Let's start off with the review Stuart wrote:
http://www.gastronomicslc.com/2008/07/0 ... nt-review/Pretty good review. i thought I'd share my insights using his comments as a spring board.
First, to the pakora. We usually order the vegetable pakora as our appetizer here and we love them. Are they mildly spiced? Certainly. That's one reason they work well with for families with kids. It's a pretty accessible dish for timid and sensitive palates. i once cooked a thai green curry at home and my youngest burst into tears at the heat with his first bite. I thought it wasn't that hot, but everyone's different. FWIW, he's become the heat fiend of my children though he's not a chile head yet.
So what are pakora? They are a vegetable fritter with the batter made from chickpea flour, which in the Indian grocers is usually called besan. You'll also see these called pakoda and sometimes bhaji though bhaji in my experience should refer to the onion version. But bhaji and pakora are made pretty much the same way by battering and frying.
The recipes I've seen for pakora have all been quite mild though I encountered a spicier one from a mix I picked up at the Indian grocer on Foothill Boulevard. Julie Sahni's is the one I've made most and it's pretty tame though I vary the vegetables more than she calls for.
Just a note on the sauces, the brown is based in tamarind paste.
We usually order mild here to keep the kids eating the meal, and even when it's just the parents, my wife still wants it mild.
I've not tried their Chicken Tikka Masala. This dish is actually not native to India but arose out of the Indian restaurant business in the UK. Still you'll find a version at most every Indian restaurant and cookbook because it is very popular. Also shrimp versions are showing up now.
Our standby dishes here are the Tandoori Chicken, Lamb Saag and vegetable Biryani.
For the Tandoori chicken, they use leq quarters at the Royal India and serve it with grilled onions and peppers on a sizzling cast iron platter. I suspect that these legs are pre-cooked and reheated in the Tandoor based on the speed that they can be delivered. The leg quarters stand up well to that treatment but don't expect to see breast meat. The same is likely true for many of the dishes as they can take quite a while to prepare.
Lamb Saag looks absolutely awful but is wonderful. Saag is spinach as i understand it but in this particular dish, the lamb is braised in a reducing sauce and spinach cooked in for the last part of cooking. Deep flavors, tender moist lamb. It's good the lighting is dim at the table because it has a terrible green brown gooey appearance like something a sick dog left in your lawn.
Biryani is a baked rice dish and can traditionally take quite some time to prepare. I don't think this would be a common choice but we like vegetables and usually look for some way to add some to our restaurant meals which too often are all about meat. Again, the complex deep flavors, the potatoes being a particular favorite as the flavors shine against the neutral background.
As to naan, I think they do the best naan in the valley. Naan is a thin bread cooked in a flash in the 900 degree tandoor oven. I prefer their garlic naan to their plain naan, but haven't been served one with garlic powder. Maybe they had a problem that night. In my attempts to recreate this wonder at home, I've had the best success brushing it with garlic butter after cooking as otherwise garlic on the surface scorches. I've also had the best success cooking them on a hot grill or at the stove rather than in the oven or on a baking stone in the oven. Mine are still not nearly as thin and light.
Their service is quite good.
In the spirit of Indian food, you should watch this John Pinette clip about eating different cuisines. At the end is his bit about Indian food starting about 5:40. Quite funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUosUk6X9gE
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