Tabla in Orlando, FL

Tabla Indian Restaurant was interesting. They were located inside of a motel next to the former site of Mystery Fun House across from Universal. I've never had Indian food in a motel before. All of the open parking spots near the restaurant entrance were reserved for hotel rewards members. I chanced parking in the reserved spot and nobody checked. The inside of Tabla was well decorated, more upscale than I'd expect in a motel restaurant. Regardless, we had hesitations about what we'd be getting because of the strangeness of the motel and parking. Thankfully, the food was good!

Started with Mixed Pakora Appetizer. This was a big plate of deep fried cauliflower, potato, paneer, and onions served with dipping sauces.

Chicken Tikka Masala was served on a sizzling skillet. I've had many versions of chicken tikka masala in my life, but this is the first time I've ever seen it served on a steaming platter. I enjoyed the show.

Also tried the Butter Chicken. 

I enjoyed my meal here. The food exceeded expectations set by the sketchy location. Everything was good and portions were huge compared to most Indian restaurants in the area. It's rare that I eat in an Indian restaurant and have leftovers. This was the case at Tabla. I'd go back.
 

Eggholic in Queens, NY

I tried a restaurant called Eggholic in Queens, NY. This was an Indian fast food restaurant where most everything was egg based in some form, whether it be actual egg or chicken.

Started with somosas:

I tried the Lachko. This was new to me when it came to Indian food and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. The menu described it as shredded green bell pepper cooked with cheese and running eggs. It was served with roti. I enjoyed it. The egg wasn't very identifiable, but the cheese very much was. It reminded me of eating the roti covered in a cheesy dip. 

 

Gateway to India in Longwood, FL

Since everyone is supposed to be social distancing right now, I used UberEats for the first time ever and had food delivered from Gateway to India in Longwood. I've been to the restaurant before in the past, but always at lunchtime for their buffet.

The order consisted of Chicken Tikka Massala, Butter Chicken, and Garlic Naan. The main dishes were served in plastic takeout containers and came with a large styrofoam container of rice. The naan was wrapped in foil. All was delivered in a sealed paper bag.

The garlic naan had plenty of garlic on it.

Here's a photo of the chicken tikka massala after it was re-plated out of the togo container. Of the two chicken dishes, this was slightly spicier. Not unbearably spicy, but it had a nice, flavorful heat to it.

Everything here was enjoyed with my stay at home meal from Gateway to India.

UK Food #2: More London (Rock & Sole Plaice, The Rajdoot, Cinnamon, Marlborough Head, and Kabab & Burgers)

This is part two of food from London. A friend who grew up in London gave me a list of foods he misses now that he's in the US. The list included fish & chips, curries, Yorkshire pudding, and donor kabab. This post is about eating foods from that list in London...

Rock & Sole Plaice:

This is where I had fish & chips in England. They were located near Covent Gardens, but seemed to be a few blocks outside the really touristy area. I was told I should get fish and chips from a restaurant specializing in the food rather than eating it in a pub or elsewhere. Rock & Sole Plaice fit this criteria.

I ordered what I was supposed to. The portions were huge, as they should be because this was one of the most expensive meals I had on my trip. The fish was bigger than the plate, deep fried in a crispy batter. It was tasty, but I think I had my expectations a little too high for having a stereotypical British food in London. It tasted like fish & chips, but nothing mindblowingly different from fish & chips in the US. Especially for the price here, it was just okay...

I also wasn't a big fan of the fake malt vinegar served with the fish & chips. There was a bottle of malt vinegar flavored sauce on the table which I'm assuming was this. It was much weaker than actual vinegar and lacked the sourness. If I'm eating authentic fish & chips in London, I want actual malt vinegar to pour all over everything!

I got the tip later on that you'll find some really good fish & chips if you take a train to Brighton. Makes sense getting better seafood at a beach...

The Rajdoot:

In order to cross curry off the list, I got the recommendation to try The Rajdoot. This Indian restaurant had a small ground level dining room with more seating in the basement. It took me a moment to realize that I was hearing mostly American accents coming from the other diners in here. The restaurant was recommended to be by another American tourist. It was strange and the only place where I noticed this happening on my trip. 

I was trying to decide between lamb or chicken and the server recommended a dish called the Rajdoot since it came with both. Can't go wrong with a dish named after the restaurant. This was lamb and chicken tikka with onions and tomatoes. It was very tasty and wasn't one of the standard Indian restaurant menu items where you could get anywhere.

Cinnamon:

My second Indian food experience in London was at a restaurant called Cinnamon. This was located on Brick Lane, which was a neighborhood lined with Curry Houses. Like New York's East Village Little India neighborhood, each restaurant had someone outside trying to get you to dine at their establishment. A restaurant called Cinnamon won my business for the evening. The meal started with papadum and sauces being brought to the table. Pretty standard as far as these go in Indian restaurants. What I wasn't expecting was the upcharge for this on the bill when it was automatically brought to the table.

