atmosphere in the restaurant became less tense.  A second Kingfisher was ordered as we waited, and after about 25 minutes our food came out of the kitchen.

As I suspected, the portions were pretty small.  They were served in small metal dishes, but that was fine with me.  Too many times restaurants bring out large portions of food and you have to end up boxing it up and taking it home.  And I never think that it's as good as when you have it fresh in the restaurant.   The chunks of lamb meat were swimming in a fragrant sauce.  Fresh cilantro topped my Rogan Josh (below left).

 
Cindy's Chicken Saagwala (above right) also had a pungent and thick sauce mixed in with the chunks of chicken.  As with mine, cilantro topped her entree.  She offered me a bite and it was good.  It wasn't spicy in the least and had a hint of ginger in the bite.  It was my first time trying Saagwala and I wasn't disappointed.  

With the basmati rice, my Rogan Josh was just excellent.  The mixture of the herbs and spices gave it a wonderful balance in taste.  Quite actually, I could have stood it to be a little more spicy, thinking that next time asking for medium-hot would be the way to go.  Mild at Mantra has to be palatable to most anyone who can't handle spicy food.  The lamb meat was tender, not greasy at all, and was very flavorful in the sauce.  I gave Cindy a cube and she asked for another - with more of the sauce.  Hey, the portions weren't that big and it was so good that I was reluctant to give her another piece.  

I almost forgot - the garlic naan was also very good.  You could smell the garlic as the bread was sitting in its basket.  The bread was pliable and tore easily to dip in our sauces.  Jaspreet was right - one person could have easily eaten one order of naan bread.  We contemplated getting a second order, but because they were so busy, we figured we'd be done with our meal before it got to the table.  I scooped up every last drop of the great Rogan Josh sauce on my plate and in the serving bowl with the garlic naan.   

The place had begun to clear out around 8:30 when we finished up our meal.  Jaspreet came over to apologize for the delay in the food.  "We were so busy tonight.  It's getting that way now that we've been open for awhile."  Cindy said for him not to worry - good food should take some time.  We were fine.  

Before we left, we began to look up toward the second floor of the restaurant.  Cindy reminded me of when I brought her to the Italian Village restaurant almost 20 years ago that we sat upstairs.  Jaspreet came over to us and asked us if we'd like to see the upstairs.  He shepherded us up the stairs and showed us a bar area with more booths.  He apologized for the mess - they were still working on the place - but he said they anticipated the bar area would be open in a few weeks, if not sooner.  He told us that on the third floor, up another flight of stairs, they had a banquet room.  And, something I didn't know, they had a downstairs basement area that had a pool table and a small bar.  

While I'm still far from an Indian food expert, I do know what I like and the food at Mantra was simply excellent.   The portions are small enough and the price (10 to 12 bucks per entree) is economical enough that two people could easily get three different entries and eat family style at Mantra.  We may do that on our next visit because I wasn't full in the least after finishing half the naan and my serving of the Rogan Josh.  And we're definitely going more spicy next time, too.  Cindy would like to go back for the buffet lunch at some point to try other things they have on the menu.  Just be ready to wait for either a food or table - or both - because the place is getting pretty popular.  (Note - Mantra is closed on Sunday.)

Jaipur Brew House - Omaha

I worked an event at The Sound Environment in Omaha one evening earlier this year.  I was standing and talking to one of their longtime employees, Jim, just catching up on things when a woman walked in looking for her husband and his friend.  She said, "They're either in here or they're over at the Indian restaurant."

I turned to Jim and said, "There's an Indian restaurant nearby?"

He said, "Yeah, Jaipur!  It's just right over here."

We walked to the front door and he pointed to a building down the way in the Rockbrook Village Shopping Center in which both businesses are located (see map).  It was literally a 50 yard walk to the front door of the restaurant.  Now, I figured that I had been coming to The Sound Environment at this location for over 20 years. Jaipur opened in 1992 and I have driven by the place countless times over the years and never noticed it before.  But, then again, that shouldn't be surprising as my wife has told me countless times over the years that I am not good at noticing things.  

I asked Jim if the food was good and he said, "Oh, it's very good.  And they're also a brewpub."

"A brewpub," I asked him, somewhat incredulous.  "An Indian brew pub?"

He said, "Oh, yeah.  They have a brewing operation in the back.  They make the most outrageous jalapeno beer."  

The event at The Sound Environment was over at 9 p.m. and Jim said that Jaipur served food up to 9:30.  I said, "We ought to try the place out!"  

Jim said, "Oh, anytime I have the chance to eat at Jaipur, I go!"  

Jaipur, named for a city in northern India, was co-founded by Steve Gordon who also co-owned The Oven in Lincoln, also a highly acclaimed Indian restaurant; and L'Orient, a former upscale restaurant in Rockbrook Village.  I have an industry colleague, Bruce Jacobs from Stillpoints, who happened to be at The Sound Environment's event that evening who calls the Oven one of his all-time favorite restaurants.  Bruce told me, "When I drive out to Denver for the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, I always time it so that I can have a meal at the Oven in Lincoln."  

Bruce told me that evening in Omaha that when he found out that the Oven and Jaipur had been joined at the hip at one point, he tried the food at Jaipur the previous evening.  Is it similar to the Oven, I asked him.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  It's excellent."  

Gordon sold his shares in both the Oven and Jaipur around 2004.  He sold the Oven to Ngawang Rinchen, a Bhutanese native who was once the chef for the Royal Family of Bhutan (you gotta click on the link - the King of Bhutan has four wives - all sisters!); and the Jaipur Brew House was sold to Nepalese native Gyanendra Bhandari who had been the chef at the restaurant for three years prior.  Bhandari continues to be the executive chef of Jaipur, but Sanjay Pandit and Bhojraj Paudel run the day-to-day operations in the kitchen.  Steve Gordon still works with Bhandari as the Jaipur's wine consultant and helps with the wine list that totals over 180 bottles.  

It was just after 9 p.m. when we got into the Jaipur Brew House and sat at a table toward the east wall of the restaurant.  The lighting was somewhat subdued, almost too dim to adequately read the menu. But the decor was elegant and classy.  Once we were seated, we were given menus by our waitress that evening, Smrita.  She was a pleasant young lady who reminded us that they closed the kitchen at 9:30.  

Jim had been raving about the jalapeno ale at the Jaipur Brew House and he ordered a 10 oz. glass of the brew right off the bat.  I asked if I could get a sample of the jalapeno beer and Smrita took off to get the beers.  She came back moments later and said, "I'm sorry, we're out of the jalapeno ale this evening."

Jim reacted as though someone had run over his puppy.  "Oh man," he exclaimed.  "You're out of the jalapeno beer?  I've been craving one for the past couple of hours!"  Smrita said she was sorry, but the jalapeno ale is, by far, their most requested beer at Jaipur.  We decided upon each of us getting a glass of their India Pale Ale.  Actually, it was a tad flat and didn't have a forward taste like I've found in other IPA's.  But it was certainly drinkable.  

In addition to traditional northern Indian foods, the Jaipur Brew House also features an "Indian Fusion" menu that offered an Indian twist on Midwestern/American foods.  Some of the entrees they had to offer on the fusion menu included a beef tenderloin that was cooked in their high temperature tandoor oven, a grilled tenderloin with Indian spices; a Tandoori marinated grilled salmon; a Colorado lamb kabob marinated in garlic and ginger then cooked in the tandoor oven; and a Jaipur chicken cutlet marinated with yogurt and Indian spices, then pan-fried.  

Jim told me that all their lamb dishes were wonderful.  I'm not big on lamb - I don't like the greasy taste of lamb, nor do I like the texture all that much.  But he was pretty adamant that the lamb at the Jaipur Brew House was excellent.  I decided to further broaden my horizons and I wanted something sort of spicy that evening.  The lamb vindaloo filled that bill.  I ordered that and, along with Jim's wholehearted recommendation, I went with a bowl of the Mulligatawny soup - a traditional Indian soup featuring pureed lentils with spices, then topped with rice and fresh coriander.  

Jim was torn between a number of items.  "This happens to me every time I come here," he explained to me.  "Everything is so good."  Knowing he was under pressure because the kitchen would be closing shortly, he decided upon the chicken pad Jaipur entree - large marinated chicken chunks with stir-fried rice noodles along with egg, fresh veggies and Indian spices.  A cashew sauce then topped the concoction.  The special soup that evening was a pureed bean soup and Jim signed up for that, as well.  Then Jim said, "Should we get an appetizer?"  I suggested the garlic naan, but he said the Kheema naan - a lightly buttered naan bread stuffed with ground lamb.  I've had Kheema naan before and I thought it was pretty damn good.  

Smrita brought out our soups.  I had taken a picture of both our soups, but the one of my Mulligatawny soup didn't turn out.  Below right is Jim's pureed bean soup.  Jim said his soup was overly flavorful and he offered me to take a spoonful.  My Mulligatawny was very good, but I liked the rich spice and herb flavor of his pureed bean soup.    

The Kheema naan came out next (above right).  It was big and fluffy, chocked full of ground lamb.  It looked like a small stuffed pizza sitting on the plate.  And it was rich and very flavorful.  I knew there was no way we'd be able to finish all the food.  

