I had made the reservation at this restaurant almost 2 months in advance and even at that time I could not get one for fri-sat or Sunday. Wanted to take my husband out to a good Indian place to celebrate my husband’s birthday, which was in the beginning of May but we were at a wedding at the time so we couldn’t do our customary family dinner celebration then. So it was pushed to June.
After having driven for more than an hour and a half, I was glad to order a craft cocktail the moment we got seated – which was within minutes of our arrival although the restaurant was already pretty full. I ordered “Khubani” and the hubbs ordered “Aam”. We were in a hurry to drink so no pics were taken. The cocktails were good…not great. We had one more cocktail each as the meal progressed but in all honesty, our 1st cocktail was better. So that’s that.
One overarching theme with the food here – they do not skimp on the spices. The spices are all catered to the Indian palate and not white people. Starting with the Prawn Balchao – one of our starters. It was really good. Savory, spicy and rich. The size of the prawns were also great. Unfortunately the chicken gushtaba (our second appetizer) let us down big time. My husband is a Kashmiri pandit and he makes a mean chicken gushtaba at home. This one was all wrong – starting from the texture of the ground chicken which was too loose to the actual curry which was cardamom heavy but lacked the authentic Kashmiri taste. The curry also felt like it had cream while it should be all yogurt (I may be wrong about this).
Apart from the gushtaba, all the other dishes were really great. The parontha layers were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. The chilli naan was soft and flavorful – we took leftover naan back home and had it the next day and it was still soft. That doesn’t happen too often.
The star of the show, however, was the crab chettinad – spice level was quite high but so was the flavor level. A nice touch – providing the disposable gloves so that hands don’t get dirty. Our American born 19 yr old son really appreciated it. We were all pleasantly surprised to taste the jackfruit Kosha. It was superb and actually tasted very similar to the kosha mangsho (same dish made with mutton) that I cook at home.
The only dessert that appealed to us was the Apricot Delight. Nadu might want to incorporate more dessert options. It was delightful though. Very similar to a tres Leches cake topped with fresh cream/ icing.
Ambience – casual and kind of loud. It was a Thursday but was completely full. There is parking on the street but we didn’t find one. There is a parking garage next door.
We paid $350.00 for our meal. Yes, it is pricey but we do wish we had this kind of an option closer to home in the suburbs. Will we be back???? – Maybe!!!! – only because it takes soooo long to get there.
Cocktails – Khubani, Aam, Chai, til (their version of old fashioned)
Appetizer -Prawn Balchao, Chicken Gushtaba
Cereal – Parontha, Chilli naan
Entree – Crab chettinad (comes with rice), Jackfruit kosha
Dessert – Apricot delight
lopastuff.com 