I ordered the Butter Chicken as my main course. There's no competition for this one. This was the worst butter chicken I've ever had. There was no detectable flavor besides butter and the sauce kind of separated resulting in a pool of melted butter over everything else. I've had butter chicken plenty of times before and have always liked it, but unfortunately I didn't finish most of this particular dish.

If I find myself back at Brick Lane again in the future, I don't think I'll be visiting Cinnamon...

Marlborough Head:

In order to cross Yorkshire pudding off the list of British foods to try, I had to figure out where to get it because I wasn't finding it on menus. Turns out Yorkshire pudding is a side item served with Sunday Roasts in pubs. When Sunday came along, I took myself to a pub called the Marlborough Head.

The Sunday Roast came with sliced lamb, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, peas and carrots, and the Yorkshire pudding. The lamb was nice and tender, drenched in gravy with an accompanying mint sauce. The rest of the sides were pretty standard and tasted as they should. The Yorkshire pudding ended up being pretty much equivalent to what I know as a popover. I like popovers, so I enjoyed the Yorkshire pudding and I was able to cross it off my list.

Kebab & Burgers:

My experience with a doner kebab was from a booth called Kebab & Burgers in the Camden Lock Market. This was another very cool market that I found accidentally. There was all sorts of booths selling foods and products located under railroad bridges and in old horse stables surrounding a lock in the nearby Regent's Canal. 

The doner kabob was basically a gyro. Lamb cooked on a rotating spit was wrapped in a flatbread with lettuce, pickled vegetables, and sauces. Very tasty...

I actually had doner kebabs a couple more times while in London, but somehow lack pictures of them. Even the ones from very middle eastern neighborhoods were similar to this, with the main difference between them being the breads. The other two had everything stuffed inside a pita instead of wrapped in a flatbread.

Indian Hut in Orlando, FL

I recently discovered an Indian fast food/take out restaurant in Orlando at the intersection of Conroy and Kirkman called Indian Hut. Indian food after lunch buffets are finished for the day gets pricy in Orlando, so Indian Hut's affordable prices were refreshing. The place is set up similar to a Chinese take-out where you order at a counter then find a table to eat. Better than most take out places, they serve the food here on real plates.

I tried the Chicken Vindaloo on my first visit with a side of naan. Pretty tasty. The vindaloo wasn't as spicy as I've had elsewhere, but was just about right for my tastes.

I had the Masala Dosa on another visit. This huge pancake was filled with a potato filling, served with three different sauces.

I have enjoyed my visits to Indian Hut so far and I'll most likely return again. Fast food Indian food is a good thing!

Ghandi Cafe Inc in New York

While on a trip to New York, I ate Indian food for dinner at Ghandi Cafe Inc in Greenwich Village. This very narrow restaurant had a dinner for two special going on that included an appetizer, entree, dessert, and tea.

Sauces and crackers were served first. I'm not exactly sure what to call this thin, crunchy crackers. Papadum according to Wikipedia perhaps?

Somosas and fried onion balls were served next as the appetizers.

I had the Chicken Vindaloo as my entree. I was a little scared of the spice level of the vindaloo based on my past experience with the dish in the city. Luckily, this version of Chicken Vindaloo was spicy, but not intolerable. Rice was served on the side to absorb all that delicious vindaloo sauce.

Rice pudding and tea were served for the dessert.

I enjoyed my meal at Ghandi Cafe!

Nepal's in Estes Park, CO

I was pushing through three feet of snow up the side of a mountain to reach a huge waterfall. It was 70 degrees out and I wasn't wearing a jacket. My Floridian brain couldn't quite comprehend what was going on. Huge mountains and snow existing in temperatures that didn't require jackets was something that didn't quite register for me. I guess that's how early summer in Rocky Mountain National Park works.

After my hike through the snow, I was hungry. I made it back to my car and drove out of Rocky Mountain National Park into Estes Park. I decided to have lunch at a restaurant called Nepal's for some Nepalese and Indian food. Since my Florida brain couldn't comprehend how snow covered mountains work in the first place, I could easily pretend I was in Nepal near the base of Mount Everest.

I decided to order their lunch buffet.

I'm not exactly sure what foods were more based in Nepal or what was more Indian. I'm assuming their foods are pretty similar based on what was on the buffet here. There was lots of kormas, dals, curries, and other foods which I was familiar with from Indian restaurants. There were a few outliers on the buffet though, such as the lo mein. Here's a picture of my first plate of food, along with a cup of chai tea.

Second plate of food.

After I was filled up with lots of delicious foods, I returned to exploring snow covered mountains. As I pretended I was climbing Mount Everest...

