Eating (in) Cleveland #4: India Garden

Thanks to a-nothing-else-to-do viewing of the Cooking Channel's Spice Goddess (http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/spice-goddess/index.html) Saturday morning, Sunday became "Indian Food Night."  Indian food holds and will hold a special place for Alexandra and I, as it was the food that brought us together (although, really, it wasn't the food at all, in and of itself).  It had been a long time- too long- since we'd had anything Indian, and having absolutely no idea how to cook Indian food ourselves (lack of ingredients, time, and mastery overtaking the tips we saw on t.v.), we had to find a restaurant to satisfy our shared craving.

A shot in the dark on a google search later, and we ended up at India Garden on the west-end of Lakewood.

At first glance, it looks inconsequential-really, the building is little more than a two bedroom house converted into a restaurant.  If there weren't a sign out front (in painfully orientalizing type-face at that), it wouldn't look like a restaurant at all.    Even upon entering, the place is less than wholly outstanding in decor.  It's dark in an almost-but-not-quite elegant sort of way, with few real decorations around, save for a few Indian scarves draped around the entrance.  I'm actually amazed at the seating they cram into the small space.  It was nearly 8 p.m. by the time we got there, so I imagine any dinner crowd had thinned, so it wasn't cramped, but I could envision a pretty tight dining room if enough diners were present; especially for their advertised lunch buffets.   From the looks of the place, I wasn't sure what to expect.  It didn't look like anything special, but experience has generally shown international food to be at its best when the restaurant looks to be at its worst.  India Garden, in that respect, did not disappoint.

It was probably the best food I've had at an Indian restaurant, and I don't say that easily- I've thoroughly enjoyed most of the food I've had at any Indian restaurant.  It probably wasn't as spicy as I generally like, but it wasn't bland.  That's actually pretty high praise-without proper spice, food that's supposed to be spicy comes off quite bland most of the time.  Perhaps this means India Garden has found a way to cater to the weaker American palette without sacrificing flavor.  I ordered something called Chicken Jalfrieze.  I don't really know what that means, but it was a tomato based curry with onions and cream.  The pop of the coriander seeds within the sauce was perfect- not overpowering the total dish, but complimenting the overall bite.   We only ordered regular naan, but it was excellent- wonderfully crispy outside giving way to the right sort of pillowy chewiness inside.  For an appetizer, we ordered vegetable pakora.  Pakora often means something like American onion rings, but with other sorts of vegetables.  These, however, were a sort of vegetable mixture, ground up and fried as a sort of Indian hush puppy.  I don't know enough about Indian cuisine to know if this is a variation common in parts of India or unique, but I enjoyed it because it complexified a generally simple dish.  Instead of a stringent onion or pepper on its own, the pakoras featured flavors of onion, spinach, squash, and chickpeas all wrapped into one bite.  With the addition of the green chili chutney, it was a splendid appetizer.

Aside from the delicious food itself, I must say something about the service: in addition to excellent and timely, the hostess and (multiple) waiters who served us Sunday night seemed to actually care about us as more than a table of customers.  The hostess asked how our day had gone and told us, frankly, about her weekend and how she enjoyed spending the day with her daughter before coming in that afternoon.  It's that sort of touch that makes me want to go back more than perhaps anything else.  I can probably find more great Indian food in Cleveland.  I imagine I can find better Indian food  in fact.  But most restaurants aren't going to provide the service and personality by way of their personnel.

In the end, I'm glad we chose where we chose, at random.  I'm sure we'll try other places and some of them Indian, but I'm completely unconvinced we'll become regular patrons at any other Indian restaurant in Cleveland.

-Zack