This staff at this restaurant embody the true spirit of hospitality and do what they do with deep…read morelove and care. I don't usually lead with non-food aspects of a dining experience, but the compassion ran so deep, here, that it nourished as much as the food.
Rather than indulge a diabetic and mentally deteriorating family member's demand for dessert, which would've sent blood sugar levels soaring to unsafe levels, they tried to give him the fruit offered as puja at the shrine towards the back of the dining room. When he declined, they brought out a beautiful enameled wood box of mukhwas (post dinner spices), which was not on offer to guests, generally, to satisfy his sweet tooth.
The staff chose to take the truest, deepest care of a customer, even at the expense of profit. We were deeply moved by their kindness.
The food, too, was beautiful, made with very fresh ingredients: fresh vegetables, freshly roasted and ground spices, fresh curry leaves. We don't usually eat non-vegetarian Indian food -- or even non-south Indian food. But one of our convives chose this restaurant and there were enough plant=based options available for vegetarians in our group that we went with it.
Lahana's menu spans an enormous geography. There's everything from chicken Chettinad from the south, to Mughal / Persian-influenced biryanis and tandooris from the north, to Goan shrimp curry from the west, to mo-mos and kasundi shrimp from the east. Most of the menu is north Indian and non-vegetarian.
We started with an incredibly beautiful dish of Palak Chaat ($10.99; Crispy spinach leaf with chickpeas, potatoes, yogurt, mint and tamarind chutney). The batter on the spinach was a little harder and thicker than your traditional besan-based batter, and was probably wheat-based -- so ask if you have an allergy. The plate looked like a piece of abstract art with beautiful red pops of pomegranate, golden sev, deep orange tamarind chutney, green cilantro, white yogurt: all the colors of the Indian flag and then some.
A convive ordered another starter of Lasuni Gobi ($11.99; Lightly battered crispy cauliflower with garlic and crushed pepper in a tangy sauce), which was again battered in a harder, thicker crust than usual, and probably not besan. I don't usually love this Indo-Chinese dish though I love Indian and Chinese cuisines in equal measure. Something about this dish reminds me more of low-brow Chinese-American food than either Indian or Chinese. The rest of the group enjoyed it, though.
Seasoning in the Chicken Chettinad ($21.99; a traditional South Indian speciality of chicken cooked in a paste made w/ roasted aromatic spices, coconut) was nuanced and complex, clearly made using freshly roasted, freshly ground spices, well tempered with plenty of fresh curry leaves. Chicken in the dish was perfectly tender.
The same was true of the Chicken Chutneywala ($21.99; Curried chicken in creamy mango based gravy), which was a touch sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. It's not a dish any of us have ever seen or tried, so it may be an invention of this restaurant.
There was a similar degree of sweetness in the Manjil Malai Kofta ($19.99; Vegetable and cheese dumplings cooked in a cashew and tomato gravy). It was incredibly rich and came sprinkled with golden raisins, cashews, and I think other dried fruit and nuts.
My personal favorite was the Aloo Gobi ($19.99; Home style spiced potato and cauliflower), a very saucy style made with very fresh, tender cauliflower, tender potatoes, nicely presented with pretty red grape tomatoes and cilantro. I love this dish and it was well made, here.
The fluffy grains of long basmati rice in the Dum Murghi Biryani ($21.99; boneless chicken biryani) were deeply imbued with flavor, rich and fat. The warm, sweet spices were in excellent balance, a very good version of this dish.
As good as this food is, the even more important takeaway for me is that the staff are channeling a lot of care, humanity, hospitality and love into this restaurant. We are wholly won over.