Ashirwad Indian Restaurant, which opened last summer, brings a large variety of Indian cuisine to State Street.
The menu covers tandoori specialties, chicken entrees, a large vegetarian selection, biryani, seafood, Indo-Chinese, Indo-Italian and several other categories.
The lamb rogan josh ($21.95) was outstanding and may be my new favorite curry dish in town. The sauce was a savory tomato-based sauce with the right amount of spices and thickness, somewhat reminiscent of a tomato bisque (in fact, I did eat a lot of it straight up). The lamb chunks were super tender and flavorful.
Several kadai dishes are available. In each case, onions, bell peppers and spices such as cumin, cardamom and coriander are sauteed together as part of a savory tomato sauce that paired well with the accompanying rice. I got the goat ($21.95), which was tender and not too gamy.
I like chicken 65, which is deep-fried chunks of chicken marinated in various spices. I was intrigued to see it as a pizza topping in the Indo-Italian portion of the menu, so I had to try it. The sauce wasn’t a typical pizza sauce, as it had a mix of spices in it. I liked the pizza, but I would have preferred it to be baked for a few more minutes to make the mozzarella cheese more melty (it seemed undercooked).
Among the appetizers, I went for the fried Himalayan chicken momos ($14.95). I’ve had plenty of steamed momos, but never ones that were deep-fried. I liked them for their crispiness and tasty mix of chicken, cabbage and spices (strong on the cumin). They were even better with the creamy, slightly spicy chutney that came with the plate.
Ashirwad Indian Restaurant serves lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday.