Taj Punjabi in Orlando, FL

I had dinner at an Indian restaurant in a shopping center along International Drive called Taj Punjabi. I wasn't sure what to expect in an area occupied with far too many overpriced tourist restaurants, but Taj Punjabi was recommended. They had a dinner buffet available when I visited, but everyone I dined here with chose to order off the menu so I did the same.

I ordered the Chicken Do-Piaj (#35 on their menu). I don't think I've ever ordered this particular dish at an Indian restaurant before. The menu described the Chicken Do-Piaj as boneless pieces of chicken cooked in a curry sauce, diced onion, bell pepper and tomatoes, garnished with fried onion and cilantro.  Cucumber slices, onions, and a plate of rice were served alongside the main dish. I choose to get the food prepared with medium spice, which ended up being just the right amount of spiciness. The chicken was good, although there were two pieces in the dish which were just about all tendons/fat. Besides these, I had no major complaints. The curry sauce was delicious. Even after the chicken was all gone, I made sure not to waste any of the saucy goodness and poured the rest over my rice.

I'd return to Taj Punjabi!

Shaan Indian Cuisine in Lake Mary, FL

I ate at Shaan Indian Cuisine in Lake Mary. Since it was lunch time during the week, Shaan offered a lunch buffet, similar to the majority of other Indian restaurants in the area. I'm not 100% positive, but I believe this hasn't been the first Indian restaurant in this location. If so, let's hope Shaan has better luck.

The buffet had a nice selection of items. My first trip to the buffet table included trying their butter chicken, cabbage, mutter, rice, fried potato, and naan.

Second plate included tandoori chicken, curry chicken, and some more butter chicken.

Everything on the buffet was tasty, but the butter chicken was the standout. The creamy, slightly spicy, red sauce on the chicken was delicious. I would eat lunch here again without hesitation.

iSpice in Altamonte Springs, FL

iSpice is a fast food Indian restaurant in the Altamonte Mall Food Court. I've considered eating there at dinner time in the past but I always worried about the turnover on the food. iSpice never seems to have the volume of customers that their neighbors have and I always wondered if the food had been sitting there since the morning. Not saying it works that way, but that thought always stopped me from eating there. I was recently at the mall at lunch time when the food would ideally be fresher and decided to finally give them a try.

I ordered the platter which came with a choice of one meat dish, one vegetable dish, rice, naan, and rice pudding. I had the chicken korma for my meat. The chicken was nice and tender and the sauce was very tasty. I had some of the sauce over the rice as well. For the vegetable, I chose the spinach dal, which consisted of lentil and spinach in a very soupy sauce. The naan worked well for soaking up all of the extra sauce. The portion of rice pudding was small but good.

Overall, I did enjoy my food at iSpice. It was cheaper than a sit-down Indian restaurant and the platter ended up being plenty of food. Everything tasted good, and iSpice was definitely a much better choice than some of the other more corporate options in the mall's food court. I'll try them again!

Mitsitam Cafe in Washington DC

While sightseeing in Washington DC, I stopped for lunch at the cafeteria in the National Museum of the American Indian. The restaurant is called Mitsitam Cafe and is set up with different stations, each serving traditional (I hope) Native American foods from different regions of the Americas.

I ordered something that they called an Indian Taco from the booth serving foods from the Great Plains region. This consisted of a large, fluffy piece of fry bread topped with buffalo chili. Cheese was melted over the chili, and then was covered with lettuce and tomato. I really have no clue if this is something that is traditionally eaten by Native Americans in the Great Plains region, but it was pretty tasty. It couldn't actually be eaten like a taco since the chili completely covered the fry bread and silverware was used. The chili was slightly spicy with large chunks of bison floating around. The lettuce and tomato almost seemed like an afterthought how they were just thrown on top of the plate, but I ate it all and enjoyed my Indian Taco!

The Mitsitam Cafe was on the expensive side with my taco costing just over $12. Since it was inside a museum, I suppose it's equivalent to theme park prices so it really wasn't too bad for better food. Compared to the food options at the Air & Space Museum next door (McDonalds), this was definitely the better option as far as Smithsonian snack bars go!

Gateway to India in Longwood, FL

There are so many Indian restaurants in the Central Florida area, and I've visited so few of them when compared to other types of foods. Recently, I was able to give one of these Indian restaurants a try when I stopped into Gateway to India in Longwood for lunch. Gateway to India is located along 434 in an old Pizza Hut building. They had a lunch buffet for $10.95, so I went with that. It seemed a little pricy for lunch, but still probably a better value than ordering from the menu. My buffet experience included two plates of food, filled with chicken masala, tandori chicken, various vegetarian dishes, naan, and rice.

I enjoyed all of the food from Gateway to India's buffet. I've been to other Indian restaurants with larger buffets with lower prices for lunch, but the quality of food seemed substandard at some of these other restaurants. Here, the food seemed fresh and everything tasted good. I guess that's a plus of paying a few dollars more for a buffet!