After about another 10 minutes, our main entrees came out.  Jim's chicken pad Jaipur looked overly thick and rich.  I'm not big on cashew or peanut sauces, but the large chunks of cashews on top of the pad Jaipur looked very good.  Jim offered a portion to me and he put a sample on my bread plate.  The taste sensations were overwhelming.  I don't know exactly what was in it that made it taste so good, but it certainly appealed to me.  

From the first bite of my lamb vindaloo, it got my attention.   First of all, the lamb chunks weren't greasy in the least.  The lamb had a great taste quality to it and wasn't chewy like I've found other lamb dishes to be for me in the past.  The second thing was the forward taste of the Indian spices incorporated in the sauce.  It was just wonderful.  But the big thing - it was HOT!  I mean spicy hot!  I wanted something spicy and, man, I got it!  I was telling Jim how hot it was and I offered to reciprocate on a sample of my lamb vindaloo.  He offered his bread plate and I put some on there.  He took a bite and said, "Holy shit!  That IS hot!  But it's so damn good, too!"  He was absolutely right.

The best part was dipping some of the Kheema naan in the vindaloo sauce.  Oh, God!  It was just excellent.  It was so forward with the spices and had an explosive aftertaste.  It was just fabulous.  

Jim and Bruce couldn't have been more spot on about the food at the Jaipur Brew House.  Although the beer was a little flat and they were out of their popular jalapeno ale, the food was outstanding.  In fact, the vindaloo was possibly a little more hot in spiciness than I like, but it was still excellent.  And I have to say the lamb was nothing like the lamb I'd had before.  Smrita was an excellent waitress for us and even though it was well past closing time when we finished up, we didn't feel hurried at all.  Now that I know about the Jaipur Brew House, I look forward to going back at some point and having something other than the vindaloo and trying the jalapeno beer.  Oh!  And it looks like on my next trip over to Lincoln, I'll have to seek out the Oven, as well. 

Viceroy of India - Lombard, IL

I'd had a long day calling on accounts in Chicago recently and got back to the hotel around 7:30.  I was sort of hungry, but didn't really know what I wanted.  I decided to check Urbanspoon to see what was in the area and I came across an Indian restaurant in Lombard by the name of Viceroy of India.  I hadn't had Indian food for awhile and the reviews of Viceroy seemed to be positive, so I ventured over to the restaurant on a cool, blustery evening. 

The Viceroy of India in Lombard is the second of two locations for owner Surinder Kumar Jain.  The primary location is in Chicago on W. Devon Ave. in an area some of the locals refer to as "Little India" because of the number of Indian restaurants and stores in the immediate area.  Jain opened the original Viceroy of India in 1986 and also has interest in an Indian restaurant by the name of Shakira in Downers Grove.  

It turns out that I had been past the Viceroy of India location in Lombard many times as it's just down Roosevelt Ave. from one of my favorite beer and liquor stores in the area, Famous Liquors.  I pulled into the restaurant with the neon band around the top of the building about two blocks east of Famous Liquors right around 7:30 (see map).  

As I pulled in, I noticed there were an abundant number of cars in the parking lot and I wondered if the place was packed.  I happened to look into a window on the west side of the building and saw a large room packed with people listening to a speaker.  I momentarily thought about going somewhere else, but then turned back toward the door when I smelled the Indian spices emanating from the building.  I had to go in to get some Indian food.

It turns out the large room with all the people was the banquet facility for Viceroy of India.  I understand a number of groups use the room for meetings and presentations on a regular basis.  The well-lit and comfortable dining room was about 1/3 full of guests when I was seated in a booth along the wall.  The host gave me a menu and I started to figure out what I wanted.

As I was looking over the menu, another waiter brought this basket (above right) of very thin, tortilla-like bread with two sauces - one a green sauce that had some unbelievable and indescribable Indian herbs in it, and a brown sauce that was sort of sweet and sour.  I'm still not much of an expert on Indian food so I can't tell you what this is, but I loved it.  It's akin to getting chips and salsa in a Mexican restaurant as the large, folded very thin bread (probably deep fried) broke off into chip size bites.  The green sauce was absolutely fabulous.  

Looking through the menu at Viceroy of India, I thought about broadening my horizons once again.  I thought about getting the Rogan Josh, small cubes of lamb meat cooked in an onion and tomato sauce.  I thought about the Keema Curry - lamb in a similar sauce as the Rogan Josh, but enhanced with garlic.  But I'm just not that big on lamb.  I thought about getting the Viceroy Special Biryani - basmati rice with large chunks of chicken, lamb and shrimp cooked with herbs and spices with bell peppers and tomatoes.  I wasn't overly sold on the bell peppers and tomatoes, however.  

I wimped out and went back to the chicken dishes on the menu and the butter chicken caught my eye - tandoori baked chicken chunks cooked with an onion and tomato cream sauce infused with special imported  herbs and mild spices.  That really sounded good and I was going to order it until I decided at the last moment to go with the chicken curry.  I also got some garlic naan to go along with it.   

I had just finished my first Kingfisher beer when the food showed up at the table.   The waiter dropped off the chicken curry and the garlic naan and I noticed that he didn't bring any rice.  I found out later on that rice was considered an extra at Viceroy of India - three bucks for a bowl of rice if you wanted it.  I thought that to be very strange for an Indian restaurant considering rice is so cheap.  The chicken curry on its own was $12.95, so I figured rice woud come with it.  

I ended up putting some of the chicken curry on some of the garlic naan and ate it that way.  The chicken was a little tough and overcooked.  The curry sauce was fine enough, but not overly flavorful like I've had with other curry sauces in the past.  Actually, it was pretty bland compared to other curry sauces I've had.  

The garlic naan was exceptional, however.  It was very pungent and flavorful with a lot of garlic laced throughout the leavened bread, so much so that Cindy swore to God that she smelled garlic on me when I got home the next day.  Dipping the garlic naan in the curry sauce was the highlight of the meal.

I don't know if Viceroy of India was all that good of a value.  And based upon my limited knowledge and background of Indian food, I would call their food average, at best.  I wasn't all that enamored with my chicken curry, but the garlic naan was exceptional.  The service was very good - a plus considering a handful of Indian restaurants I've gone to in the past have horrible service - and the dining room was rather comfortable.  But I think I'm going to try other Indian restaurants in the area before I head back to Viceroy of India.  

Biryani - Edina, MN

I had a stretch of travel where I was on the road for 10 nights out of 11 earlier this year. I had gotten into such a food funk that I was burnt out on every type of cuisine. I had gotten into my hotel in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington and tried to figure out what I wanted to eat that night. I could have easily walked across the parking lot to Joe Senser's, but I really wasn't up for that. I had a couple three ideas in mind and I got in my car and started to drive around. I went past a sushi place and I didn't think I was up for sushi. Yes, I know. I wasn't up for sushi.  That's how much of a food funk I was in.  I went to an upscale tavern down the road and the parking lot was packed. Besides, I could have just stayed at Joe Senser's if I wanted food like that. I had an Indian restaurant on my GPS and I decided to go toward that place, even though I wasn't certain I even wanted Indian food that evening. I'm glad I had the address in the GPS, because the Indian restaurant would have been tough to find. The GPS took me right up to Biryani Indian Cuisine. (See map) (Photo courtesy Edina Patch.com)

Sandwiched between a Chinese restaurant and a Domino's Pizza outlet, Biryani has been in business since 2009 after it took over the space from Chapati, a Northfield, MN-based Indian restaurant. If you look closely at the sign on the front of the building you can see that "Biryani" is printed over the old "Chapati" on the sign. In fact, Mohammed Uddin, who was a chef at Chapati at the Northfield location, bought the Edina restaurant and the changeover from Chapati to Biryani took two days. Along with his son, Noor Islam, Uddim kept many similar dishes from the Chapati menu, but offered various culinary signature twists along the way.

Biryani is located on a quiet side street in an Edina neighborhood that has more office buildings than houses. It's tucked back off of Amundson Ave. just south of 70th St., just west of Highway 100. Seriously, if you're not specifically looking for it, or had a GPS like I did, you wouldn't really know where it was.

And because of all the office complexes in the immediate area, most of Biryani's business happens over the lunch hour when they have an extensive buffet. So, it was fully understandable when I got there around 8 p.m. one weekday evening and found the place all to myself. The hostess sat me at a glass-topped table with a linen tablecloth underneath along the long wall of the restaurant. The long buffet was opposite to where I was seated. She gave me a menu and a waiter came to bring me a tall glass of water and left a full carafe of water on the table. They must have some really spicy food at Biryani.

I always seem to get vindaloo or curry dishes when I'm at an Indian restaurant. I looked long and hard at them and something sort of jumped out at me - there was beef on the menu. I don't know if I've ever been to an Indian restaurant where beef was on the menu. I was immediately interested in how that could be considering Hindu's view cows as sacred.

When the waiter came around to take my order, I was still in that food funk where I really didn't know what I wanted. I told him that I was in a quandary as what to order. He said, "Well, our name is Biryani. We're pretty much known for that." I had looked at the biryani - a basmati rice dish made with herbs and seasonings with nuts and raisins mixed in. I told him that I'd had biryani before (actually, Cindy had it and I tried it - I liked it) but I wasn't keen on nuts and raisins. He said, "Oh, we can keep the nuts and raisins out!" So, I ordered the shrimp biryani along with an order of the garlic/cilantro naan bread. The waiter said, "Hope you're hungry. That's a lot of food."

