You'll dine like royalty at India Palace
Traditional Cuisine returns to area after long drought
At last, the drought is over. Like a soul quenching rainstorm. India
palace has come along and showered us with the riches of an ancient cuisine after
a long dry spell. It's been years since the incomparable sangeet of India closed,
leaving Fort Myers without its own Indian oasis! (And I don't use exclamation points
indiscriminately.)
Now we can once again savor meats and seafood tenderized in yogurt
and infused with cardamom and coriander and other masalas.Now we can again rip into
warm, platter-sized Naan, spread it with zesty into the chewy bread.
India Palace serves all the familiar dishes expertly prepared in
a setting that's distinctively evocative of the home country-without descending
into kitsch. gone is any trace of Garibaldi's in the dragon plaza spot that has
been a Mexican restaurant and a Chinese restaurant over the years. the wails are
pastel peach and cream, matching the table linens, and display sequined tapestries
depicting entwined lovers(unless I'm reading too much into them). the sounds of
sitar and Hindi singers serenade at a discrete volume.
As at most Indian restaurants, vegetarian options abound. There's
even a complete vegetable dinner the includes appetizers and dessert. Among the
special dinners, I can recommend the Tandoori dinners for one from a previous visit-it
affords a good overview of Indian food for just $18.95.
This time, we started with vegetable samosas and garlic Naan.
The former resembles a small fried turnover, all flaky pastry wrapped
around a filling of diced potatoes and peas seasoned with cardamom, ginger and cumin.
These were piping hot and not at all greasy. Ditto the baked Naan, which was good
and chewy, though not rubbery like some I've had. The garlic asserted itself without
overpowering the yeasty flat bread of fiery onion chutney and sweet tamarind chutney;
we ordered mango chutney, too.
Not long after we dispatched the apps, our entrees arrived. Service
her is good when the restaurant's not too busy, as on the weeknight of this visit;
my first dinner on a Friday night was not as smooth.
We shared three dishes this time, mixing each with the nutty, long-grained
basmati rice set before us on a big platter. the levels of spiciness were distinctively
different; the dish we ordered "mild" was indeed that, and the "medium" dishes had
an after burn that made us glad we didn't venture into "hot" territory. Still the
heat did not overpower other seasonings, which were so well balanced that it was
challenging to separate the tastes.
The eggplant bhartha, probably our favorite of the three, consisted
of baked, mashed eggplant sautéed with onions and green peas. The result was a thick,
earthy stew that made us long to try some of India palace's other vegetarian dishes.
The lovely green murgh sag contained chunks of succulent chicken
cooked with creamy shredded spinach and tomatoes. Coriander was the dominant spice
here.
The ruddy-colored Rogan josh offered lamb pieces in a curry- based
sauce with lots of onion and tomato and spices such as paprika.
After the spicy dishes, some cooling desserts were in order, so
we sought sweet relief with mango ice cream and pistachio kulfi. My companion said
the mango was more like a sorbet, less creamy, home intensely flavored. Served in
three ice-cube like pieces, the homemade kilfi-indian ice milk, if you will- was
a little too hard-frozen to dig into, but flourishes of rose water and almond and
pistachio mixed with cream to make an exotic treat for the taste buds.
Whether it's your introduction to Indian cuisine or it's favorite
indulgence, once you've visited India palace, you'll become a devoted subject.
India Palace Fort Myers Florida USA. is the best Indian Resturant & Cuisine for
Indian Food and Dinning in Fort Myers FL
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