I sometimes wonder if late-night post-beers Indian food is a typical European or Oceanic phenomenon.  I don’t remember a good curry being an essential start or end to the evening in any of my US partying days, but they were mostly in Wyoming, where there is an overall lack of Indian, so I could be wrong.

In Europe I have encountered lots of good Inidan - paticularly in London.  And in Adelaide, Australia, there are two totally amazing Indian restaurants, Jasmin and the Chefs of Tandoori on Unley. Jasmin is very high end, and Chefs of Tandoori allow takeaways, so I very often drove down there on a Sunday or Friday night and brought home yummy curries.

Here in Denver, it took us a long time to find what we consider great Indian.  There are lots of ‘strip-mall’ Indian restaurants that are decent.  All of them do something that seems to be typical of Indian restaurants around here. They offer all-you-can-eat Indian buffets for lunch - for around the $8 mark.  Usually, we (meaning me and hubbie) find the buffets fine.  But we’re after a real hot madras, not what they can offer on a buffet.  Buffet spice levels are usually very very low for our taste. They’re not bad; they’re just not what we consider a good Indian.

One day, we stumbled upon Little India restaurant at the BelMar shopping complex.  Apparently, it is a chain here in the Denver area - from what I can tell there are 4 locations.  We have actually been to the Champa St. location, but I have to say that it did not make the same impression that the BelMar location did.  Ever since we found it, we have been weekly guests for lunch.  There have been very few weeks that we have missed.

The a la carte menu, as opposed to the buffet, is great.  But after many months of being regular customers, we have settled into a real routine - it’s not often that we deviate.

We always share dishes - and we always skip appetizers to get the most out of our choices! One of my favorite things about the restaurant is that they serve the entrees (the American entree - which in most other parts of the world would be the ‘main’) in little copper bowls.  Love that - gives it such a ‘real’ Indian restaurant feel!

Our first staple is the Lamb Madras, which the menu calls a restaurant specialty.  We order it chef’s recommendation hot, and it is spectacular! Spicy, lots of tomatoey curry goodness. Not for the fear-of-a-bit-of-spice crowd.  I haven’t got a clue if it’s authentic Madras curry, I’ve never been to India, but it reminds me of the best curries I’ve had in Adelaide.  The second dish we always have was a recommendation from one of the hosts there, the Chicken Tikka Bhuna.  I’d never heard of it before, but it is more of a yellow curry, much less spicy, with lots of onion and green and red  capsicum (bell peppers I think Americans call them).  Add to that two plain Naan breads and some plain rice, and we’re in heaven! Soooo good. Their naan is always freshly baked and nice and warm.

My one complaint is the wine list.  While there are certainly ‘drinkable’ wines, there is a complete lack of any real high end wine.  Even if they only had one selection, it would really add to the experience to once in a while be able to splurge.  There is no option but ‘acceptable’ wines.  For wine appreciaters like us (read: wine snobs) it is always kind of a giggle for us when they bring out their mass-produced and mass-marketed wine and tell us how amazing it is.  It’s fine :)

But, obviously, we forgive them this little thing, otherwise we wouldn’t keep coming back, week after week! I’m a bit terrified now, because we have decided to only eat lunch out once a week! Eeeek! How will I fit in all my Little India visits!!

http://www.littleindiadenver.com

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