rev:text
| - Non Indian owners opening up an Indian restaurant. (There was an Indian cook) Of course I am going to try it! I came here on a Friday evening. The place was hard to find driving by in the winter snow but I managed.
A very small compact space with south Indian street stop influenced decor including thumbs up, fanta bottles, tiffin boxes up on display, and a small Ganesh statue in front of the cash. Can't forget the bright Neon hand light-that's hard to miss.
The menu was playing it pretty safe with a few choices: I commend that because even a few items cooked and prepared perfectly go a long way. The menu changes on a weekly basis to different regions of India (I believe for the thali). The owners were preparing for a trip to India over holidays - this was impressive-and s A for effort for staying current with authentic Indian food trends!
Entrées: dahi batata puris (comes 6 pieces for 7$-vegetarian) this was a perfectly done dish (5/5) the fact the potatoes were finely chopped, the use of fresh Channa vs canned, garnished with tamarind sauce, the yogurt was not too sweet-all in all a good bite of goodness that melted in my mouth.
Entrées: thali (available with veg or non-veg 17 vs 18$) we went with the the veg option to share -came with 4 items, papadam chips and rice. (3/5) I found extremely bizarre there was no naan bread that is a gold standard for ANY thali. There were 4 curries: eggplant, spinach (a bit under cooked), sambar (vegetable curry that usually goes with dosa), and daal/lentil soup. On a whole I was impressed with the quality of food that in fact did resemble a traditional Indian dish you would find back home.
We also had the dosa -11$, 4/5. This dish was great up to the detail it came served on a banana leaf. The dosa is a crepe with a potato filling, served with a side of coconut chutney (lacked flavour) and sambar (same one from the thali).
Drinks: Billy Mitchell (3/5) was a different take on a Margarita with bitter gourd -tad on the bitter side but enjoyable. The bloody rasam (1/5) came in a large format didn't taste good at all with a pickled okra (they seem to really like their okras) and a masalafied blood Caesar just did jive right when the meal.
Regardless, I'm still curious to come back again..especially for the dahi puris! good attempt to Indian cuisine.
|