Upon a friend's recommendation we ate at Masala Craft Indian Kitchen last night. I've been eating…read moreIndian food for 40 years so come to a new place with some pretty well defined expectations. Overall, the ambience was sparse and generic, the service was exceptional, and the food was good with some obvious high and low points for my wife and I. My wife is vegan and has a sugar allergy which limits us in most places, though Indian or south Asian tends to lean in our favor.
The server was casual, communicative, and genuinely concerned about meeting my wife's dietary restrictions. We were able to order everything we wanted, but were cautioned about over ordering because the portion sizes were large. We ordered one less dish, thankfully, because of this warning.
For starters I ordered a Modelo beer and we shared an order of samosas. I would have enjoyed a Taj, an Indian pilsner, but they only have giant bottles. The samosas were much flakier and crispier than the samosas we're used to so we wondered about the difference in the dough. Personally, I loved the lighter and crispier dough as it highlighted the really flavorful potato and pea filling. Though these samosas were great, the stand out part for both of us was the chat masala, a dry Indian seasoning that has black salt, coriander, cumin, cardamom, and other spices. It really punched up the flavor of the dish and we asked to bring some home to use on our own crispy tofu dish
We ordered bhindi masala (okra), aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes), and Chana masala as our main dishes. We've eater these dishes in many restaurants and ordered all dishes at spice level 5 (1-10 are the options) since we like spicy food, but have been burned (literally) by Indian spice before. Level 5 was nicely spiced, but not overwhelming. The bhindi masala was our favorite dish. The okra was perfectly cooked and the seasoning was tasty, but the onions and tomato pieces were so big it detracted from the dish. The Chana masala was aromatic and flavorful with a lot of yummy masala gravy, but it was missing something. The aloo gobi, which we are used to being a more dry, fenugreek forward, dish was swimming in a curry that tasted just like the Chana masala. The potatoes were a bit under done and overall this dish was a little disappointing.
We ordered two breads to accompany our meal and both were home runs. The aloo paratha (potato stuffed wheat bread) was very flavorful, slightly crispy, and perfectly cooked. My favorite paratha ever. The tandoori roti (wheat bread cooked in the tandoori oven) was perfectly charred, just crispy while soft, and perfectly chewy.
Chutneys: I was disappointed that the mint, cilantro chutney had yogurt in it. I've been eating this for years and it is traditionally dairy free. The yogurt not only makes this not-vegan, but it also takes away from the expected herbaceous flavor and bite of the chili you should expect from this chutney. The tamarind, on the other hand was maybe my favorite tamarind chutney ever. This is so often overly sweet and just a bit sour, but here the sweet was downplayed, sour was more prominent, and there was a bit of amazing heat. SO GOOD! The also brought a side of this fantastic chili paste that was expectedly spicy, pungent, and flavorful. Used in small amounts, it was a great addition. Finally, I ordered some Indian pickles which were very sour, very preserved tasting, and just tangy enough to provide a really good counter point to the spicy flavors of the food.
I'll mention price here given the earlier comments on portion size. I don't know how Masala received a $$ rating as I'd absolutely rate it $ for overall cost to food/value ratio. The main dishes ran under $14 each, the paratha and samosas under $7 each, the roti UNDER $3, and my beer was under $5. We got the bill along with copious amounts of leftovers for under $70. That is at least 10-15% less than expected for good Indian food!
We don't eat any meat or dairy dishes so I can't comment Olin that part of the menu, but I can recommend this spot for the vegan dishes, breads, and great service.