If you like tasty and spicy food, and you are bored with the same old things, you are in luck. We dined there Saturday night, 6/5/2010. Although this was Red's grill, was sold and converted to authentic Indian food, and the food is terrific. It is in a strip center next to Fantastic Sam's immediately south of the Sonic and Randall's on F.M. 359 north of Highway 90A. Near the Pecan Grove Country Club. They have just finished redecorating and refurnishing the entire place, which is extremely clean. The place is smallish and cozy, and very comfortable. The owner is the chef and the service in this family owned find is very attentive.
Although I am totally Anglo and from the Midwest (where food is famously boring), since coming to Houston in the mid 70's I have eaten in dozens of Indian Restaurants all over this city, the country, and even in London. My favorite was always the Bombay Palace on Westheimer. It was the best, literally in the world. Since it moved a couple of times and I moved away I have missed great Indian food. This just fixed that problem and those memories are rushing back to me.
If you care, the food is much healthier than most Indian food. It has much less cream and oil than usual. Much MUCH less. But the incredible taste, which is spiced to your comfort level (we had ours medium hot), actually benefits from this approach. And every dish I tried made me repeat out-loud how great it was. The quality of the food was incredible.
We had Tandoori Chicken (an older fellow I knew once described it as ""The best barbecued chicken I've ever had."") which is skinless chicken on the bone, roasted in a real tandoori oven that they just had installed. It was moist though perfectly cooked and extremely tasty.
They also serve the dinner with Basmati Rice and we ordered a bread called Onion Kulcha, which is a fluffy flat bread with onions that is perfect with the various sauces, and it was the best I have ever had anywhere.
We also had our usual favorites: Chicken Tika Masala (which is boneless cubes of chicken in an incredible orange/red sauce. The chicken was extremely high quality, large and well trimmed, and it was terrific.
And for vegetables, we had our two other usual dishes, sag paneer ( spicy spinach in a sauce with a low fat cheese pieces) and mater paneer (peas and low fat cheese pieces in a lighter curry sauce).
If you are new to Indian food, the ""curry"" that you might have tasted and hated once, is not what we are talking about. There are many different kinds of curry, and the differences are pretty stark. These will knock your socks off, and will be unlike anything you have ever tasted. When I first ate Indian food in the 70's, I didn't know what to think, as it was so different, but I was soon craving it. Think of it like that day when you decided that blue cheese was suddenly the best thing you ever tasted. However, I've never gotten over it.
The good news is that this place is less expensive than almost all of it's competition.
The place is small, so if this review makes it so crowded that I can't get in, I'm going to be mad. But I sure want them to succeed, because this area needs a stand out Indian Restaurant, and now we have one.
Pros: Some of the best Indian Food in the entire region
Cons: No liquor license as of yet.
more