Explore The Flavorful Taste Of India At

India Raj

Walking into India Raj Indian Tandoori Restaurant, visitors to the 50-seat restaurant are transported to another world. The peach-colored walls are decorated with handmade Indian textile art pieces, and a large replica of a Seventeenth Century royal wedding processional painting featuring platters of food dominates one wall. Colorful fabric umbrellas and decorative items are suspended from the ceiling. The gold and red table settings reflected in a wall of mirrors create an atmosphere of warmth, while the rich scents wafting from the kitchen hint at the delights to come.

For seven years, owner Shahi Choudhury and the staff at India Raj have been serving up homestyle Indian meals at the restaurant located in the Clock Tower Square shopping center in Monroe. Mr Choudhury says that rather than focusing on the food of one or two of India’s regions or states, all are represented on his menu and in the specials, which change weekly.

Lunch specials with combinations are $7.95 to $14.95, eat in or takeout. Regular lunches start at $6.95. India Raj now serves a buffet lunch on Wednesdays and Fridays, as well, from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, for $8.95 per person.

The restaurant specializes in tandoori dishes of chicken, fish, or lamb marinated in yogurt and spices and slow cooked in special tandoori ovens. Seven tandoori entrees are on the menu at India Raj, including chicken, mixed grill, and salmon, ranging in price from $11.95 to $18.95. Nan, a flavorful flat bread, is grilled in the tandoor as well.

Tandoori dishes are among the mildest in Indian cuisine. Other delicately spiced dishes are the chicken korma, which is prepared with cream and almonds, $11.95 on the luncheon menu, and the slightly spicier korai delights, entrees cooked with onion, tomato, green pepper, and ginger and served in a hot pot, $11.95 to $14.95. Spices can be adjusted for taste.

For those who enjoy the fiery end of the heat spectrum, Mr Choudhury recommends chicken vindaloo, $11.95, and chili chicken, cooked in an exotic Indian sauce with green chilies for $12.95. “We do have very hot curries to very mild food,” said Mr Choudhury. “For the best flavors, we have a lot of different sauces.”

Chicken, lamb, beef, and seafood are all available in a variety of preparations, which are described on the menu, ranging in price from $9.95 to $24.95. Cream and almonds are added to tandoori cooked chicken, lamb, or seafood to create tikka entrees.

Vegetarian entrées are divided into nondairy and dairy selections and include tarka dal (lentils cooked with garlic sauce), matar sag (peas and spinach cooked with onions), poneer makhni (homemade fried cheese with tomatoes and cream sauce), and malai kofta (mixed vegetable balls with nut and coconut cream sauce). The vegetarian offerings are priced from $9.95 to $13.95.

Light eaters will appreciate the fresh vegetable soup or mulligatawny lentil soup, or the green salad enlivened with chickpeas and cilantro.

Diners can also choose from eight appetizers, 11 specialty breads, and four traditional Indian side dishes, $1.50–$6.95 on the lunch menu.

Mr Choudhury noted that the generous portions are presented to customers as they would be served in India. “We don’t ‘Americanize’ the cuisine,” he explained.

The restaurant has a full bar service, as well as a small but complementary wine list. Wines, $14 to $26 for a bottle, feature selections from Washington State, Australia, and California. Wines from the Stone Cellar winery are available by the glass for $4.50, and a new wine bar features Black Opal Chardonnay, Liberty School Chardonnay, and Fitzer Valley Oaks Cabernet or Meridian Pinot Noir for $5.50 a glass. Beers from around the world, including Indian beer, are available, as well.

Alcohol-free thirst quenchers such as tea, chai, Perrier water, juice, soda and the popular yogurt drink, lassi, are on the menu at India Raj.

The restaurant is open 11:30 am to 2:30 pm for lunch and from 4:30 to 10 pm for dinner seven days a week. Lunch specials are offered Monday to Friday and an all-you-can-eat dinner buffet is available Wednesdays for $12.95 per person from 5 to 9:30 pm.

All menu items are available for takeout and India Raj offers catering services.

Dinner menu prices may vary from those on the lunch and take out menu.

India Raj is located at 477 Main Street (Route 25, in the Clock Tower Square), Monroe, 261-1898 or 261-5573.For more information about the restaurant and special coupons, visit indiarajmonroe.com.