Seva: A question of consistency

I've been into Seva ever since I first discovered the place, but a few things seem to have changed in its offerings, both for better and for worse. I still count Seva among my favorite restaurants in Astoria, but it seems to be pretty inconsistent in its offerings and preparations, so I've been finding it hard to peg what kind of experience I'm going to get when I step in there.

The veggie samosa comes as one of the appetizer choices for the $7 lunch special, which includes either the samosa or mulligatawny soup, an entree, and basmati rice (this special used to be $8, but also included a drink). I've had the samosa a couple of times now, and it's always been good. Well balanced flavor, and Seva seems to have a knack for frying items while keeping the greasiness to a minimum.

I liked the new eggplant chat dish both times I had it, an appetizer which consists of tender slices of Japanese eggplant coated in a chickpea flour batter and served with pickled onions, mint chutney, and tamarind chutney. But FoodMayhem paid Seva a visit recently and ate what appears to be a somewhat different version of the same dish.

Sadly, the bok choy crispy curls have gone downhill. On the left is the appetizer as I first had it; the bok choy was fried in a really light batter, and the focus was on the vegetable and not the coating. Now, the appetizer is made with a different batter that's more crunchy than crisp, and the fritters taste heavy. The current portion size is nearly half that of its previous incarnation.

The malai kofta at Seva is probably one of the best versions I've ever had, though I can't claim to eating malai kofta often. Unlike the dense rounds of unknown matter that usually appear in this dish, Seva's vegetable balls were tender, loosely packed croquettes of potato, cheese, raisins, and fresh-tasting vegetables. The creamy sauce pooled around them managed to taste both rich and light. Since this was the first time I ordered this dish here I can't say whether or not it's changed, but now that I've tried it I am a fan.

On another occasion, I tried a piece of their suji halwa—a moist, lightly sweet semolina cake that also happens to be vegan—and liked it a lot. Prices are still exceptional, and Seva's convenient location to TL's apartment means that I'll probably keep going for a while yet. I'll just cross my fingers that the restaurant starts being more consistent for the better, and that they bring back the old recipe for the bok choy crispy curls!

Great Plates: Great deals?

Great Plates Downtown is an annual event in Fort Collins, along the lines of Restaurant Week in other cities. For a two-week duration participating restaurants offer a dinner special for $18.68, which is quite cheap compared to the three-course lunch for $24.07 and the three-course dinner for $35 offered only during weekdays for typical Restaurant Week promotions in New York City. Plus, depending on the restaurant, $18.68 can be the total cost of two entrees, a three-course meal for one, a three-course meal for two, or a full family dinner. Quite a bargain!

But in the end, is Great Plates really a "deal"? I'm not so sure. I went with three friends to The Rustic Oven, where they were offering two entrees for $18.68. We were given a list of about nine or ten options, but in the interest of getting the best bang for the buck three of us opted to go with the "Baked Tenderloin Diavolo" that you see above, which normally costs $17.95. I would have been mighty grumpy had I paid full price for this one. The pasta was bland and overcooked, the gorgonzola and chipotle sauce tasted muddled, and the tenderloin—which I had expected in big pieces from the menu description—arrived instead as itty bitty chunklets scattered ungenerously throughout the pasta. It was every bit worth paying nine bucks for, but not much more.

Similarly, I would have been grumpy paying full price for this prime rib from Austin's American Grill, which is normally $18-$20. Here the Great Plates promotion was also two entrees for $18.68 so my steak was only nine bucks. Unfortunately, while it was a hefty slab of meat, its flavor was tiresome and bland, and I would up taking most of it home in order to transform it into something else. In terms of quantity this was surely a deal, but in terms of quality, I found the deal wanting. I liked the meal I'd had at Austin's several months ago much better.

Finally, at Taj Mahal, where again the promotion was two entrees for $18.68, we were given a choice of entrees whose prices barely hovered above nine bucks to begin with. The food was good, but the price we paid was only a dollar or so cheaper than what we would have paid without the promotion.