And he wasn't kidding - he soon brought out a heaping plate of the shrimp biryani along with a basket of the garlic/cilantro naan. The naan was light and flaky with a smokey, burnt edge from the tandoor oven. Along with a Kingfisher beer, I was set.

The biryani was good, not spicy, but not overly forward with the spices, either. While I liked it, I remembered why I like vindaloo and curry dishes more - it's the sauce. I love dipping the naan bread into the sauce. There were a dozen or so medium-sized shrimp that had been sauteed in oil and spices and they were pretty good. But as flavorful of a dish the biryani was, I found it to be a little too dry for what I was looking for that evening.

There was no way I was going to be able to finish the biryani, although I did dig through the basmati rice and pick out all the shrimp. And I was able to finish two of the four pieces of the garlic/cilantro naan. I had made a significant dent in the biryani and if I hadn't been traveling I would have taken the leftovers with me.

When the waiter came over to take my plates away, he asked me how it was. I said, "The biryani was good, but I like vindaloo or curry entrees better."

He said, "We have a great vindaloo. You'll need to try it sometime." I told him that I would.

But in the meantime, I told him, "You know, I've eaten at a handful of Indian restaurants over the past couple three years. This is the first place that I've ever seen beef on the menu."

The waiter explained to me that while beef is sacred to Hindu's, it's not for many others in India, primarily Muslims. Without saying it, I figured out that the owner was Muslim. With the name Mohammed Uddim, yeah, that's usually a clue that he's Muslim.

It turns out that Uddim and his son are from the Kushtia district of Bangladesh. While much of the food is the same, it's more of a combination of flavors from Central Asia, the British Isles, as well as India. But 90% of the population of Bangladesh are Muslims and they will eat beef. So, when I see beef on the menu in an Indian restaurant, I'll know it's really a Bangladeshi restaurant.

I'm still a neophyte when it comes to Indian food and I'm starting to know what I like and what I don't like. While I did like the shrimp biryani at Biryani, I'd still rather go with something like a curry or vindaloo dish on my next visit. Considering it's only five minutes away from the hotel I usually stay at when I'm in the Twin Cities, I'm sure I'll be back to Biryani at some point.

Cumin - Chicago

The 2012 Michelin Guide for Chicago area restaurants is now available and a handful of restaurants that we've tried in the past were mentioned in the Bib Gourmand category for being a great value in the eyes of the inspector. At a Bib Gourmand restaurant, two people can eat for under $40 and the restaurant represents a hidden culinary value. One such restaurant - Cumin - lies literally across the street from on of my dealers - Decibel Audio. A few weeks ago, I took a couple guys from Decibel Audio over there for dinner.

Cumin is a Nepalese restaurant that blends both modern Nepal cuisine and traditional Indian food with the common denominator being the spices that are prevalent in both societies - cumin, garlic, coriander and ginger. Nepalese cuisine is less spice oil-based, so it's not as spicy as you can find with some Indian restaurants.

Sanjeev Karmacharya opened the Wicker Park restaurant on Milwaukee Ave. (see map) about two years ago. His day job is as a software engineer, but his brother, Rajesh, had worked at the highly acclaimed Mt. Everest Nepalese/Indian restaurant in Evanston for a number of years. Rajesh Karmacharya, who like is brother is a native of Nepal, manages the restaurant along with Dipesh Kakshapati. The chef at Cumin, Min Thapa, had worked at Mt. Everest with Rajesh Karmacharya in the past, but had gone to work at a restaurant in Champaign before the brothers hired him to run the kitchen at Cumin. Right away, Cumin caught critics attention with their take on Nepalese food, something that there isn't a lot of around the Chicagoland area.

The first Michelin restaurant guide that was published for Chicago was last year. Cumin was named as a bib gourmand restaurant in that edition and was mentioned again in this year's edition. Adam, the manager at Decibel Audio, said they have a great lunch buffet for $11.95. "I've never seen the place less than half full," he told me. "They're always busy, day and night."

That evening was no exception. After closing the store at 7:00 p.m. and shutting things down for the day, we made our way across Milwaukee Ave. and went into Cumin. Even before walking in the door, we were pleasantly overwhelmed by the smell of spices outside the restaurant. The dining room was nearly full with a couple parties waiting at the bar for a table to open up. Chris, one of the sales guys at Decibel, was with us, so we took a spot at the bar and had a Kingfisher beer while we waited for a table to open up. After about 10 minutes, we were seated at a table in the middle of the restaurant. (Photo courtesy Citysearch)

Although Cumin is billed as a "modern" Nepalese restaurant, there's not a lot of modernity to the decor of the place. It has a small bar area that featured some pretty impressive Scotch whisky as well as a number of signature drinks made up by the bartenders. The red walls in the front of the restaurant are bordered by a wood floor and an off-white ceiling. At night, the lights are reduced and it's difficult to read the menu, even if you have good eyesight. Fortunately, we were at a table with a dim light nearly overhead, so it made it easier than tables on either side of us.

The menu at Cumin features a number of Nepalese and Indian appetizers, as well as a handful of Nepalese entrees that I couldn't even come close to pronouncing, and a wide variety of Indian entrees including a massive amount of vegetarian dishes. Cumin is one of the more popular restaurants in Chicago with vegetarians, but they also feature entrees with chicken, lamb and seafood.

Since Adam and Chris had eaten there many times before, I deferred to them as to what they thought was the best. Adam suggested that we order some appetizers and then three entrees and eat "family style", trying a little bit of everything. I thought that was a great idea. I told Adam to order up some appetizers and he ordered some chicken momo - which, I was told, is sort of the national dish of Nepal. He also ordered some lamb keema and vegetable samosas - a samosa is crisp pastry cone filled with either veggies or a meat. It was something that I had never had before and I'm always looking to broadening my horizons when it comes to Indian and/or Nepalese food.

The chicken momo came out first. It was seasoned ground chicken wrapped up in a little dough fold-up, baked and served with a Himalayan cashew sauce on the side (below left). We got eight on the platter and I have to say they were very good. I tried one without the cashew sauce and it was very good. The spices that they use with the ground chicken really had a nice taste on the tongue. It was far from spicy hot, but had great flavor.

The samosas (above right) were brought out not long after the chicken momo came out. They were little pastry puffs that were, I believe, deep fried. Two of each were on their own platter and the vegetarian samosa had potatoes and peas in a mild spice blend, and the lamb keem samosa had seasoned ground lamb inside. We cut them all in half and each had at least one of both kinds. Although I'm not big on lamb, I liked the lamb samosa better than the vegetarian one.

We decided on getting three entrees to share. Adam picked the shrimp curry; Chris - the chicken tikka masala; and I got the chicken vindaalu. One thing that I noticed about Cumin was that this was the fourth way I've seen the word "vindaalu" spelled in an Indian restaurant. I've seen "vindaloo", "vendaloo", "vindalu" and now "vindaalu". I have no idea as to what is the right spelling for the term.

And another thing that I noticed at Cumin - contrary to some of the Indian restaurants I've been to over the past couple of years, the service was actually outstanding. When I was finished with my second Kingfisher beer of the evening, one of the managers came over to the table and asked if I would like another beer. I told him, "Sure!" Then he asked if I would like to try a Chakra beer. I had seen it on the menu but wasn't familiar with it, so that's why I ordered a Kingfisher. He said, "Very similar to Kingfisher, only more taste." I told him that I'd try one. Hey, broadening my horizons! And it was pretty good. Actually, it was more flavorful than the Kingfisher, which is a pretty good beer to go along with spicy Indian food.

The food came out and we were ready to dig in. A large bowl of basmati rice came with the entrees and we had also ordered regular and garlic naan bread with the meal. We each took a bit of rice and then a smattering of the three entrees. The shrimp was interesting as it was cooked in a way that it was first butterflied then cooked so that it curled up, sort of like broiled lobster. It was very, very good with the curry sauce. And the curry sauce was very mild and very forward in taste, but not spicy at all

The chicken tikka masala was also very good. They first cook the chicken in a tandoor oven, then simmer the chicken in a tomato cream sauce. The spices they use in the sauce really brings out the taste in the tandoor-cooked chicken. I had one bad experience with tandoori chicken where it was overcooked (and it's easy to do) . But Cindy has had tandoor chicken in the past and this tandoor chicken masala was very good. I may have to give it another shot.

But I really REALLY liked the chicken vindaalu. The chicken was tender, the potatoes were flavorful and the overall taste of the sauce was sort of tangy, but not at all hot. On the menu, it said the sauce was a mix of tangy and hot, but I didn't get that spicy "hot" taste at all. I know I'm more used to spicy foods, but I didn't think the spiciness of the vindaalu sauce was all that hot. Overall, it was some of the best chicken vindaalu, or vindaloo, or vendaloo that I've had.

