Buuuuuuump!v
A friend asked if I’d ever been here, as she wanted to take me to dinner to celebrate my recent birthday. I’ve never been and it was a good midpoint for the 3 of us, and knowing how many of you have had great things to say, of course I was game! She made a reservation. Keep in mind that I don’t look at menus online before I go to a restaurant - the only time I do that is when a place is new or I know NOTHING about it - and even then, I don’t make choices ahead of time. Had I looked at the website, I probably would have suggested we go somewhere else, as HC has a new owner/exec chef as of 1.5 years ago, and there are a ton of FUSION offerings on the menu. I looked today - there are also traditional dishes for the purists, but I didn’t know any of this.
We were seated (1 other table occupied at 6:15 but it definitely filled up) and the server handed off two menus (for 3 of us). It wasn’t until I realized there was a third one standing up against the wall that I even had one to look at, and before I could do that, the chef was at our table. He asked if we had eaten Indian food before (yes) and what allergies we have and our spice tolerance (2 of us medium, 1 mild). He then proceeded to explain that he approaches this cuisine differently; no manufactured oils, no processed sugar. Okay, I’m in. They are making tallow from every protein they serve, so the lamb is cooked in lamb fat, chicken in its own, etc. Talk about time-consuming! They make their own naan. And paneer. They juice saag and add it to dishes. And although he’s Indian, he likes to put a twist on his dishes. He could see we were engaged in the story and asked “Do you want me to just bring you dishes?” And of course we said yes.
The dishes that arrived were mostly items I wouldn’t have ordered on my own, so I was truly grateful for them being put in front of us because they were fantastic across the board. I checked this morning, and most of them are on the site, so if you want to read detailed descriptions, you can look here. We had:
Truffle Mushroom Ravioli
Arancini
Lamb Chorizo Tacos with triple green chili guac (which was amazing and also served w the shrimp)
Devil Shrimp Guac Puffs
Chicken Tikka Masala Lasagna
Indian Cheesecake and Tiramisu
Assorted Kulfi
DARK chocolate cake w housemade pistachio butter in the center
The final dessert arrived a good 15 mins after the bill was paid, as we were still sitting there and chatting. He said there had to be cake for my birthday, so we didn’t argue. 
If you know me, you know that I’m not a chocolate girl. I’ll eat it, but I don’t care about it. I CARED ABOUT THIS CAKE. Not super sweet, very light (almond flour), and we polished it off very quickly despite having already declared we were full.
The big difference was that none of us were uncomfortably full, as we normally are after eating traditional Indian food. I chalk that up to much cleaner ingredients/prep and can’t wait to get back there to try some more of his dishes, including some of the traditional ones.
The ONLY thing we didn’t love about the place was the atmosphere; I don’t care that it’s in a strip mall (hello, Lita!), but there’s no ‘vibe’ - a dead Christmas tree, surgical lighting, blank walls, and everything from faded printed signs to a whiteboard in the window. From the outside, it looks like they took over a very meh takeout Chinese place. I say this knowing that it costs money to decorate, but there are some very inexpensive ways to bring the decor a little closer to the level of the food being served. My 2 cents!
If anyone is interested in a HOdown, I’d definitely be willing to organize one! Oh, and it’s BYO if that matters to you.