For all three restaurants the choice of entrees came from their regular menu. So what's the problem here? Are restaurants not putting out their best efforts with this promotion, or is the food just not great? Maybe they were just so slammed during the promotion that less care was taken with each dish. Or maybe it's simply a matter of taste, and of picking the right entree.

I'll continue to check out Great Plates as it comes up, but I'm a bit less excited about it than I was at first. Perhaps I just have to figure out which restaurants offer the best experience, like I started to do with Restaurant Week in NYC.

"No regrets at Taj Mahal"

Click here to read my latest dining profile for the Coloradoan!

Meandering in Montreal, Part 2: Le Taj, Fairmount Bagels, Le Cheval, and Pho 32 revisited

Catch up here! Meandering in Montreal, Part 1


AS had announced his desire to try one of the numerous Indian buffets in the area, so the next morning after checking out of the hotel we headed to Le Taj for lunch, a large open restaurant with high ceilings and uncrowded tables. The price for the buffet was something around $12, and boasted a good selection of dishes for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Here's my plate. From what I can remember, there's lamb curry, fish curry, a samosa, lentils, tandoori chicken, string beans, eggplant and potato curry, a fritter, pickled cabbage, and curried cauliflower on there. Except for the fried goods which were too greasy, most items were fresh, well-balanced, and of good quality; the naan, which usually gets dried out on buffet steam tables, was fluffy and moist too. I especially enjoyed the fish curry made with tender hunks of salmon, a fish that was a surprisingly good match for the strong flavors and spices.

I was surprised by the dessert table too, which had really fresh gulab jamun (still hot and crisp-edged despite its syrup soak), mildly sweet, moist squares made with semolina flour, and kheer, a creamy Indian rice pudding flavored with rosewater and cardamom. At most buffets you don't get this many dessert options.

Not sure of what else to do, we found ourselves back on Rue Mont-Royal, hoping that a stroll in the daytime would prove less frigid than our nighttime sprint. After walking around for a while we headed to Fairmont Bagels, a Montreal institution for the boiled-and-baked good. It was crowded both inside and out, with orders being rapidly placed and filled at the narrow counter. I made my way to the front and asked for a dozen: half everything, three onion, and three poppy seed.

(I didn't taste them until I got home, but when I did was terribly disappointed. I'd heard so much about the unique, Montreal-style bagel, and expected something pretty extraordinary. After toasting one of them to restore its crust, I bit into the bagel and found myself with a mouthful of bland, vaguely chewy bread. Later, when I examined the bag, I saw the words "salt-free." Let me just say this: these bagels need some salt, and the much-touted Montreal-style bagel is just not great. Sorry.)

It's been said that no visit to Montreal is complete without poutine, and we weren't about to miss out. Unfortunately, the place I had wanted to try—Patati Patata—was filled to the brim with other poutine-noshers and for the four of us, simply too crowded to attempt. After trying desperately to look up other good options in the area, we gave up and headed to Casino de Montreal as planned, hoping that in one of its restaurants the dish would be on offer.

It seemed like a miss at first until I spotted the little placard sitting on the bar at Le Cheval, one of the snack and bar areas roped off from the rest of the casino. Poutine wasn't available on its own, but could be purchased as part of a set meal including either one or two hot dogs and a drink. We went for the deal.

I'm sure this wasn't the best version I could have tried, or even anywhere close. The fries were frozen, the thin gravy probably canned, and the cheese curds soft and tasteless, melting in a way that was completely unlike the fresh, squeaky curds I had envisioned. Still, it gave me a taste of what I might be looking for. And according to TL, TVD, and AS, the hot dogs were decent too.

After that, we headed out. We crossed the border successfully, drove six hours a little less successfully due to the administration of a speeding ticket, and finally reached Manhattan near midnight, starving.

