TAKEOUT REVIEW: Ruchi's Indian Cuisine

Perhaps not the most glamorous spot for my first ever food review, but it was what ultimately inspired me to bite the bullet and get this blog going. And, really, negative criticism is more fun than positive anyway, so it's only appropriate.

I'm fortunate to live in a part of town with tons of great restaurants, but the one thing that's lacking is good Indian food. So when I found this place nearby with surprisingly high ratings on Google etc.. I was pretty excited. Unfortunately, spoiler alert, the search continues.

The DoorDash order took a bit longer than expected (partially due to the driver irritatingly avoiding the toll road and using the feeder the whole way, but whatever), though the food still arrived hot and well-packaged.

One Indian dish I've been enjoying lately is dal makhani, the creamy buttery lentil goodness done so well at places like Musaafer and Dhamaka in NYC. While I obviously didn't expect this one to match the quality of those Michelin-recognized establishments, I was shocked to find red kidney beans in the curry. Maybe this is some sort of regional variation that I am unaware of, but the beans really disturbed the smoothness that is so vital to the dish. I did appreciate the ability to customize the spice level, and the highest of the four ("spicy hot") certainly brought a nice heat to the dish.

The chicken vindaloo also fell short of the mark. Its color was a bright pink-red, almost like a sweet-and-sour hue. While the heat was there (level three "spicy"), the taste was rather underwhelming, as it lacked the depth of flavor that one expects from such a classic dish. It also felt a bit heavy-handed on the potatoes, at the expense of chicken.

Surprisingly, the best thing I tasted was the vegetarian samosa (since normally I am not a huge fan of non-meat varieties). The pastry was expertly fried and the potato and pea filling was seasoned very well. The naan, both garlic and bullet versions, were also solid, though a bit thinner than I'm used to.

So, alas, the search for a great Indian restaurant near my house continues, as I don't think I'll be trying this one again.