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| - For a city with a sizable Indian population, Pittsburgh's Indian restaurant scene can be pretty hit or miss. After reading a very good review of Mintt in the City Paper, I decided to give it a go. After missing it on the first pass (look for the red awning of a Verizon store), Belle and I settled in to what seems to be a converted garage--keep that in mind for winter months if you have thin skin. It's still a new place and the decor is pretty minimal. Being a converted space, the place has a slight cavernous feel to if there aren't too many other diners there, but that changes considerably once the place fills up, but not a romantic first date kind of place.
The menu itself is pretty extensive, which is both a blessing and a curse. I'm always a little suspect of places that have massive menus since I generally don't trust that the cook has THAT many knock out recipes in his/her repertoire. Still, the menu was a good mix of expected dishes and relatively obscure ones. We started out with Chicken 55, a fried chicken appetizer that's a take on street food. Very good--the chicken was moist without being greasy and nicely spiced. I ordered biryani and Belle ordered lamb curry. She said "6" when asked how spicy she wanted her curry. My biryani was fantastic--fragrant, flavorful, whatever you may be looking for in a biryani was in it. The curry was pretty bland. Others have commented on how spicy food at Mintt is, so I'm wondering if you actually have to say you want it spicy to get it spicy--otherwise you get the "adjusted for the Pittsburgh palate" level of spice.
Still, an excellent meal. Service was good, although I noticed that once the place filled up, the newer tables experienced slight delays (although nothing I would consider egregious).
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