The McDonald’s of India
As we walked down East 6th Street to meet Vladimir Pudding for dinner, Empanada Boy and I passed restaurants named Taj, Raj and Taj Mahal. We were headed past them in search of our true destination: Raj Mahal. I’m sure the food here was just as good as at its nearby brethren, which is to say, not that amazing. These restaurants make up Indian Row, one of New York’s Little Indias. (Another area, known as Curry Hill, spans the stretch of Lexington between 27th and 30th.) As EB’s Indian friend from SugarTone Brass Band puts it, these restaurants are collectively the McDonald’s of India.
Yet, while these ubiquitous tikka masala-toting places have sprung up across the globe, I would prefer a ho-hum vindaloo to all the Big Macs in the world. The prices are also a bit higher than at the golden arches, more like $10 than 99 cents. The food at Raj Mahal wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. We started with beer— Kingfisher and Taj (not Raj) Mahal. We then had to switch tables after our eardrums were pierced by a shrill sound that it turned out was coming from the radiator. Seated at our new table, we decided to skip appetizers due to our current poverty (and much to the chagrin of our waiter) and went straight to the main course. I ordered the lamb bhona— chunks of lamb cooked in a spicy tomato-based sauce with onions and green peppers. The sauce wasn’t terribly nuanced, and the meat was a little dry. I wanted more of the interesting spices like cardamom, cumin and coriander that make India food so fantastic. Still, the rich creaminess of the whole dish made it somewhat appealing. Vladimir Pudding ordered the vegetable vindaloo. It looked remarkably like the lamb dish, with smaller chunks of cauliflower, potato and carrots and no lamb. The sauce was also considerably spicier than the lamb’s, making the dish earning it extra points in my book.
When visiting a nondescript Indian restaurant EB cannot help but order saag paneer, the traditional dish made with spinach and fresh cheese. This was a pretty run-of-the-mill version, but the cheese was soft and the spinach was flavorful. Sopped up with a bit of garlic naan, I would happily eat saag paneer almost every day of the week. All dishes came with rice and a tasty yellow lentil sauce.
We weren’t going to order dessert, but small plate of a carrot pudding were delivered to our table free of charge. It seems our servers felt sorry for the shrill radiator noise that had driven us to abandon our first table. The pudding was subtly sweet with an edge of coconut. Again, it wasn’t the most phenomenal example of its kind, but it did the trick.
I probably wouldn’t come back to Raj Mahal again. Life is just too short. But I’ll undoubtedly find myself dining at a place that’s just like it in the not-so-distant future. EB tells a hilarious story of his first visit to Raj Mahal (or was it Taj Mahal?). He was walking down East 6th Street and paused in front of another restaurant. The guy in front of Raj Mahal saw him and said: “Please, use this door.” EB did as he was told, thinking he was going into an alternate door for Raj or Taj, and found himself inside Raj Mahal. He soon learned that it doesn’t matter where one eats on Indian Row because all the food tastes pretty much the same.
Raj Mahal
322 E. 6th Street (between 1st and 2nd Aves.)
New York, NY 10003
212.982.3632
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Mango Mama said,
February 10, 2009 @ 12:19 am
I remember going to a full block of Indian restaurants in the Village with my brother (ML’s uncle) over 25 years ago. He jokingly told me that he believed that all the restaurants used the same kitchen in the middle of the block – kind of like how they do it today in food courts at shopping malls. Come to think of it, after reading the ML’s current post, he probably wasn’t joking at all!
Empanada Boy said,
February 11, 2009 @ 11:36 am
Somehow Raj Majal (and the places like it) seemed better to me. They used to have the “special” for $7.99 including samosa, standard entree, naan and dessert. Maybe they only offer that for lunch, or perhaps that’s a deal of the past. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen that since the last time I went to Indian Row (before this) in ’04. At the prices we paid, I’d have to recommend paying just slightly more to get probably MUCH better Indian food elsewhere in the city.
Daddy Salmon said,
February 11, 2009 @ 2:26 pm
As you know, I once spent a month in India. I ate at fancy restaurants there but I find the food at
many Indian restaurants in the US to be superior to the food that I ate in India. My memory of
Indian food may have been tainted by an almost constant case of Delhi belly as we travelled across
the Indian subcontinent.
I’ll have to check out the Raj/taj/taj/Raj Mahal when I get to NY next time.
Daddy Salmon
Auntie Pasti said,
March 1, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
You should try Indus Valley on Broadway and 100th Street. I think you’ll like it.