I can see why Michelin gave a Bib Gourmand nod to Cumin. The food was excellent and I got to broaden my culinary and beer horizons once again. The wait staff was on top of things - we had at least three different guys who checked on us before, during and after the meal. Even with the imported Indian beers and the appetizers, the bill was less than $100 bucks for all three of us. I had been looking forward to go to Cumin at some point and I'm glad I got the opportunity to go with the guys from Decibel Audio. I told the guys during dinner, "My wife loves Indian food. It's something that we've both gotten into over the past couple of years. And I've got to bring her here sometime." Oh, yeah. I'll be back to Cumin.

India Rasoi (Formerly Taj Oriental) - Moline

(March 2012 Update - This entry is going to be a little confusing as I've been informed that Taj Oriental in Moline is now known as India Rasoi.  Rasoi is Hindu for Kitchen.  This entry was written after we went to Taj Oriental twice before the name was changed last month. It's my understanding the original owner skipped town and left the place to new management who changed the name to India Rasol.  However, the chef stayed and the food is still the same.) 

A local friend who we don't see enough of, Shawn Eldridge, sent me a tip on a new Indian restaurant that opened last year in Moline, Taj Oriental. After my visit to Taj of India in Indianapolis (click here to see that entry), I couldn't quit raving to Cindy about how good the curry chicken was at that place. She said, "Didn't Shawn say there's some new Indian restaurant in Moline that's pretty good?" I didn't feel like cooking one Sunday evening, so we made the trek across the river to downtown Moline to Taj Oriental. (See map)

Taj Oriental is housed in the same space that was once the upscale and rather snooty Charles Michel fine-dining restaurant, as well as an Italian restaurant, Portabella's, that we ate at once and we had a sub-par meal. It wasn't open much more than a year, if that.

There is evidently a Hawaiian connection to Taj Oriental, one that was cryptically told to us by a young guy who appeared to be an owner or manager of the restaurant. He said relatives own an Indian restaurant on the island of Kaua'i and that's where he learned the art of Indian cooking. He said he was in Las Vegas about 10 years ago at an Indian restaurant and the food was so good he asked to meet the chef. The chef was a young Indian and the two became good friends. Somehow - and I'm still fuzzy on this - they ended up in Moline opening Taj Oriental last summer.

While the front of Taj Oriental sports sort of a "bunker-type" concrete facade, the interior of the restaurant hasn't changed much from the time we'd been in years ago when it was still an Italian restaurant. The booths were still set back in little alcoves along the north and east walls of the restaurant, with sturdy wooden tables and chairs throughout the main dining area. A hard wood floor with a high ceiling echoes conversations throughout the place and I do remember it being somewhat loud in there on the previous visit.

Taj Oriental is also known for their lunchtime buffets - served 7 days a week - and a large buffet area is off to the side of the main dining room.

Since it was a Sunday night when we were there, only a couple three other tables were filled with diners. We were met by a hostess/waitress who told us later that it was her first day on the job at the restaurant. (We could tell - her knowledge of Indian food was even worse than ours.) She sat us in one of the booths along the east wall and gave us menus. The room temperature of the restaurant was cool for me and downright cold for Cindy. "It's like they don't have the heat on in here," she said.

Like most Indian restaurants I've encountered over the past couple three years, the selection at Taj Oriental was no different from many of the others I've been to. They featured Tandoor oven baked foods, as well as a wide selection of vegetarian dishes on the menu. They also feature a number of seafood entrees, but they are known for their biryani dishes - a seasoned basmati rice that originated in the Middle East that, depending upon who is doing the cooking, may include scrambled eggs, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, garlic and onions, then mixed with your choice of chicken, goat, shrimp or vegetables. Goat - I had that once in Atlanta. I think I'll pass on goat biryani.

While we were looking through the menu, the waitress brought us a free appetizer consisting of a sort of Indian thin bread - that's the best I can describe it - with a red curry sauce and a green herb sauce on the side. Sort of like tortilla chips, the "chips" were deep fried and still a little oily hot when she brought them to the table. Actually, both sauces on the appetizer were pretty darn good.

I was thinking of getting something along the lines of the Murgh (Chicken) vindaloo or the Murgh curry. Since I'd had the curry chicken in Indianapolis about four nights before - and it was just killer - I thought I'd go with the vindaloo that evening. Cindy ended up ordering some of the jingha biryani - shrimp with rice. The waitress let the owner/manager come over to take our order as he had to ask some questions as to how spicy we wanted our foods. I told him that I'd like my vindaloo a little spicier than medium. "Medium-hot, if you can do that," I told him. Cindy said she wanted her shrimp biryani "medium." He asked if we wanted any naan to go with the meal and I perked up and said, "Naan! Oh, sure! We'll take the garlic naan!"

Our meals came out about 15 minutes after we ordered and we were ready to dig in. Cindy's eyes got big when the shrimp biryani was placed in front of her. It was this huge mound of basmati rice with herbs and spices with medium-sized grilled shrimp throughout. "Geez," she exclaimed. "This is a lot of food!" She already was thinking of getting a to-go box before she even dug in. There was a ton of biryani on her platter.

My chicken vindaloo came with a deep red colored gravy broth - something that I don't remember from visits to other Indian restaurants where I got chicken vindaloo. Usually, vindaloo is more of a brown sauce than a deep red sauce like I had at Taj Oriental. The taste was a little different than I remember from other vindaloo dishes I've had, as well. What my mind was telling my taste buds vindaloo should taste like didn't quite jive with the messages my taste buds were sending back to my brain. It wasn't bad - just different. It took me about five minutes of eating before I figured out that I sort of liked it.

The garlic naan was good - not the best I've had - but still good. It was actually more fluffy than other naan breads we've had in the past, but there was a large amount of cilantro and garlic chunks on the bread helping to make it very tastey when it was topped with some of the murgh vindaloo.

Cindy just raved about the shrimp biryani. "This is outstanding," she excitedly said between bites. I had a bite of some rice with a shrimp and she was right. It was very good. It was a little spicy, but the seasonings they add to the rice helped cut down the zippy taste sensation. I liked it better than my chicken vindaloo, and I ended up liking the vindaloo.

But spicy? Whew! This was supposedly medium-hot and it was getting my attention. It wasn't anything that I couldn't eat, but I was certainly going through the water. The waitress was back about once every three minutes to fill our water glasses as Cindy's biryani was a little spicy, as well. Cindy tried a bite of the vindaloo and she said, "Oh, my God. That's too spicy for me."

When the owner and/or manager came over to see how things were, I told him that the spiciness was really getting my attention. He said, "When you said 'medium-hot', I backed that down to medium. Our dishes are naturally hot here at Taj Oriental, so our medium is a little more spicy than what you'd find at most other Indian restaurants." I told him that may be a good thing to tell people before they order.

Cindy picked out all the shrimp out of her biryani and ate them when she knew she wasn't going to be able to finish the whole thing. There was still well over half the platter covered in basmati rice. She asked the waitress for a box and the box she brought over was almost too small for all the rice Cindy wanted to put inside. I had a bunch of the steamed rice that came with my murgh vindaloo that was leftover and I asked her if she wanted to mix it together with her rice. Cindy said, "No, I don't think so. I love the taste of this rice. It would go great with chicken." And it did - we had baked chicken the next evening at home and finished off a good portion of the remaining amount of the seasoned basmati rice. Actually, I think the taste of the seasoned rice was better after it sat in the fridge for nearly 24 hours and was reheated.

The owner and/or manager came over to check on us and he offered a free dessert on the house that evening. He offered the Gulab Jamun which are round milk dumplings, deep-fried and topped with cinnamon and a sweet cardamon syrup. We immediately said, "No!!!" We were so stuffed from all the food we got at Taj Oriental. He asked us if we were sure and Cindy said, "Well, we can take it home, can't we?"

He explained that it was the type of dessert that usually had to be eaten fresh. "It doesn't travel well," he said. OK, well, that was a nice gesture on his part, but we still declined.

We both agreed that Taj Oriental was good - good enough to make plans to go back again at some point. While my vindaloo was "different" from other vindaloo's I've had, it was still good. And Cindy thoroughly enjoyed her shrimp biryani. We just have to remember next time that their medium spiciness is more like medium-hot at other Indian restaurants.

(Update - Since this post was originally written a couple months ago, we've been back to Taj Oriental one other time. Once again, it was cold in there - the temperature in the dining room had to be in the low 60's. Cindy wore her heavy winter jacket around her the whole time. One of the waiters came over and asked if she was cold. "Freezing," was her reply. He explained that their furnace was out and that someone was supposed to come the day before to fix it. We're guessing that since it was cold the first time we came, the furnace may have been out for quite some time.

I went into the restroom to use the facilities and when I went to wash my hands I waited and waited and waited for hot water to come out of the faucet. It didn't. No hot water in the restroom. That's not good.

Service that evening was horrible. There was a waiter and a waitress. The waitress sat us at a booth and gave us both water and menus. Then she forgot about us. We sat there and waited. It was over 10 minutes since we had walked in and no one had come over. It finally got to a point that I had my timer on my cell phone going, saying that if no one came to take our order in five minutes, we'd get up and leave. The girl finally came back to us a couple minutes later and said, "Has no one taken your order?" Nope. She was running around waiting on two other tables (it wasn't that busy) and the waiter was doing God knows what - moving tables, chairs, plates, whatever he could do other than take our order.

Cindy ordered some tea to go with her meal and it took over 25 minutes for her to get the tea. And that was because the girl served it with our meals. Yep, service was excruciatingly slow that evening.

