10 Signs You're In An Good Indian Restaurant, According To Experts - The Takeout

Culture, Media, General Culture, Chains, General Discussions
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[General NJ including Monmouth County and proximity et al.]

Happened across this article linked below and it caught my eye as a frequent eager consumer of Indian food at restaurants around here … given our relative proximity to Edison and other New Jersey\NYC ‘hot spots’ for this cuisine as well as the perennial Saffron vs. Aarzu debate here in Freehold and with Chozhas, Bombay River, & more just “down the road” from us – I thought it appropriate to share the link here in the hopes that it might spur some good spirited localized discussion, reviews, suggestions, etc.

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Interesting article. Not least that most of the “signs” would, generally, apply to restaurants of any national cuisine so, IMO, would be fairly reliable. In terms of South Asian restaurants, they’d be as applicable (or not) to the cuisines of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as to India

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Mods, perhaps considering moving this to Culture etc?

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Except

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I am looking forward to the article Ten Signs You are Reading a Mindless Listicle.

My top sign: taste the food. You are already there, order something.

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Hey Steve: Who asked you? If you would’ve taken a moment to look at my original post, I submitted it to a regional category with specific mention of ‘local’ establishments for context. Subsequently, the moderator(s) moved it here {no problem there}. Your comment directed at me was kind of snarky\snotty, unnecessary, and added nothing constructive to this discourse. Thank you.

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The point of my response was that the article misses the most important sign of if you are in a good restaurant. Looking at the decor or internet posts or the racial makeup of the other people eating there is ridiculous. You’ve chosen to eat there, just try the food to see if it is to your liking. What else matters?

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I’m on the fence. I like what I like. I can’t help that one way or another. OTOH, I do appreciate knowing if what I like has been watered down or adapted for any reason - local tastes, availability of product, whether seasonal or supply chain, etc - or if it’s “authentic” (and I really dislike using that word, but it seems to apply here). I can acknowledge that what I like may not be the way it’s made ‘back home’, and I fully realize that there may be some things that are made back home that would make me retch. I’d like to know the difference, though.

For example, many Onions may know that I’m Chinese (part), and my mom was born in China. I had two uncles who ran their own Chinese restaurants, and I worked in a (different) Chinese restaurant for a bit, so I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of Chinese food (at least that which is derived from the Pearl River Delta). That being said, I sometimes crave some really crap Chinese food. I know it’s crap. It’s not as bad as the Panda place, and my one experiment with Chung King “Chinese food” was well documented on CH. I know where to go in my community for good Chinese food and for crap Chinese food, and I patronize places on both ends of the spectrum. But I know where they land on that spectrum.

I would like to have that same knowledge WRT Indian food. I had a dear friend who was born in India who said she could only get good Indian food in her mom’s kitchen. Sadly, she passed away quite a while ago, before there were anywhere near the number of Indian restaurants there are today, and I have no other credible resources, so I have to rely on ‘clickbait’ such as the article in the OP to help provide me a little context to the items on the menu.

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Ignoring the listicle (as it has no answers, and the 10 “signs” are not actually even signs), here’s my 2c on Indian food in the ny / nj area

— Is it actually Indian, or some other south asian? You’re not going to get a deep dive on regional Indian at a Pakistani, Nepali, or Bangladeshi place that calls itself Indian. But you’ll get some delicious other dishes there that you won’t find at an Indian restaurant either

— Beware the question of how hot you want it. As in, if you can order your butter chicken spicy and your vindaloo mild, you’re at the type of establishment you’re trying to avoid. Not that it won’t be fine, but it’s the mix and match type of please-everybody spot. Hey, they have to stay in business, so don’t hold it against them. Some of the best Indian food to be had in nyc was from the chain Baluchi’s (rip) — they had all the standard things, and a fantastic lunch and dinner takeaway deal for sub-$20 that never disappointed.

— Every place can’t do everything well — or right. 90% of “good” places serving “Bombay bhel” are not serving any bhel someone from Bombay would recognize. (That’s okay, I would never order it unless the people behind the place were actually from Bombay.) But their kababs may be good, or some of their curries.

— If you really want regional food, seek out places showcasing it. If you see something unusual on the menu, ask why they have it — maybe the chef or the owner are from that place, which is a good indication that the dish will be solid. For eg Indian Table in Brooklyn has a Goan chef, so their Goan dishes are excellent, and more interesting than the standard Goan fish curry seen everywhere. A new Kerala place just opened up in midtown (Chatti), and you won’t find most of that menu anywhere else. Masalawala has some Bengali dishes that can’t be found anywhere else: the owner is Bengali. And so on. Finding out why something is on the menu might lead you to a good outcome (not always, of course, but it’s worth a shot).

— Go to a place that serves snacky stuff you may not recognize. Eg a place specializing in chat in Edison will likely have variations of street food like pav bhaji and vada pao that will be done a lot better than at a fancy place. A South Indian place serving dosa and idli won’t have any recognizable north Indian dishes, but why would it. And so on. I do think peeking and seeing where people of the culture are hanging out and having a casual meal is a pretty good indicator. My favorite dosa place in Queens has customers of all cultures, but it definitely has more Indians than anyone else. Also, it’s counter service, and someone (me) may just be sitting with a cup of coffee because they serve really good filter coffee. They might also tell you not to take something home because it won’t reheat well (eg the rava dosa I was craving last week and didn’t have time to sit there and eat).

