Indian restaurants are known for offering plenty of wholesome and appetizing vegetarian options. Yet even within the hugely diverse mansion of Indian vegetarian cuisine, few people venture beyond the limited foyer whose walls are decked with overly popularized dishes like naan, paneer butter masala, and lassi.
There are so many authentic rooms, nooks, and corridors from different regions just waiting to be explored. Here are a few restaurants that open some windows into the culinary mansion.
- Thali in Reno, Nev.
When I heard this restaurant featured both North and South Indian cuisine, I doubtfully walked in expecting incomplete caricatures of each. But the natural, almost homestyle blend of the two cuisines turned out to be far from stereotypical. Perhaps for a restaurant like this, the pinnacle of authenticity is not an unflinching fidelity to rules but rather matching the effortlessness of home cooking.
Thali’s unforced combinations, while still well done, resemble recipes someone would casually put together at home. It could be adding tempered black mustard seeds, the most irreplaceable South Indian seasoning, to the North Indian channa masala. Or it could be using the very North Indian paneer as a topping for uttapams, the soft South Indian griddle cakes. Either way, the chefs know exactly how to produce an eclectic potpourri of authenticity.
- Rajdhani Thali in Issaquah, Wash.
If Thali gives off a homey feel, Rajdhani takes that mood to another level. Instead of having customers order off a menu, servers walk to the tables and sequentially serve the day’s multi-course meal in a traditional West Indian Rajasthani style.
Rajdhani’s homestyle feel is not present merely in the taste of the food but extends to even the manner in which the food is served. (Photo by Divya Srinivasan)
For their signature dish daal baati, one server pours the daal, thick lentil soup, directly into our stainless steel bowls, while the next sprinkles in pieces of baati wheat balls as crouton-like toppings. The umami flavors of rice and soft roti mixed with the spicy curries create a flurry of bursting tastes, and cups of Rajasthani aamras, sweetened mango puree, are brought directly to the table just when the spicy meal gets to a point where your tongue starts longing for something sweet. Dining at Rajdhani is not about finding photo-worthy aesthetics or dishes that are too good to eat — it’s about experiencing the casual simplicity of culture and tradition.
- Mylapore Express in Folsom, Calif.
With unapologetic nonchalance, this restaurant wholeheartedly represents South Indian Tamil vegetarian cuisine. Items like rava dosa and venn pongal and kuzhambu — staples to most Tamil people but unknown to practically everyone else — are listed on the menu without an ornate description attempting to unravel the intricacies of the dish to an unfamiliar audience. Why would something so obvious need commentary? Simply watching servers scurrying around with two-foot-long dosas and puffed pooris the shape of a football enlightens you far more than any menu’s explanations. And of course, at Mylapore, everyone knows you don’t end your meal with a cup of typical Westernized masala chai. You finish with classic Tamil filter coffee, aggressively poured back and forth in a thin stream from cup to cup until handmade froth appears, nearly overflowing from the cup’s stainless steel rims. It all just feels obvious — and that’s what makes this restaurant special.