Where else but K-town to satisfy a late-night dinner craving? We headed straight for Pho 32 & Shabu, where one server alone was handling the entire restaurant. At that hour, there weren't many people in there, but nearly all the empty tables were piled high with abandoned plates and food because he didn't have enough time to clear them. It looked as if people had been called out of the restaurant for a sudden fire drill.

TL and I split an order of the fried chicken dumplings, which had the exact shape and filling as the Ling Ling brand potstickers I wrote about. I'm almost positive they are the same—just look at 'em! I should start frying my own.

I got pho with extra meatballs, and it was perfect. Not a perfect bowl of pho—the broth was weak, the herbs and vegetation pitiful, and there were too many onions and not enough noodles—but a perfect thing to eat on a cold night after a long drive home. Something about parting ways after a trip always seems sad to me, so I was glad to have a final meal with AS and TVD before TL and I headed back to Astoria. Even then, I was sorry to say goodbye.

Seva, "mmm" or "hmm"?

With as many restaurants as New York City has on offer, it takes a lot for me to go to any one place regularly. But my first lunch at Seva, as you might remember, had me heading right back shortly after, and both times I had meals that tickled the ol' buds in a way that had me really missing the place once I got to Colorado and there was nothing but heavier (though still good) Indian food in supply. So Seva was the natural choice for TL and I to eat dinner before we headed into Manhattan to catch a performance of Avenue Q (which was hilarious and awesome, by the way).

At the restaurant, I think I was as happy to see the owner there as he was to see us. He greeted the two of us with warmth—remembering our previous visits effortlessly—and midway through our meal he even brought over complimentary mango lassis. TL and I went with the set menu as usual, which for dinner meant an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert for twelve bucks. TL picked a veggie samosa for his appetizer and above is a shot of the lamb spring roll I chose, which was a tasty pile of ground, spiced lamb wrapped in a chewy thin dough and fried. There was a crunchy coating to the outside too, which added extra textural interest. As for our entrees, we had chicken korma and chicken saag, and the owner made sure the latter wasn't too spicy this time. Dessert was gulab jamun and kheer, both of which were pretty good.

I hate to say it, but something about this meal was a little off this time around. The breast meat in the curries seemed just a touch too dry, and the onion paratha we added on had clearly been overcooked and the charred edges hacked off with a knife. Discussion on Chowhound seems to indicate some others also feel like the quality has gone down—so what's the deal, Seva? Please keep being magical and not mediocre; you're my only hope!

Stars for Star of India

I get these little packs of coupons in the mail every once in a while, and every single one of them seems to contain a coupon for Star of India. NH had been talking about craving Indian food, and when several classmates and I went to see a university performance of Street Scene: An American Opera, we decided to hit up the restaurant beforehand and take advantage of the discount.

The menu is pretty extensive, with some dishes that I hadn't seen before. I stuck with my ol' standard though, lamb shahi korma: "Curry with coconut flakes and coconut milk, almonds, raisins, and cashews." It was rich and creamy and flavorful, and the lamb was tender.

I had a piece of NH's chicken tikka, which was alright. The breast meat was a little cottony and could have have more flavor, but it wasn't bad. And when I sampled a bunch of other people's dishes I found nearly everything tasty. They weren't light Indian curries, like the ones at Seva, but they were still really good. Everyone seemed happy with their choices.

Afterwards, at Street Scene: An American Opera, there was a whole song praising the joys of ice cream. Guess what I walked out of there craving?

India's Rice 'n' Spice

Around my parents' way there are a ton of Indian grocery stores, and where I lived in Astoria, Queens there were several small markets around too. In Fort Collins, it seems there's only one—it's a good thing I happened to bike past it.

India's Rice 'n' Spice is a pretty good size, and if it carried fresh produce and sold homemade samosas at the register it would be pretty much exactly what I'm used to. I came home with two packets of frozen paratha, a bag of potato/gram flour snack mix, a roll of "nutty" cookies, and a roll of pistachio-cardamom cookies.

