Saturday, December 05, 2009

India's Tandoori

Just a stone's throw from the Miracle Mile gourmet taco haven El Toro Cantina is the welcoming lunchtime buffet of owner Gurmeet S. Multani's India's Tandoori. One can almost smell the many different taco specialties of El Toro wafting into India's Tandoori as you are seated by the very friendly wait staff.

The atmosphere is typically Americanized Indian, with suitable paintings of swarthy men and underboob-showing ladies entwined in non-consensual sexual embraces. The tables are clean, with those pervasive white polyester table cloths and deep burgundy napkins that are at home in any Chinese restaurant. The nearby El Toro opts for a more rustic solid table top with no linens.

After giving your drink orders and reviewing the printed menu, just in case a picky eater decides he OR SHE would rather bother the cook than get perfectly fine pre-made food from the buffet, you are invited to get up, grab a plate and get to business.

The buffet is a fantasy playground of Indian staples... from a succulently roasted Chicken Tikka to verdant Palak Paneer to desserts of watery rice pudding and Gulab Jamun, a cold dense honey soaked milk pastry ball. Throw a grape on top of a Gulab Jamun, and you're one step closer to Nirvana.

-Albert