Anokha

Style: Indian

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

Website: http://www.anokha.us/index.html

Likes: Every dish I have tried from here is excellent; the service is patient, helpful, and friendly; they bring more rice to accompany the dish without a fight or having to ask, tranquil setting

Dislikes: The amount of dishes severely cluttered the table, but then again we ordered a lot of food.

Brad and I were late meeting our friends Brent and Whitney for dinner. It was about ready to downpour, the clouds heavy with charcoal gray lining. Pulling into the parking lot to Anokha, we jumped out of the car and I opened my trunk. Brad put his work computer in the trunk and tried to close it. I heard the latch click, but it released again and flew up. As we were rushing because we were late and trying to get indoors. Slam after slam, my trunk just did not want to cooperate. After five minutes of stress, different tries, and profanities, my trunk finally closed. We walked into Anokha stressed, but thankfully dry.

Luckily for us, the stress dissipated once we were inside for a minute. The tranquility of the dark room, candles, and soft music was enough to quell any jitters. We walked to the table where a server was helping Whitney find something that she could eat. She was recently diagnosed with a slew of food allergies, and it was nice to see that the server was assisting her and cordially answering questions.

We ordered drinks. Some glasses of red wine were ordered and I had a King Fisher beer, which was surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be. It was a little grassy, but it went well with what I ordered. It was brought to me in a cold glass, already iced which kept the beverage cold throughout the meal.

The picture of the drinks is below. You will note how dark it is. This restaurant was a fabulous push for me to work on examining the features of my camera phone. After toying around with special programs and the ISO, I finally started to get it right. You’ll note that this picture is horrible because I used it as motivation to try and figure it out!

After drinks, it was bread time. The bread on the table upon arrival was a plain naan that was served with three types of chutney and sauces to place on top. There was a bright green cilantro chutney, raita (an Indian yogurt sauce), and an ginger-garlic sauce. Each choice was tasty, but my personal favorite was the ginger-garlic sauce. Another table favorite was the cilantro chutney.

To go with dinner, Whitney and Brent ordered papadums, or a thin crisp made of lentil and chickpea flour. They had some mango chutney to put on the side. Brad ordered Peshwari Naan, or a type of bread that has coconut and cherries baked into the middle. He likes to order this when going to Indian restaurants because the sweet pairs nicely with the spicy. Once, a waiter at this restaurant even complimented him on the taste pairing. I ordered Garlic Naan, because I was going for savory. What can be more savory than garlic?

Each of us ordered something different as a main course. Brent was brave and tried the Goat Curry. Yes, GOAT. He said it tasted like a beef and lamb mixture, but that it was also difficult to put into words. That is fine with me; I’ll take his word for it.

Whitney had a shrimp basmati rice stir fry in coconut milk. It looked super tasty.

Brad ordered his favorite, chicken chettinadu. It is a spicy chicken dish that comes in a red sauce. It does become difficult because many of the dishes look similar, but the taste is always different. Usually when Brad orders, he specifies that he wants it Indian Hot, meaning they should make it spicy concerning the Indian palette, as opposed to just hot in the American vocabulary. This time, he just said to make it hot. When we tasted the dish, there was a notable different. It was not nearly as spicy as in visits past.

Then it was my turn to ask questions. I had ask the server how to pronounce something new. I have ordered Paneer Korma, Chicken Tikka Masala, and Chicken Patia from here before, but I wanted something less creamy and more aromatic. I ordered the Chicken Kadhaiwala, which is pronounced Kahd-hi-wall-ah, which was was pretty straight forward actually. Then I was embarrassed because I could have figured that out for myself. The dish was well prepared, with large pieces of bell pepper mixed with the chicken. The sauce was deep, with hints of coriander, lentils, and cumin. It epitomized the different tastes of Indian food, which I enjoyed, because no other ethnic food grouping will taste this unique.

I know that most people who have not tried Indian food are hesitant because of the spices or the curry. What I want to impress upon them is that not everything is spicy in this cuisine. I suggest trying something like a buttery korma sauce or a mahkni tomato cream sauce. Anokha is a wonderful place to experiment and I look forward to returning faithfully. 

BanZara Restaurant Review

BanZara Restaurant Review
Category: Indian
Rating: 3/5 stars
Website: http://www.banzarausa.com/

Likes: Staff, food, decor, prices, friendly manager

Dislikes: Stuffy west-end atmosphere, food descriptions on menu, can you say, "HOLY GARLIC?", where is the spicy food???

Masala Dosa with Coconut Chutney

My husband, Brad, and I walked up to the restaurant at 4:00 pm, looking for an early weeknight dinner. They were closed. Although it is rather unfortunate, we have realized that restaurants in Richmond close during slow hours... which is annoying to those of us who eat early dinners.

Anyway, we came back at 5:00 pm when they opened. The staff greeted us and were very friendly and prompt... which was not the case when this location was once the Indian Restaurant, The Curry House. Another plus, was that we did not see any male staff changing their shirt in the kitchen... another Curry House incident.

I ordered a Masala Dosa, which is basically a lentil and chickpea "pancake" filled with masala potatoes that you break and dip with a stew sauce and coconut chutney. It is a southern Indian specialty and rare to find in generic Indian restaurants. It was one of the best dosas that I have ever had. Brad had the Chicken Biryani. We thought that the chicken would have been in sliced, but it was served on the bone. We wish the menu would have had more descriptions. The biryani rice was good and full of a saphron taste. It would have been improved if there was more heat in the flavor. In fact, the entire menu was mostly devoid of spicy food. Brad and I adore spicy Indian food, so this was disappointing. We accompanied it with garlic naan (naan being like Indian dinner rolls, but so much tastier). However, it was more like.... garlic with a little bit of naan. Four hours later, I still feel like I have garlic seeping from my pores after only one small piece.

... no wonder NYC cab drivers smell so bad.

At the end, I was happy because the manager asked me how my dosa was. Then, the waitress asked me if it was my first one. I told her that it was not, and that I had a good friend from college who used to make them for me (thanks to Kunjan!). I think I may have impressed them... which always makes me feel pretty darn good.