I pan-fried one of the paratha that night; it was flecked with mint (pudina) and was good as a midnight snack.

The next day, I cracked an egg over the paratha after the first side was toasted, and then rolled it up into a makeshift kati roll. I didn't have anything else to throw in there but some sriracha hot sauce, so it ended up being something like an Indian-flavored Chinese egg pancake. Mmm.

Seva, you complete me

Astute readers of this blog (hello!) might recognize these pappadum crackers, so gracefully tilted on the plate. Yes, TL and I were at Seva again, this time for lunch the day before I flew out to Fort Collins. I don't think either of us meant to eat at a restaurant we had gone to only a few weeks earlier, but I wanted a really good meal and we knew Seva would satisfy.

Once again we took advantage of the lunch specials, but added on two appetizers. On the left is a shrimp dish—a special that day—which consisted of shrimp, onions, and peppers cooked in a sweet and tangy sauce, and on the right are masala crab cakes, described as "lump meat, garam masala, mint, lemon-cilantro dip." The filling of the cakes was a little mushy and seemed more like krab than crab, but like the "bok choy crispy curls" we had previous, they were perfectly fried.

The Mulligatawny soup seemed slightly different on this visit—a little less creamy, a little more chunky maybe—but the flavor was still good. And I took a sip of TL's mango lassi (top photo) and it was sweet and thick and mango-ey. Good stuff.

For my entree I went with the chicken saag ("pureed spinach, peppercorns, onion, ginger, garlic, tomato"), which had the same lightness and good flavor as the korma and tikka masala we'd eaten last time, but which was also much spicier than I expected.

Same went for TL's chicken vindaloo (on the menu as "fiery sauce, dried red chilies, potato, tamarind, vinegar"—I guess "fiery" should have tipped us off). Immediately once the owner noticed us sweating over our curries he came over with an offer to replace both with new, less spicy versions, a surprising gesture that I really appreciated. We didn't take him up on it, as we were enjoying the flavor; I just asked for some raita to mellow out the heat and he came back with a good bowlful, which made my eyes light up. That stuff is delish.

Later, as the owner cleared our table he commented that before we had chosen the two most mild curries and now we had chosen the two spiciest, and that next time he will be sure to turn the heat down a little. He even seemed apologetic, like he should have realized our preferences somehow. He was just so nice, and I was impressed that he had not only recognized us but remembered what we'd ordered, too. And when I unpacked our leftovers later, I discovered he had thrown in an extra container of raita.

So once more: I love Seva. You can bet I'll be heading there once I'm in NYC again.

At Seva, sweetness and light united

TL and I were on our way to Chinatown and the Brooklyn Bridge for the afternoon, but while walking around Astoria looking for a new place to eat, we ran across Seva. I had just read the raves on Chowhound a day or two before, but neither of us realized how close the place was to TL's apartment until we walked down a few blocks and there it was. The clean, bright, welcoming restaurant called to us and we didn't resist.

When we sat, we were presented with two thin pappadum crackers, wholly unlike the tough, soggy specimens I had been served at Nirvana. These were delightfully crisp, and the tamarind and mint chutneys served alongside seemed fresher than usual.

We both ordered the lunch special ($8 for soup, entree, rice, and drink, available on weekends too), but tacked on an order of the "bok choy crispy curls"—perfectly fried, nearly greaseless fritters of chopped bok choy in a gram flour batter. It was also served with a killer mint raita; the thick, tangy, slightly sweet yogurt sauce was a great accompaniment to the fritters and to the rest of the meal, too. Also, at a mere $3 for a full plate, this appetizer was a steal.

This was followed by Mulligatawny soup, which in the past I hadn't been fond of. But at Seva, it was completely different; I'm glad it came as part of the lunch special or I would have missed out. It was excellent, really thick and rich, like split pea soup but with Indian spicing. A squeeze of lime gave it a nice tang and I found myself spooning up the entire bowl.

