At the time I arrive, there's a mother and son sharing a curry and some flatbread in the room, and…read morethroughout the two hours I'm there, only a family of four come in. All six of these folk are clearly regulars, and garner effusive interactions with the two staff members in the dining room, one of whom spends most of the evening at a table by herself, eating. The waiter is reserved and a bit trepidatious talking to me, I'm not sure why. He is, at the least, concerned that I have a good meal, something he reiterates several times.
I'm a little disappointed with the breadbasket - most Indian spots I've been to make an effort to keep it warm and fresh. These triangles of deflated chapati are room temperature and have clearly been sitting around awhile. The sauces are good, however - the tomato sauce not too sweet, the yogurt sauce with a nice hit of garlic, and the cilantro sauce with a kick of chili in it. I ask for, and get, a small dish of pure hot sauce, which, while delicious, is really fiery, almost more than I care for - clearly to be used sparingly.
I spot Shik Kebab on the appetizer list and though it's not something I often order, I'm just in the mood. And, it turns out to be a good move. Delicious little ground lamb kebabs. I don't know it at the moment, but these are the highlight of the meal. (210 pesos)
Almost at the same time, I get a plate of vegetable Samosas. Disappointing. The dough is very thick and is well overcooked, to the point that cutting into these would have been better accomplished using a nutcracker than a knife and fork. The filling is a thick paste of rather bland... something - the menu says they're filled with "mixed vegetables, onion, cilantro, whole cumin seeds, potato, peas, and chili". I was expecting those sort of diced up and maybe held together by a little bit of a paste of spices, but they've simply mashed it all together into an undefined, and not particularly well spiced mass. (175 pesos)
My waiter absolutely insists, despite my attempts to get an assessment of some of my more favorite dishes listed on the menu, that I must, absolutely must, have their Tandoor Chicken. It's really not one of my favorites, but after three attempts to order something else and being told no, really, I absolutely must have this dish (perhaps it's the only main course they actually had available?), I relented and decided to give it a try, along with an order of paratha. The chicken was good, no question, it's just still not my favorite Indian dish. A whole leg thigh quarter smothered in mildly spicy tomato and onion sauce, on a tiny plate, served on a sideboard, making it a mess to cut and serve. The paratha, while well made, and even tasty, disappointing only in that paratha is traditionally made with whole wheat flour rather than white flour, something the waiter admitted to, but claimed, "there is no whole wheat flour in Argentina". What? Of course there is, you can buy it at the supermarket or any place else that sells flour. Maybe just not some particular kind that they're looking for, but it would be closer to the tradition, at the least. (Respectively, 350 and 80 pesos)
I like the space. Service, or at least level of attention, would clearly improve if one was a regular. The food has its ups and downs - I haven't tried enough to assert that one should order certain dishes but not others, but I have the feeling that that's the case. (Though, if the waiter's assertion that the Tandoor Chicken is the best thing on the menu is correct, then maybe no....) If we hadn't had such a good meal at Mumbai recently, and with that, and Taj Mahal so close by to it, Vrindavan might rate more visits to try more. As it is, it was fine, just not as good as others.
