Indian food has that love it or hate it appeal. Love it and the strong, heady spices are perfectly melded to add layers of flavors. Hate it and tandoori chicken becomes dried out meat dyed Fiesta pottery radioactive red. In other words, Indian cuisine is anything but boring. India’s rich regional culinary tapestry weaves threads of religious vegetarian traditions, Middle Eastern meat preparation, and influences from Portuguese, Persian, and British colonists. Each addition added permutations and a range of flavors.Restaurateur and Nepal native Tulsi Bhandari is no stranger to Charlotteans’ taste. He owned the former Diamond India on Monroe Road, and opened Mukti Indian Grocery Store, a shop specializing in Indian spices and products in Matthews. In January, Bhandari opened the 60-seat Situl Indian Restaurant, named for his one-year-old daughter.
The Park Road Shopping Center spot in which Situl is located is perhaps the best known “hidden” restaurant spot in the city. Most recently it was occupied by Mojo’s, but in the past it has also hosted a Japanese bakery, a Greek restaurant, a Caribbean-styled eatery, and Cafe Flavors. Now it is Situl. Unfortunately the place hasn’t changed much since the last tenant. The exterior is still an uninviting brown wood while the dimly lit sparse interior gives few hints of the brightly flavored food. Just inside the front door, a bar area has dropped lighting which was not turned on one night. Yet, the booths are comfortable and the informed servers are friendly with crisp professionalism.
Soon after arriving, the server brings delicate wafer-thin pappadams that easily succumb to a gentle touch. Situl’s ambitious menu is primarily Northern Indian, but Bhandari has maintained a few dishes from Nepal.
“The Tibet Nepali dishes are like Chinese and Thai food mixed with Indian,” he explains. Situl’s profuse roster offers breads, 15 vegetarian dishes, and about 50 chicken, lamb, and seafood dishes, plus the Tandoori specials. Bhandari uses a clay tandoori oven and has two cooks in his kitchen: one hails from Northern India and one from Nepal. Both cooks learned their trade on the job. The Indian chef also worked with Bhandari at Diamond India.
Indian cuisine lends itself to sharing. Start with the compulsively edible combination appetizer of aloo tikki, a fried mashed potato patty; crispy vegetable, gobhi (cauliflower), and chicken pakoras which are battered and deep fried; small morsels of chicken tikka; and a samosa (turnover) containing a spicy lamb mixture studded with peas. We slathered the shish kebab appetizer, a skewer of ground lamb, garlic, and ginger, with mint to pack a flavorful punch.
A must is the condiment tray to experiment with different flavors. On the Situl combination tray is a delightfully bright sweet tasting mango chutney, a mildly sour but fruity tamarind sauce, a refreshing mint puree, a thin creamy raita, and the ubiquitous bowl of pickles. Indian pickles are an acquired taste, one that I have yet to acquire. To me, most Indian pickles, particularly the lemons, taste of a long-term stint in a dank root cellar. But don’t let me stop your enjoyment.
I frequently try the ubiquitous Chicken Tikka Masala in order to get an Indian restaurant’s baseline. Situl’s rendition is a well-executed standard with meltingly soft chunks of chicken encased in thickened velvety sauce.
Tandoori, or Indian barbecue, is the classic cooking method in northern India’s Punjab region. Even Nan, flat bread, is cooked in this open-flame earthenware oven by slapping it up against the walls. I could make a meal of Indian bread and the breads at Situl are fabulous. Low-carb diet bread lovers beware. Indian restaurants can be dangerous places. To hell with carbohydrates, you may say! Bring on the steaming discs of Nan, Roti, and Parantha. Bring out the pliable Poori. Let me tear off a piece and scoop up some marsala sauce. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.
Among Situl’s traditional dishes, I prefer the Tandoori combination with its inherent earthy aroma, but with slightly dry meat, as is the tradition in Indian cuisine since dripping juices are strictly forbidden. The reddish-orange Tandoori mix offers nicely roasted chicken, lamb, and salmon. The shrimp, however, seemed overdone and too dry to enjoy.
The prices at Situl are modest. Most dinner entrees range from $10 to $15. Bhandari offers both a la carte and a buffet at lunch.
Perhaps the dim interior is just a work in progress. I hope so since Situl honors the tradition of satiating northern Indian dishes, all reassuringly familiar, and yet offered at reasonable prices for the neighborhood. The flavors are big at Situl. Bring a sizeable appetite.
Eaters Digest
Now opened is Blue Fish, “a casual neighborhood seafood restaurant and bar,” in Tower Place Shopping Center, 8706 Pineville Matthews Road. On the menu are fried green tomatoes, oysters, a seafood Cobb salad, fried oyster Po’Boy sandwich, crab cakes, seafood cioppino, mussels, shrimp and grits, and key lime pie. Hours are 11am until 10pm daily, until 11pm on Friday and Saturday. 704-544-8587.
Have a restaurant tip, compliment, complaint? Do you know of a restaurant that has opened, closed, or should be reviewed? Does your restaurant or shop have news, menu changes, new additions to staff or building, upcoming cuisine or wine events? Note: We need events at least 12 days in advance. Fax information to Eaters’ Digest: 704-944-3605, or leave voice mail: 704-522-8334, ext. 136. To contact Tricia via email: tricia.childress@creativeloafing.com
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2004.