After our dishes were cleared, a pot of basmati rice and a thick, fluffy round of naan (ordered separately) arrived along with our entrees.

The lamb korma (on the right) was lighter than most versions but every bit as flavorful. Same went for the chicken tikka masala. And TL, who doesn't normally do well with lamb, was fine with the mild-tasting meat that was in the korma. The curries seemed fresh and were perfectly spiced, and both of us loved that we didn't feel heavy and leaden after we were done eating.

We spent some time chatting with the pleasant, soft-spoken owner/chef of Seva, who I could tell was really dedicated to his customers and the restaurant. He explained that most of the spices were shipped to him by his mother in India, and that his light touch with ghee and cream in the dishes was intentional. All I can say is, I'm all for it! I left Seva feeling cheerful, which is a sign that I've had some really good eats.


Afterwards, it was on to Chinatown, City Hall, the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights, and Coney Island. I don't know about TL, but my satisfaction with Seva lasted me throughout the entire day. By the time we finally made it home we were too tired to do much else besides order from Papa Johns, which under normal circumstances might have been anticlimactic. But with an awesome meal and an awesome day under our belts, neither of us needed anything more to wow us.

Transported to Taiwan via a sweet treat; lunch at Chennai Garden

Last month while my dad was in Taiwan (you can see how terribly behind I am these days) my brother and I took my mom to the annual Passport to Taiwan event in Union Square for a taste of the motherland ourselves. Bafflingly, this year the food stalls were arranged at the edge of the park where only a narrow sidewalk separates the park from the street, meaning that the stands' long lines spilled out into the middle of the road. The road wasn't closed, though, and there were no cones or barriers set up; the whole time we were there, the area was a continuous, honk-filled battle of man vs. car.


When my mom spotted the above stand, she stopped in her tracks. "These are good!" she exclaimed. So what the mommy wants, the mommy gets: I muscled my way into the crowds and bought two for the three of us to share.

So what is it, exactly? A thin, soft crepe, filled with the shavings from an enormous block of Taiwanese peanut brittle and a scoop of coconut sorbet. It was fun to watch them assembling the treat, and even more fun to eat it. The hand-held packet was a nice combination of crunchy, cold, nutty, creamy, and chewy, and though it got too sweet for me in the end, I'm glad I tried it.

My parents live in a neighborhood where there is a fairly decent Indian population. My dad isn't a fan of their heavily spiced fare, though, meaning other than when my brother and I bring some into the house, opportunities for my mom to try Indian food are rare. So after our brittle-filled crepes, we made our way over to Curry Hill where we dipped in and out of several restaurants before settling on Chennai Garden, sister to Tiffin Wallah, for lunch. Above is an order of the behl puri, "a sweet and tangy mix of puffed rice, crispy noodles, onion, and cilantro," a flavor-packed opener that whet all of our appetites.

Paneer rava masala dosai, a huge cream-of-wheat crepe filled with cheese and spiced potato. I haven't had dosai many times before, but I thought this one was really good, especially when paired with the coconut chutney. The crispy edges of the dosai were my favorite part.

Pea paratha, a flaky bread stuffed with a mash of green peas.

Bhindi masala, an okra curry with tomato and onions, and another dish I can't remember the name of. Since Chennai Garden is a kosher vegetarian place, none of the items we ordered had any meat. But it wasn't a light meal, either; the cream of wheat prepared with ghee, mustard seeds, cashews, chiles, chopped tomatoes, and onion was probably one of the heaviest things I've ever tasted. One bite flooded my mouth with clarified butter, and my second bite confirmed that the first was all I had needed. The flavor was good, but none of us had more than a few spoonfuls.

When I went to visit my mom a day or two later, I ate a piece from some pancakes that were sitting on the table, and realized that she had thinned out the leftover cream of wheat with wheat flour, eggs, and water and then griddled up the batter into a pile of savory pancakes. They were terrific...just one more reason to celebrate the ingenuity of me mum.