The Turtle's Shell

As I finish the last post and eat my newly created turkey sandwich, I come to realize that I eat out a lot. I ate at three different places yesterday. A Mexican place, an Indian place, and Denny’s. I may or may not review Denny’s at some point seeing as it’s more of a place you end up rather than set off to. I’ll save the Mexican one for later and instead focus on the Indian one, Paradise India.

This is a place that I have gone to for several years and never gotten around to actually putting my thoughts about it down on paper. It is a little hole in the wall style Indian restaurant in a strip mall. It is very small with a max capacity of just under 80 (an estimate). They are closed on Mondays and offer a lunch buffet for a reasonable price every day until 3pm.

My girlfriend and I walked in and, as always, were greeted warmly by Yogi, the owner of the restaurant. He took us to our table and we ordered the non-vegetarian dinner for two. The Non-Veg dinner comes with two chicken samosas, two bowls of chicken vegetable soup, two meat dinners (I was feeling less adventurous last night and ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala and she ordered the Chicken Korma.) and a dessert of choice.

Before I get on with the GBU of this place, I would like to address something that has been somewhat of a struggle for Yogi for a while. There was a period about 8 months ago where he was trying to sort out kitchen and wait staff problems that were having a negative effect on the customers. Inattentive waiters during peak hours were causing a lack of filled glasses which is a big no-no for an Indian place, and a kitchen that was taking a long time to get food out. This caused many people to go and post negative reviews for him on many websites. I am pleased to report, however, that Yogi has taken vast measures, and listened to his customers, that have addressed each one of these problems in a magnificent way. Now on to the GBU!

The Good:
One of the things that Yogi likes to stress is the freshness of his food, and there is no question that the food is always extremely fresh. They cook each dish to order and have mastered the art of doing this in a way that took the average order time from 40 to 50 minutes for a table down to no more than 20. The soup was spicy as it should be, the samosas were perfectly fried, my masala and her korma were both delicious. I’m getting hungry again thinking about it. Mine was creamy and tomatoey, the chicken was tender and moist. The garlic naan was a bit crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. We always order the pistachio ice cream and it’s always excellent. Not too sweet, natural ingredients. Delicious.

This is a restaurant that is perfect for date night. The lights dim in the evening for a romantic atmosphere and the wait staff is never intrusive and they never harass you. The owner also makes rounds and, as far as I can tell, makes a point to talk to each table to find out how they are doing. Another bonus is that Yogi is very good at helping people who have never eaten Indian food before pick out something to eat that isn’t scary and is usually delicious.

The Bad:
I am fat. My enjoyment of food is such that when I love the taste of something, I want more. When not at a buffet food trough this can cause a problem. A food that is tasty, cheap, and large portioned is going to score HUGE marks in the fatty book as compared to something that is tasty, expensive, and small portioned. This is the main complaint that I have about Paradise India. The food is so delicious that I just want more of it. If each of the dishes that he gives were about 50% more full I would have no problems. The non-veg dinner for two, with two drinks, runs about 44 dollars. Not too bad on date night, but as a fatty I would love to see a slightly bigger dish come out. It may not prove to be a problem for fun-sized people, but the fatty likes to eat and eat lots.

Not a huge problem but something that I’ve noticed in the past: he could probably use bigger water glasses. That shit is spicy sometimes and I drink like a horse. Bigger glasses means less time running to my table. The waitress last night noticed this and just brought me a carafe of water. She got a fatty-sized tip for that one. A+

The Ugly:
They close at 9:30. This is probably going to be a common theme in my FFRs is that things in KC close way to damn early. Not like I want him to be open until 1am or something, but I hate feeling rushed if I want to have a late dinner starting at 8 or 8:15.

All in all Paradise India is one of my favorite restaurants. I had been searching for a good Indian place and this one had recently opened up and came highly recommended from a friend. This was 5 years ago and I’m still going to this one as often as I can. Here’s to you Yogi, keep up the good work and I’ll see you again as soon as possible.

Paradise India on 135^th  gets 4.5 out of 5 fatty rolls.