I will say the chicken curry I had that evening was pretty good (below left). I ordered the curry sauce medium knowing that from the last time we were in that their food tends to run a little spicy at Taj Oriental. It had a bite to the sauce and the chicken was tender and tasty. Still, it didn't come close to my new gold standard of chicken curry that I had at Taj of India in Indianapolis.

Cindy had the paneer tikka (above right) - marinated chicken with onion and green pepper and cooked in a tandoor oven. It was brought out on a sizzling plate, similar to fajitas. Cindy loved it. I had a bite and it was pretty good.

Still, we couldn't get over the slowness of the service. From the time we walked in to the time we left, it was nearly an hour and a half. I said, "Well, we'll have to rethink coming here if the service is going to be that slow."

If you're not in a hurry, Taj Oriental is very good. If you are in a hurry, come for the lunch buffet.

(UPDATE - Taj Oriental/India Rasoi closed and was replaced by another Indian restaurant/night club, Funky Desi.  Click here to see the entry on Funky Desi.)

Taj of India - Indianapolis

It had been a long week on the road by the time I pulled into my hotel in northeast Indianapolis one evening around Christmastime. Not wanting to travel much in the month of December, I found myself staying in yet another hotel room over 4 hours from home. Sort of down in the dumps and burnt out from the travel, I wanted to get something different for dinner that particular evening but I wasn't sure what I wanted. I went to the front desk and I asked the girl if there were any brewpubs in the immediate area. She didn't know of any, but a guy standing there piped up that there was a sports bar that had a lot of beers to choose from not far from the hotel.

I ended up going there, but when I walked in the place was packed. It was loud and I'd had enough of dealing with people at that point. I turned around and walked out and took off back down 82nd St. near the Castleton Square Mall. Looking over to my right, I spied a place in strip mall - Taj of India. I quickly made the turn into the parking lot. (See map)

Actually, the parking lot was sort of full and I was worried that there would be a lot of people in the restaurant. But it turned out that a beauticians school was right next door to Taj of India and most of the cars in the parking lot were for people in there. When I went into Taj of India, there was only one other couple having dinner. I didn't know if that was a good sign or not. It was after 8 p.m., but I still thought more people would have been in the place. But it was quiet and would require only minimum interaction with other people.

Taj of India has been around since 1995. The original owner, Deep Mand, turned the reins over to Churdip Mand (don't know if that's a son or daughter or even if it's a relative), and Gurdap Singh. Taj of India is sort of locally famous for their lunch buffet they serve from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. Their dinner hours are 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week.

The dining room isn't all that large, but it still probably sat 50 to 60 people comfortably. A number of larger table that sat six people were in the center of the restaurant, while smaller tables ringed the walls. The lights were somewhat subdued in the place, but not dark enough that it was difficult to read the menu or the Indianapolis Star newspaper that I brought in.

I was seated at a table along the front wall of the restaurant. A young guy was the host and waiter. He asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I asked for a Kingfisher. He looked over in the glass-doored refrigerator and he said, "I'm so sorry, sir. We are currently out of Kingfisher." He gave me some other possibilities of Indian beers - Godfather, Haywards, Taj Mahal. I wasn't familiar with the first two, but I was with the Taj Mahal. I got a large bottle of that.

He brought me back my beer and a menu. The menu was rather extensive at Taj of India with a number of Tandoori and vegetarian dishes, along with a large number of chicken, lamb and seafood entrees. They also had a number of rice-based entrees, as well. I was having a lot of trouble trying to figure out what I wanted.

The shrimp vindaloo sounded good to me - shrimp and potatoes in a spicy vindaloo sauce. I do like vindaloo sauce, but I wanted to try it with shrimp instead of chicken. I then saw the chicken tikka masala - chicken chunks in a homemade masala sauce with onions, bell peppers and tomatoes. Ummm... that was a possibility. Then I saw the chicken mushroom - chicken chunks with fresh mushrooms in a creamy tomato sauce. Boy, I was really having trouble.

But at the top of the chicken part of the menu was the chicken curry - lightly seasoned boneless chicken chunks in a curry sauce complemented with other spices. The waiter came back over and asked if I was ready to order and I ordered the chicken curry. He asked how I wanted it prepared, "Medium or hot?" I said I wanted it somewhere in the middle - medium-hot, if he could do it. He asked if I wanted any naan bread to go along with the chicken curry. Absolutely! They had a bunch of different types of naan breads on the menu and I was torn between the ginger naan or the garlic naan - both topped with cilantro. I hemmed for a second and finally went with the garlic naan. I'm glad I did.

About 10 minutes after I ordered, the young man brought my food out to me and did it look good. One thing that I have a little problem with at Indian restaurants is the amount of rice that they bring to the table. With the garlic naan and the chicken curry, there was no way I would be able to make a healthy dent in the large bowl of rice he brought out. I did spoon out a little rice onto my plate and dumped the chicken curry on top.

Now, I'm far from an expert on Indian food but I do know if I like something or not. And I REALLY liked the chicken curry at Taj of India. It had a little spicy kick to it - the medium-hot was tolerable and I concluded that I probably would have been able to have it a little more hot in spiciness. But the overall taste of the spices mixed together with the curry was just outstanding. Dropping some of the curry chicken onto the very good - and very pungent - garlic naan was another taste treat. The smell of the spices permeated the area around my table and the overall taste of the meal as a whole was simply wonderful. I made short work of the chicken curry and used the garlic naan to sop up the remaining curry sauce from the bowl. I was like a man devouring his first meal in weeks. The garlic naan was so good that I ate the whole piece - something that I regretted doing. But it was so damn good.

Compared to other Indian restaurants I've been to, the service at Taj of India was pretty good. Granted, there was only one other couple at the place that night. But the young guy came back and checked on me to see how my meal was going on a couple occasions. And the price of the meal was pretty good, too. The chicken curry was $10.99 and the garlic naan was $2.95. The Taj Mahal beer was the kicker - it was $7.99 for a 22 ounce bottle. Ouch!

Back at the hotel, the aroma of the curry sauce and the garlic from the naan bread was still on my hands. I had a helluva time getting the smell off even after multiple hand-washings and a subsequent shower the next day. I don't know if those aromas were burned into my olfactory system, but I swear to God that I was still smelling the curry sauce and the garlic well into the next day. It was too bad that I wasn't in Indianapolis for another night because I would have gone back to Taj of India the next night and gotten the shrimp curry. I'm serious. It was that good. Like I say, I don't know if it compares well to other Indian restaurants, but Taj of India tripped my trigger. To me, it was absolutely fabulous. As I broaden my knowledge of Indian cuisine, Taj of India may be the standard I use from here on out. I'm certainly glad I went there rather than gotten a sandwich or burger at a loud sports bar. It was the perfect food at the perfect time.

(Update - I've been told that Taj of India was purchased in the fall of 2012 and has been transformed into Amber Indian Restaurant, a Carmel, IN-based Indian food restaurant opening their second location on 82nd St.  I'll have to go back at some point and give Amber Indian a try.) 

Gaylord - Chicago

On our little tourist trip to Chicago earlier this summer (see that entry here), we decided to both try Indian food for dinner one evening. We picked out a place that was just off the north end of the Magnificent Mile - Gaylord (see map). It turns out that Gaylord is the place that locals and Indian ex-patriots go for their fix of Indian food.

Actually, Cindy ate at the Gaylord a number of years ago at their Schaumburg location (see map). Only it turned out to be a mistake. She and her friend, Pam, had met in Chicago for a shopping weekend and were staying not far from the Gaylord restaurant. When they went out looking for a place to eat that evening and saw the sign for Gaylord. Only they thought it said, "Italian Restaurant" rather than "Indian Restaurant". When they went inside, they were somewhat embarrassed to find out it was an Indian restaurant. But since neither had tried Indian food before, they were somewhat game to give it a try. And Cindy liked it - a lot. She called me later that evening, "We have GOT to go get Indian food sometime! You would love it!"

If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you've noticed that I'm doing my best to expand my horizons when it comes to Indian food. So based upon Cindy's glowing review of the place from years ago, I was eager to give the one in downtown Chicago a try.

Gaylord has been around the Chicago area since 1972, but their roots go back well into the 50's back in India. Two restaurant entrepreneurs, Mr. Gai and Mr. Lamba had upscale Indian restaurants in both Bombay (Mumbai) and Delhi. They decided to take their recipes and open similar restaurants around the world. I don't know how many Gaylord restaurants they opened or exactly where, but the first one in the U.S. was located on North Clark Street in downtown Chicago. A couple years ago, Gaylord's downtown location relocated to it's present spot at 110 E. Walton St.

The Gaylord location in downtown Chicago is actually in the basement of the building. The upper part of the building is part of Chicago's history. 116 E. Walton was the home of the original Playboy Club. With the new NBC drama/nostalgia series "The Playboy Club" starting up (and subsequently getting canceled) earlier this fall, along with the recent announcement that Playboy will re-open a Playboy Club in Chicago, people have been flocking to the original location on E. Walton to see where it all started. The only problem is that 116 E. Walton is now a professional office housing, I believe, health specialists. Not many bunnies jumping around in front of that place.