I guess at the end of the day you have to figure out whether you want a good version of food you already eat and enjoy, or push your knowledge boundaries on the cuisine. Because those are different things.

But also remember that India is really vast — no one who claims to “know” Indian food can know it across the board — they just can’t, there’s too much of it. I know my region, and a few others, very well. But I’m still discovering dishes in those, never mind regions I have no previous experience with. I have a friend who is Assamese, so I have eaten some of their better-known dishes. I have never seen those on a restaurant menu. I have friends who are Bihari, but they had never cooked Champaran mutton until Dhamaka in nyc put it on their menu, and then they recognized it as “that mutton my grandmother used to make”. And so on. People really have little appreciation for how vast a culinary landscape India is, even Indians!

One last note, restaurant food and home food may be very different depending on the region. For example, no one in punjab is making tandoori chicken and naan at home. That’s dhaba food — eaten outside.

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I can go for some really good Chinese-American food, but not if it’s actual crap, as you call it. Or maybe you don’t have access to some truly crappy food in that regard. There are places near me that are just depressing, even if you want the General.

You will not get a good idea of what constitutes any kind of Indian food, good or bad, from that article.

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Very well written.

I can only add that if a place gets three items right (any cuisine), I consider that a tremendous success. Most places I go to, even my favorites, I have to pick and choose carefully. That’s why I make recommendations for specific items rather than throwing out blanket recommendations which are near useless.

In my area, almost all South Indian places are pretty low on the decor. A tired looking linoleum floor seems to be typical. But they can put out some super delicious food that can give me a sense of euphoria.

Please do not use this list as a guide.

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I don’t know what you consider “good Chinese-American food”, but I do know that many really successful Chinese restaurants serve what I consider crap. Many are quite capable of cranking out some really good stuff, but they have found that they do great business catering to the gweilo. And if you’re wondering where my crap-o-meter is calibrated, the Panda place would have to improve substantially to rise to “crap”.

I agree that the article can pretty generically be applied to any cuisine, and I learned more from @saragama’s post.

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I have never been to the “Panda place,” and have no interest.

Yes, if you want to actually learn something, better to hew toward the Saregama side of the subject.

For my part, the only two kinds of food I constantly crave are pizza and South Indian. Though I also know where I can go for some really good Bengali and Gujarati specials.

Find out in your area where you can get kotthu paratha, dosa, pongal, dahi vada, and bhel puri, and you will be on your path to learning and eating really, really well. So far, I have never met a kotthu paratha that I didn’t like.

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Yes, they are in the business of staying in business — so they sell what sells to the most number of people.

That exactly what I meant by:

We haven’t even gotten to adaptation of cuisines by immigrants. For example, a lot of indian food in NJ is adapted to suit the palate of people who emigrated there in the 60s and 70s. A lot of the food in the UK was adapted for and by Ugandan Indian immigrants.

I don’t like a lot of the NJ adapted Indian tbh — I’d rather go to a place where recent immigrants are cooking, whatever part of South Asia they’re from — it tastes closer to what I recognize.

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A lot of different cuisines encompassed by that.

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Most definitely! As you already know, I have been enjoying food from Bangalore recently.

Just that it might be difficult for some to find a specific South Indian cuisine. For example, I do not know where in my area I would find a place that specializes in food from Kerala or Goa. Chettinadu we have covered in spades.

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First off - Learning to appreciate a new cusine shows empathy towards the culture. Thank you.
Second, taste is personal. taste should bring back memories. really. even as an Indian, I did not find Aarzu to be great. It was not mediocre, but nothing special to talk about. Of course, their presentation is good, innovation nice, but taste - it does not evoke any memories to me. perhaps it does to others. One can say its because of the fancy shamcy fusion aspect they bring in. its all great, but adding pork roll to vada pav will not make it better…it ruins both.

Finally, if you enjoy a particular restaurant - even if its just one dish, go there often. I do it all the time at this one particular small restaurant, I order the same dish again and again, and its built a memory for me now. That is my go to restaurant for chicken curry with bone. It tastes as authentic as I remember the first time visiting the restaurant!
hehehe…Just cheating myself to believing it!

My 2 cents.

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Wonderful post, so thanks for sharing that personal insight.

Some Indian places that get attention from the media only serve boneless, skinless white meat chicken. Those places appeal to a sense of middle-class entitlement which may be able to produce some really good food, bravo, but will not evoke anything.

I don’t listen to critics that favor that type of experience. And I see many people pass by the ‘little guy’ in order to elbow their way into places that feature craft cocktails. Not my bag.

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Instinctively, I would have high regard for a place that gave me the choice about how a dish will be cooked. Applies to any cuisine for me, not just South Asian. I do know several “high street curry houses” that will ask how hot I want a dish - my usual answer is that I’d like it how the chef would enjoy it.

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Just don’t make the mistake of ordering the hottest daal at an Indian place like we did in London. After dinner plans of pub-hopping had to be cancelled due to severe gastric distress. Ouch. And we have a pretty high tolerance for heat.