Indian Food Battle: Tandoori King

Welcome to Indian food month! That’s right, once a month we’re comparing two local restaurants for a battle to find out whose cuisine reigns supreme. We’ll take you on a tour of Thai, a battle of the bakeries and a windup of wine bars. At the end of each month, you’ll get a pro/con roundup after which one of the two restaurants will be declared our winner.

We started Indian month with Anis, which has taken over the old Bombay Grill’s location. This time we’re visiting Tandoori King. In order to compare apples to apples, we went to both locations on Friday and sampled the lunch buffet.

There’s something wonderful about watching people marvel at a new cuisine. As I walked up to the buffet line at Tandoori King, a cheerful middle aged man was quizzing the staff about the Paneer Tikka Masala.

“This is really cheese?” He stirred the thick, red sauce, bringing up ample chunks of home made paneer.

“Yes sir,” The Indian woman stocking the buffet looked ready to blush.

“Is it made from goat milk?” he asked. 

“No, it is cow's milk. We make it here,” she replied. 

“This is amazing. I never would’ve thought. I mean, never...” He heaped another serving onto his plate and carried it back to his wife. “You’ve got to try this. I can’t believe it’s cheese!”

If you’ve never experimented Indian, Thai, Persian or Bosnian food, this is why you should bravely give new foods a try. Everyone deserves one of those marveling moments when they’re surprised by an amazing new food.

As someone who cooks Indian food at home, I wasn’t shocked by the admittedly good Paneer Tikka Masala, Paneer Saag (cheese and spinach in a creamy sauce), tandoori chicken or curry chicken. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find curried cubes of turnip where I’d expected potatoes.

Turnips were once a staple in both European and American diets, but they were eventually replaced with the less nutritious but incredibly easy to grow potato. If you see some turnips in either a southern restaurant or somewhere completely unexpected, like Tandoori King, give them a try. These slightly sweet white cubes were a little firmer than potatoes with a faint tang in the background - but mostly, they tasted of turmeric and cumin. Take down the label and I bet most people would assume they were eating an interesting and exotic potato recipe.

The rest of the menu was filled out with American cuts of meat cooked in Indian spices. The tandoori chicken, to my surprise, included split chicken breasts as well as the usual legs and thighs. To satisfy people who grew up on chicken nuggets, they had strips of white tandoori chicken meat breaded in semolina flour and deep fried to make a sort of Indian chicken tender. The mild tandoori spices and semolina flour meant it didn’t taste anything like what you’d get in a drive through, but the familiar form factor could make these a good gateway item for kids or other people reluctant to try a new cuisine. They reminded me of a meat pakora.

The chicken karahi was a stir fry of all white chicken with onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, tumeric and chili that helped loosen my sinuses while also delighting my tastebuds. This was hands down my favorite item on the buffet, an equal mix of chicken and vegetables with just enough spice to make me forget it’s allergy season.

Unlike most Indian buffets, the waitress brought a fresh, hot loaf of naan to my table along with my drink order. They were happy to bring out more hot naan when diners finished. When I tried to order some iced tea, the waitress pointed out that American iced tea, masala chai (tasty spiced Assam tea) and mango lassi were included with the $7.99 lunch buffet.

I’ve never seen mango lassi on an Indian buffet. The deliciously thick drink of sweetened yogurt and mango juice went beautifully with the spicy heat in the chicken karahi. (There are two ways to dull a mouth on fire with spices: dairy and beer.)

The small buffet only had 10 items (other than the three drinks and bread brought to the table) but everything was kept incredibly well stocked. The chicken curry was more chicken than sauce. The stir fried chicken karahi was half chicken and half vegetables. The man newly introduced to Paneer Tikka Masala had ample cheese to marvel over.

Although my fellow diner was obviously in love with the Paneer, no single item at Tandoori King compelled me the way the Kofta dumplings did at Anis. Everything was good, but nothing was amazing. However, the incredibly well stocked buffet, the fresh bread brought to my table, and the addition of expensive beverages including the mango lassi make Tandoori King a restaurant I’m happy to recommend. I give them a B+.