We were seated along the wall toward the middle of the spacious dining room at Gaylord. The sturdy tables were covered with a heavy linen tablecloth and the high-backed chairs were comfortable. We were greeted by a waiter who gave us our menus and we proceeded to look through them to figure out what we wanted. Cindy ordered a glass of red wine and I got a bottle of Kingfisher beer, possibly the most widely distributed of all Indian-brewed beers.

I've found service at most Indian restaurants I've visited over the past year to be spotty, at best. After the waiter brought our drinks, they just sort of forgot about us. It's not that we were ready to order right away, but no one even came over to see if we WERE ready to order. After about 10 minutes, one of the managers, nicely dressed in a dark blue suit, came over and asked us if we were ready to order. I told him we were and I thought he was going to summon one of the waiters. Instead, he was the one who took the order.

We had looked at a lot of things before we ordered. We definitely wanted to get some of the garlic naan, which we did. It was served piping warm and we got some of the unknown sauces Gaylord provided at their salad bar to dip the bread into. The garlic permeated each bite we took of the naan. Cindy hadn't had the garlic naan on her first visit to Gaylord years ago, but she really liked it. I mean, who wouldn't like garlic naan?

I was thinking of getting some sort of a seafood dish, but decided to play it safe and get something along the lines of a chicken dish. I'm still a little gun shy with Tandoori chicken, but they did have a couple entrees that featured Tandoori cooked chicken. There was the Tikka Masala - boneless chicken pieces in a curried sauce; and the Murg Makani with boneless chicken that's cooked in butter, Indian seasonings and a tomato puree. However, I ended up getting the Murg Bhuna, boneless chicken chunks cooked in a somewhat spicy onion sauce.

Cindy made the mistake of asking what beef dishes they had at Gaylord and the manager curtly said, "No beef!" She ordered something from the lamb side of the menu - the Rogan Josh that had tender lamb pieces cooked in an Indian-seasoned tomato/onion sauce. Afterward, she said, "Geez, I forgot that cows are sacred in India!"

Not long after we ordered, our entrees showed up at the table. Both were served with a side of rice and the portions were ample. While I wasn't overly certain of how the consistency of the onion gravy would - whether it would be thick or more watery - I was very happy with my Murg Makani (right). The chicken was tender and flavorful, the onion sauce was wonderful when spooned onto a piece of garlic naan. The sauce had a little bite to it, but nothing that was over-powering. It was absolutely fabulous.

Cindy couldn't come up with anything wrong with her Rogan Josh lamb dish other than it was so filling, especially after piecing on the garlic naan as we were waiting for our dinner. She said the lamb was tender and she offered me a bite. But I'm not big on lamb - never have been for some reason - and I declined.

The service continued to be spotty up until the time we received the check. Once I put the credit card in the folder, the waiter jumped on that with quick efficiency. And it wasn't all that expensive at Gaylord - our entrees were $15 for my dish, $17 for Cindy's lamb entree, and both were good-sized. The garlic naan was $4 bucks and there was a lot there, and our bar tab came to $18 bucks - about normal to a little lower than what we normally spend at a nice restaurant.

The food at Gaylord was just outstanding. I haven't had a lot of Indian food in my life, but I have to say that my experience at Gaylord was fabulous. I'm getting my feet more wet with each visit to an Indian restaurant and I'm starting to get a little more brave with the things I order. Gaylord is definitely on my radar now and I'd really like to go back and try something a little more daring at some point. Something that involves a little more curry than I've experienced during prior visits to Indian restaurants. I'm sure Gaylord could easily accommodate me.

Tandoor - Bloomington, MN

It had been a long day of driving, stopping at accounts between Davenport and the Twin Cities, when I got into my hotel in Bloomington, MN one evening earlier this summer.  I have an application on my smart phone that allows me to see what restaurants are in the area.  I wasn't too thrilled with going across the parking lot to Joe Senser's for a burger and few beers, so I looked up what was in the immediate vicinity of the hotel.  A name that came up and one that wasn't far at all from the hotel was an Indian restaurant called Tandoor.  Looking to expand my knowledge about Indian food, I set off in that direction.

Tandoor has been in business since the mid 80's when Kul and Sarita Kalra opened their original restaurant on E. Hennepin, caddy-cornered from Surdyk's across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis.  After  the city renovated their building and jacked up their rent, and seeing a need to grow their business, they found a new location about 1996 in a secluded strip mall of Bloomington off of American Blvd. at the end Morgan Circle just behind the Southtown Center shopping complex (see map).  Tandoor specializes in Southern Indian cuisine, clay oven specialties and has a number of Indian-inspired seafood entrees along with vegetarian dishes.  At lunch, they also feature an all-you-can-eat buffet where you can try a little bit of everything.

 It was around 8:30 when I got into Tandoor.  I was greeted by a young man and seated at a table and given a menu.  Tandoor's interior is similar to many other Indian restaurants I've been in lately - well lit with a Southern Asian motif throughout the restaurant.  They were busy and I noticed that a number of a India natives were eating in the place - always a good sign in an Indian restaurant.  

After my experience with Tandoori chicken at the Himalayan restaurant in the Chicago area, I knew that any clay oven entrees were probably not going to happen for me this particular evening.  Tandoor featured a number of curried dishes, lamb and goat entrees (sorry, had the goat before and will pass), the aforementioned seafood entrees, as well as the normal chicken dishes such as vendaloo, tikka masala and madras, which is made with a coconut sauce in curry.  It's supposedly a delicacy in Southern India.  One thing that caught my eye was the chicken mushroom entree with boneless chicken breasts in a curry sauce with fresh mushrooms.  In fact, they may have had a dozen different varieties of entrees for the chicken alone.

I do remember liking the chicken vendaloo before - basically boneless chicken and potatoes in a somewhat spicy and tangy red sauce.  When the waiter finally came over to take my order after sitting there for 10 minutes, I ordered that.  I also ordered a side of garlic naan bread and a Taj Mahal beer.  I was beginning to sense that the service was a little less than desirable at Tandoor.   

I did get my beer right away, but it was sort of warmish in the bottle.  I didn't care - it had been a long day and I wanted a beer.  The Taj Mahal bottle is 22 oz. and it didn't take me long to nearly finish that bottle.  By the time my meal showed up, I was ready for another one.

I had hoped my garlic naan would be out before my meal, but it came out with my chicken vendaloo.  A waiter other than the guy who took my order brought out my food and I pointed to my empty bottle of Taj Mahal thinking that he'd get the idea that I wanted another one.  He picked it up and walked away.  I didn't get another beer and no one came to check on me the rest of the meal.  

A side of rice was served with the chicken vendaloo and I added some of both together.  First of all, I don't know if it was good vendaloo or not, other than the fact that it tasted very good to me.  So, I'm guessing it was good.  The sauce was excellent with a minor bite of spiciness to it.  But the highlight of the meal was dipping the garlic naan into the vendaloo sauce.  Oh, boy!  The garlic naan was outstanding.  I've not had a lot of garlic naan during my Indian food excursions, but it was just wonderful.  

I noticed a guy next to me was having one of the many vegetarian meals they feature at Tandoor.  In fact, Tandoor is considered by many to be one of the top vegetarian restaurants in the Twin Cities.  But he was also having the same problem I was having.  Once our meals came out, they pretty much forgot about us.  I really did want another beer, but ended up just drinking water with the rest of my meal.  Then when we both were ready to leave, no one was around where we could get our checks.  The guy finally just got up and went up to the cash register and stood there for about two minutes before one of the waiters saw him.  Then he had to go find his waiter to get his check.  

I sat at the table for another five minutes waiting on my check.  Finally, a waiter came around with a pitcher of water and offered to fill up my glass.  I said, "No thanks, I really need my check, though."

And it was another full five minutes, at least, before my waiter came with my check.  By this time, I was fuming.  I was tired and I really wanted another beer. (Thankfully, there was a liquor store just down the way in the strip mall and I got a sixer to take back to my room.)  The waiter didn't get a very good tip from me.

Overall the food at Tandoor was very good.  I liked it tremendously.  The service plain sucked.  And that's too bad.  As much as I liked the food at Tandoor, I'll have to seriously think about going back in the future.  Bad service overshadows good food in my book, and unfortunately for my experience at Tandoor, it left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Himalayan Restaurant and Bar - Niles, IL

I've made a conscious effort to broaden my horizons by seeking out Indian restaurants while I'm on the road. The food is generally fairly priced and there's a lot of it on your plate. During a trip to Chicago recently, I found an Indian restaurant in north suburban Niles - the Himalayan Restaurant and Bar. I decided to give that a shot one particular evening.

Unlike many of my colleagues who are well-versed on Indian food, I am still in the learning stages of what I like and don't like about the cuisine. My first encounter with Indian food over 20 years ago was not a pleasant experience and I stayed away from Indian restaurants like they were the plague. That was until my wife accidentally had Indian food one time with a friend of hers (they thought the sign said, "Italian" and not "Indian"), and after a couple outings with colleagues to Indian/Pakistani restaurants in Atlanta. (Click here for the link to previous Indian restaurants I've visited.) I decided that I liked some of the Indian cuisine that I've tried and wanted to have some more.

