This is a small Mom and Pop Indian café located in the La Sierra neighborhood of Western Riverside,…read morenear La Sierra University.
It has a very beautiful, artistic interior and clean look that makes a wonderful impression. The walls are painted in vibrant colors and designs. Even the bathroom is upgraded and gorgeous. They made a conscious effort to make their establishment very inviting. 5 stars for its upgrades in such a otherwise downy strip mall.
We have tried several relatively new Indian restaurants in the past few months. The food, even when requested to be mild, had a bit more sting to it than I had hoped. That makes an impression that leads me to rate this as better than some, but not my favorite.
First was an appetizer, a huge portion of Samosa Chaat. I was disappointed that the samosas were not particularly crisp after being smothered in the rich spicy gravy, chickpeas, and tamarind and mint sauces. It is a very pretty appetizer and very filling, but the overall spicy heat made it borderline inedible for me.
Our second dish, the Butter Chicken, was very nice. There was plenty of dark meat chicken, tender and juicy, in the traditional, orange, creamy sauce. It was not only delicious with its exotic spice blend, it helped cool down the insides of my mouth while I was struggling with our other two dishes.
Our final selection was the Aloo Gobi, basically, potato and cauliflower and a boatload of mixed spices. Sadly, this was too hot-spicy for wimpy me to enjoy. Again, we had requested each dish be prepared as "mild". I'm pretty sure they could have toned it down more than they did.
Overall, a solid 4 stars is what I feel is fair. The prices were good, the servings were respectable, we had no complaints about the service, and the decor was very pretty. For those, unlike me, who can better handle the heat, it might have ranked higher.