The Himalayan Restaurant and Bar opened in Niles in 2003. Partners Vivek Raj Kunwar and Kiran Byanjankar, along with Chef Bishnu Subedi, saw a need for Indian/Nepali food in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Subedi learned to cook Indian and Nepali cuisine in Kathmandu, Nepal. After moving to the United States in 1999, Subedi worked in a number of Indian restaurants in the Chicago area, first as a server, then as a chef. The partners opened a second restaurant in far west suburban Bloomingdale in 2008, and then followed up with a third location in far north suburban Gurnee.

The Niles location is located along Golf Road, near the intersection of Milwaukee Ave. in Niles (see map). It's set back in a strip mall and you have to do a little driving around to find the place. Actually, getting there from my hotel was sort of a chore as the power was still out in many sections of the north suburbs from a powerful storm that had hit the night before. Thankfully, the power was on at the Himalayan when I got there.

Entering the Himalayan, I found it to be similar to other Indian restaurants I've been in. The dining room is large, spacious and well-lit. Without some of the pictures on the wall, you may have thought it was more of an American-style family restaurant. I was seated at a table next to the wall and given a menu. A waitress soon came over to take my drink order. It had been a long day and I was ready for a cold beer. I ordered a tall bottle of Taj Mahal beer.

One of the nice things about the menu at the Himalayan Restaurant and Bar is that a number of items on the menu are designated as "kid friendly", meaning that children will usually find those dishes to be pleasing to their pallets. There are also a number of foods on the menu that are listed with a "G" which means they're good for groups or family style dining. And they also listed a "Spice-O-Meter" chart with one star being mild and three stars means you'll break a sweat.

Still being a neophyte when it comes to Indian cuisine, I was trying to remember some of the things that I'd tried in the past. I remember my colleague, Todd, talking about tandoori style food during our previous visits. Tandoors are clay ovens used to make breads at a high temperature. The first time tandoors were used to make food other than bread happened in the late 1940's in India when an Indian restaurant owner cooked seasoned chicken pieces in his tandoor. It became an instant hit. In fact, today, the original restaurant - Moti Mahal - is now a popular chain of restaurants in India.

Traditional tandoori chicken is marinated in curd and tandoori marsala sauce. It is usually much more spicy to the bite in Asia, but toned down considerably for Western tastes in the States. It is a deep reddish/orange in color, thanks to spices such as cayenne, chili powder and turmeric which are put on before cooking. The tandoori oven has to be red hot for the chicken to cook - up to 900F (480C) - helping seal in the juices of the chicken. Todd has told me that the chef has to watch the tandoori chicken to make sure it doesn't overcook. "30 seconds too long can make it dried out," he once told me.

I was interested in getting the tandoori chicken, but I also was interested in the chicken tikka - marinated chicken grilled and sauteed in a creamy onion tomato sauce. Chicken tikka is usually a safe bet when it comes to ordering Indian food for the uninitiated. I also took a quick glance at the chicken vindaloo, something I remember having - and liking - in previous visits to Indian restaurants. Chicken vindaloo is a dish with chicken chunks that are cooked in a creamy curry sauce. It's more spicy than chicken tikka, but I remember thinking that it wasn't all that spicy when I had it.

I decided upon getting the chicken tandoori. The waitress said, "Do you want a large order or a small order?"

Well, she had me there. I didn't know the difference. So, somewhat embarrassed, I blurted out, "Large!"

She said, "If you have any left over, you can take it home. Yes?" I also ordered some of the garlic naan bread - something I remembered as being REALLY good in previous visits.

A waiter came out with my beer and a small basket of flat bread, along with a couple bowls of an unknown sauce. The green sauce had a very strong herb taste to it and it was very good. The red sauce was a little spicy and I guessed that was some sort of a curry sauce. It wasn't overly spicy for me, but I can tolerate spicy flavors more than most people.

Not long after that, the garlic naan bread came out. Cooked in the tandoor oven, this stuff is about as good as it gets. Brushed in melted butter, the naan bread is light and fluffy. And the garlic! Wow! But the problem is that it's so good that you have to watch yourself if you're eating by yourself or you'll pig out on the bread and not be hungry when your meal shows up. Oh man, garlic naan is great!

Suddenly, the waitress brought out this huge plate of chicken tandoori. Six whole pieces of chicken - a couple cut in half - were staring back at me. Now I know what she was talking about when she said I could take some leftovers home. There was no way that I'd be able to eat all of the chicken on my plate.

The outer skin of the chicken had a nice little spice to it, nothing that I would call outrageously hot (I believe it was listed a two-star entree on the "Spice-O-Meter"). But it did help zip up the taste a bit. The tandoor also gave it a nice smoky, charred taste to the chicken. However, like my colleague Todd warned me, chicken tandoori can get overcooked, even if you leave it in the tandoor a few seconds too long. Unfortunately, the chicken was somewhat dried out and tough to chew. A couple of the pieces were good, but the majority of the chicken was overcooked. And that was too bad because the couple of pieces that weren't were pretty good.

I ended up getting a box for the rest of the chicken and took it with me back to the hotel. Thinking for a second before I walked in, I realized that even though I did have a refrigerator in my room, I knew there was no way I'd eat any more of this chicken. So I tossed it out in the garbage just outside the door. I don't like to waste food like that, but I have to say that it was one helluva bargain for all that chicken tandoori. The entree, itself, was $12.95. The garlic naan was $2.65. My Taj Mahal beer was a little expensive at $7.50 a bottle, but there was a lot of beer there, even though it wasn't all that great of a taste. It was a 22 oz. bottle. I ate a helluva lot for under $30 bucks and a tip.

OK, so chicken tandoori isn't something I'll probably order on my next visit to an Indian restaurant. As Todd told me the next day, "Yeah, it's tough to find really good chicken tandoori." I'm gonna stick to the cream sauce entrees in the future, I believe. And I'm sure the Himalayan Restaurant and Bar has some great chicken vindaloo, something I'll try on my next visit.

Panahar - Atlanta

We were in Atlanta recently for the annual CEDIA Expo held at the Georgia World Congress Center next to the Georgia Dome. This was the second of an originally scheduled three years that CEDIA was to be in Atlanta, but a number of problems - including reported muggings of some convention goers in the downtown area - brought an outcry to move the convention out of Atlanta sooner than later. We'll be returning to Indianapolis next year, which isn't so bad for me considering I can drive to Indianapolis.

 

With that said, we have stayed out in the Buckhead area of Atlanta the past two years. Buckhead is known for its upscale restaurants and upscale shopping. And it's pretty safe to walk the streets between the hotel and the restaurants in the evening. Actually, I didn't mind Atlanta all that much and wouldn't have been upset had we had to go back for another year. But, of course, I didn't spend any time downtown other than going to and coming from the Georgia World Congress Center.

Over the past couple of years, I've been charged with finding places for our team to eat in the evenings when we get together at trade shows. I was unceremoniously dumped in that capacity - much to my relief - after the debacle we went through at Rosemary's in Las Vegas. Actually, that wasn't the big reason. I just didn't want to put the time into the research of trying to find places that would please 10 to 14 people each meal. We have a couple guys who are pretty picky about where they want to eat. One guy would eat sushi every meal if he could, but he hates cooked fish. (Yeah, I know - you tell me.)

 

I got tired of having people bitch about the places I picked out - didn't matter if they were good or bad; Italian or steakhouses - there were always complaints. And I said I didn't want to be responsible for finding the restaurants any longer. That responsibility went to my colleague, Todd, who decided to try a place that he found on the Internet that was supposed to have some of the best Indian food in Atlanta - Panahar.

 

Actually, Panahar bills itself as a Bangladeshi restaurant, of which I'm not that big of an Indian food connoisseur to know the difference between Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine. And quite honestly, I've not been back to an Indian restaurant since we went to Raja in Atlanta last year. I don't know what to order when I go to those places and have to rely upon others who are much more well versed in Indian cuisine than I.

 

There were 12 of us who made the short trip (less than 3 miles from our hotel, but thanks to Atlanta traffic and an all too literal GPS system, it was a 20 minute drive) to a strip mall on Buford Highway (see map). 9 of us went in a van while the other 3 took a cab over to the restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant, one of the waiters informed us that Panahar was a "bring-your-own-bottle" establishment. Well, we were out of luck, or so it seemed. He informed us of a liquor store just across Buford Highway. Since I drove the van, I was told to go pick out some beer and some wine for the meal.

 

One of my colleagues who works for our Canadian company accompanied me to the liquor store which didn't have much to choose from. I ended up getting the only cold six pack they had of Singha beer, but I also picked up a couple sixers of the Sweetwater 420 pale ale beer and a sixer of a beer from a micro-brewery in Athens, GA called Terrapin Beer Company. They had a rye pale ale that sounded interesting (and it was pretty good). My colleague, Terry, picked out a couple of cheap red wines that they had to offer. We figured that if anyone bitched, they could have easily hopped in the van with us. But everyone seemed to be happy with our choices.

 

Initially, the manager of Panahar had told Todd that he wanted to have a "prix fixe" menu made up for us as he felt 12 guys would overwhelm their little kitchen if we ordered individually off Panahar's menu. But Todd explained that we usually order "family style" when it came to Indian/Bangladeshi food and the manager was relieved to hear that. So the food order had already been placed by the time we got back to the restaurant with the liquor.

The first thing to come out was something called Poori Shrimp Tee-ka. Poori is a bread that is puffed up in the oven and it comes out looking like a little pillow. You mash the middle of it and then in a very ritualistic way you line up the sauteed shrimp in one row along the near edge of the poori bread, then follow that with another line of the sauteed onions cooked with spices and herbs. Then you roll up the poori until it looks like a burrito and eat it like that. I have to say the taste sensation was fabulous.

Next came a soup appetizer called Mulligatawny. This soup had a pureed mixture of orange lentils (didn't know there was such a thing), peeled tomatoes, cumin and some secret herbs and spices. It reminded me of a Mexican tomatillo soup that I've had in the past. With the poori shrimp tee-ka and now the soup, Bangladeshi food sort of reminded me more of Mexican food than Indian food.

The soup was very, very good, as well. 

Next came the main entrees - three or four different things to choose from. We had Dhaan-shaag - cubed meat (you had your choice of chicken, beef, lamb, shrimp and goat - yes, goat. And more on that later) that was cooked in the same sort of sauce that the Mulligatawny soup was in. We got some beef Dhann-shaag to start out. It was very good, as well.

Learning from my colleagues, I've found that tandoori is a staple of Indian food. Only at Panahar, they called it tondoori. I don't quite know the difference other than the spelling. Todd had ordered up some tondoori lamb for the meal. The tondoori lamb is on the left side of the place on top of the rice and peas. I've had it before and it's also very good to the taste. I'm not big on lamb to begin with, but the tondoori sauce is wonderful.

 

Bhoona Maang-sho is a seasoned spicy meat that is stir-fried with onions, bell peppers and tomatoes (on the right on the plate served over fried rice). Todd initially ordered up some of the beef Bhoona Maang-sho for the table. When that was finished he said, "Anybody up for trying the goat Bhoona Maang-sho?"

Todd married a Jamaican lady earlier this year and his in-laws had a Jamaican feast recently where goat was served. He said at first he was sort of repulsed, but it was seasoned and cooked to a point where it tasted surprisingly close to pork. I told him I'd give it a try as did one of our other colleagues and he ordered up an entree of the goat Bhoona Maang-sho.

 

By the way, in the upper part of the above picture is either mixed Naan or Keema Naan - we had both on the table. Naan is a soft flat bread that is made in Tandoori ovens. You can order it with onions, garlic, ground beef, cheese, even coconuts and raisins. We got an order of mixed Naan - a combination of cheese, onion and roasted garlic; and an order of the Keema Naan - the mixed beef version. Once again, it was very similar to a Mexican quesadilla in both style and taste.

 

The Bhoona Mang-sho with goat meat came out and I tried a piece of it. While it was similar to pork, it was also very fatty with over half the chunk that I spooned out of the dish laden with fat. I cut the fat off and tried the meat part. It wasn't bad, but I definitely would not order that as a main entree at any point in the future.

My colleagues made short work of nearly everything that was brought to the table. It looked like a fraternity feeding frenzy at the table with plates and bowls being passed back and forth, guys exclaiming, "Man, you've got to try this!", and approving grunts and groans as a new taste sensation was discovered with the next dish that was passed along.

 

While I'm warming up quickly to Indian food, I'm still not thinking that I'll be seeking it out very often while I'm on the road. Still, I know of at least two very good Indian restaurants in the Chicago area that I'd like to try at some point. The bottom line is that Panahar was very good - I don't know if it was better than Raja, but it was very good. I continue to be open to new types of cuisine and always on the look out for great taste sensations. But I'll pass on getting the goat in the future.

Raja - Atlanta

I'm not a big fan of Indian food.  Well, let me rephrase that - I haven't been a big fan of Indian food.  The first guy I worked for as an independent rep in the audio industry was a big fan of Indian cuisine and he took me to an Indian place in Kansas City a couple times.  I just didn't care for it.  It had been over 20 years since I'd eaten Indian food and I didn't miss it one bit. 

I don't know what it was - the texture, the taste, the color - that turned me off on Indian food.  But my Canadian colleagues all rave about Indian food.  They've turned some of my American colleagues onto the food, as well.  Canada has a number of outstanding Indian restaurants.  Of course, outside of India, Great Britain has some excellent Indian restaurants.  So, all my colleagues, as well as Dominic Baker from Focal, love Indian food.

My wife accidentally found herself in an Indian restaurant in the western suburbs of Chicago one time.  She and a friend had been shopping and they saw a sign for the restaurant.  She thought the sign said, "Italian food", when it said, "Indian food."  They were too embarrassed to get up and leave, so my wife went with the flow.  The waiter helped her through the menu and she loved it.  She called me up and said, "Honey, we've GOT to come back to this place!  I know you'd love it!"

My stomach suddenly got that same queasy feeling I'd gotten after eating Indian food some 20 years before. 

As I was working our booth at the CEDIA Expo held in Atlanta recently, I ran into an old friend who works in the industry who lived in Atlanta.  We got to talking about things and my colleague, Todd, came up and joined in the conversation.  We somehow got to talking about restaurants and my Atlanta friend was telling us of some of his favorite restaurants in the Buckhead area.  He mentioned an Indian restaurant by the name of Raja.  He said, "My wife and I search out Indian restaurants to eat at.  We even drove up to Washington D.C. one time because we'd read that Rasika was the best Indian in the U.S.  And Rasika was great.  But I have to tell you guys, Raja holds it own in comparison to Rasika." 

Well, Todd just loves Indian food.  He was then on a mission.  He told my other colleagues about Raja.  It turned out that everyone was up for it, including Dominic Baker, who fancies himself as an Indian food connoisseur.  My boss and two of my colleagues, Ian and John, were scheduled to go to dinner with a bunch of industry magazine editors, so our plan was to find Raja and have dinner. 

Raja was just down Peachtree Road from our hotel in a small strip center (see map).  There were six of us and Todd thought we'd better make reservations.  "If this place is as good as your buddy says it is, it's probably packed on a Saturday night," he reasoned.

When we pulled into the parking lot, there were only a couple cars parked in front.  It featured a very non-descript front.  Walking in we saw that it wasn't very elegant with basic chairs and tables throughout.  It looked sort of tired and run down.  Raja opened in 1979 and I'm guessing they've done nothing to update the place since.  There was a large empty meat counter toward the back.  It turned out that we really didn't need reservations as there were only two tables occupied.  Dominic said, "Well, that's not a good sign."  He turned to Todd and said, "Are you sure this is the place?"

He said, "Will's friend raved about this place.  He said that it was one of the best Indian restaurants he's ever been to."  We still decided to go in and give it a shot. 

They put us in a sort of small room with a half wall overlooking the main dining area in the front of the restaurant.  We were given menus, but I didn't have the faintest idea what to order.  It was then when Dominic came up with the brilliant idea of ordering a little bit of everything and making it family style.  Todd said to me, "I'll guide you through what you're eating.  I've seen what you eat and what you like, so I'll help you out." 

Raja was as authentic of an Indian restaurant as you could get.  They had tandoori dishes, butter chicken, vindaloo and, of course, all types of curry dishes.  They had Kingfisher beer, the most popular beer from India.  Everyone, except for me and to an extent my colleague, Chris, were well-versed in Indian food.  So between Todd, Dominic, Jon and Simon, they just started to order food.  

When it all came out, they had to move a small table into the room to accommodate all the food they brought out.  And we just started eating it. 

Todd was across from me, Dominic was next to me.  They kept pointing at different dishes and saying, "OK, try this.  Now try this."  The consensus at the table was that the food was authentic and it was outstanding. 

Now, I couldn't tell you exactly what I was having.  And since Raja has no Internet web site, I can't even go back and look up the menu.  All I can tell you is this - it was good.  Very good.  I loved the taste sensations.  There wasn't the weird colored and funky tasting sauces that I remember from my earlier experiences at the Kansas City Indian restaurant.  I liked it a lot.

And so did Dominic Baker.  Dominic, being the world travel that he is for Focal, has eaten in a number of restaurants in India.  And being that he's a native of the U.K., well, there's Indian restaurants all over the place.  Dominic declared Raja as "outstanding".  He told the waiter, "I've eaten in some of the finest Indian restaurants in India and this is the most authentic Indian food I've ever had in North America." 

I said, "Well, Dominic, this goes to show you that some of the best restaurants aren't the nicest looking inside and out." 

He agreed with me.  "Actually," he said, "that's true more often than not."   

The waiter told us that when a number of English entertainers and dignitaries come to Atlanta they dine at Raja.  It turns out that Elton John has a two-story condo just down the street from Raja (his partner is an Atlanta native).  The waiter said, "Mr. Elton John and his partner come here quite a bit when they're in town.  They usually come after we close.  The Rolling Stones come here when they're in town.  We've had Mr. Michael Caine and a number of other British stars that come here.  They all know about us." 

I've finally been exposed to great Indian food.  I know there are a couple good ones in Chicago, including the one that Cindy went to out in Schaumburg.  I still don't know what to get when I go there, but I'm sure I can get a waiter to guide me through the menu.  But if Raja was as outstanding as my colleagues claimed it was, I'm afraid that I'll be disappointed in any other Indian restaurant I try.