Paradise Biryani Pointe is almost hidden. Tucked into the corner of an L-shaped two-level strip mall on Manchester Road, it's where one of the locations of Saleem's was years ago. Interestingly, the restaurant turns out to be one of a chain of franchises, but it scarcely seems dumbed down by its owner, an Indian-American who lives in New Jersey.
Are the walls saffron-colored, or the color of mango? Either would fit this cuisine, although mango always seems to be what pops in my head
first. White tablecloths, but casually dressed and relatively silent servers at the buffet, which is lunchtime and Thursday evenings – that one is strictly vegetarian. One of the first striking things about Paradise's lunch buffets is that they're a little more aggressively spiced than many of their peers. There's heat in many of the offerings, not massive amounts, at least to my palate, but enough that it's noticeable. Still, there are enough items that a rookie with the subcontinent's cuisine could manage well enough.
The restaurant's namesake biryani, the rice dish that might be compared to paella, is a good place to start. On the buffet, there's chicken biryani and vegetarian biryani. It's a good example of the dish, the rice grains separate and not overcooked, the serving trays partly covered with plastic to avoid as much drying out as possible. Its gentle spicing, just exotic enough, should reassure the hesitant. Another good option for those folks would be the tandoori chicken, often a gateway to this sort of food. It stays juicy, and despite its brilliant red color is not at all peppery.
The approach here is that as the week progresses, the buffet offerings become a little more elaborate, so on a visit early in the week chicken was the only meat offered. Still, there was enough variety in that to amuse a curious eater, a chicken curry that was boneless chicken in a ruddy sauce with a certain amount of heat, and a dish that should be better known, butter chicken, a creamy orange sauce holding chicken pieces, intriguing but not at all fiery. For those who haven't had butter chicken, it's a don't-miss dish.
Non-meat eaters can try an egg curry, meat being replaced by boiled eggs. Someone had been paying attention to the eggs; no green-rimmed rubbery specimens, they were tender and cooked through but not overcooked, and proved a good match for the sauce.
Later in the week, the ante (and the cost, slightly) is raised on the buffet. By Friday, they're offering goat and seafood, and that's there on Saturday, too. If you haven't eaten goat but you like lamb, you'll enjoy the goat curry. It's not boneless, so there's a little skill in eating it, but it's tender and lean and full-flavored without being hot-spicy, just a little punch. The seafood dish this visit was fried shrimp, the shrimp being coated in a light batter of what seemed to be gram, or chickpea flour. And there was another chicken dish, too, chicken Manchurian, from the Indo-Chinese cuisine that we've seen more in recent years, a little sweet, but not the major note in the flavoring.
Plenty of vegetable choices – that Thursday evening vegetarian buffet is probably a charmer. What I saw on two visits were things like chickpeas, okra (particularly tasty and a silky texture), and a mixed vegetable sort of a stirfry. Also on hand was pongal, a dish that was almost like mashed potatoes, soft and reassuring, although it's made of rice and lentils, and bonda. Bonda look like doughnut holes, but they're vegetable fritters, warm and tender and not greasy. And there was a dish called rava kesar, which was on the buffet with the vegetables, but is technically a dessert, since it's sweet, made with semolina and roughly the texture of polenta. If we eat candied sweet potatoes as a vegetable, why not this?
Of course, there's dal, the soupy lentil dish, here very rich and yet mildly seasoned, as well as sambar, another lentil dish, which really is a soup, thinner than the dal, a little tart, and spicier. Speaking of dishes that need bowls, on the counter next to the plates and silverware, there's a chilling unit, and one of the things there is a yogurt and rice dish, somewhere between raita and a rice salad. The raita itself – the yogurt-cucumber sauce (sometimes it's other things than cucumber, but not often at our local subcontinental restaurants) that's seasoned with cumin and can act as a coolant for too much pepper – is right next to the buffet line itself, along with several compartments of interesting things. The raita is thicker than average, almost elegantly so. There's chutney, too, but also other, more uncommon things. Sesame sauce, a pale, creamy tan, is seasoned with some cardamom, leaving hints of peanut butter and orange, neither of which are actually there. Toward the back, look for a shredded carrot relish punctuated by dried chiles looking like small horns. It's very spicy indeed, but useful for a little change in the mouth, both of texture and of heat, and could be used as the opposite of raita, sprinkled over a dish to increase the Scoville heat factor.
Rice, of course, kept warm, but also idli, the small, round steamed cakes that are sometimes used to soak up sambar or other wet dishes. They're rather like American white bread in their tenderness, but aren't made with wheat. And then there's the naan. On my first visit, early in the week and early in the lunch hour, a basket of naan was brought to my table, hot and freshly brushed with ghee – butter naan. It was divine. The same naan, on busier days, are in a chafing dish with the rice and idli, and they're good, but not as great as the fresh-out-of-the-oven ones, of course.
Gulab jamun, the doughnut holes in a sweet light syrup, wait on the dessert table, as does kheer, rice pudding, and a fruit salad with custard. None are as exciting as what's on the main buffet. Mango lassi and chai are also on offer, the lassi heavier on what tastes like condensed milk than most, and the chai very strong indeed.
Lunch service is quiet but dirty plates are removed rapidly and the woman at the cash register has a pleasant smile and a happy attitude.
There's meal service from a menu at night. Next time.
Biryani Paradise Pointe
14560 Manchester Rd., Suite 9, Ballwin
636-220-1101
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Tricky
Smoking: No
Buffet: $11-$13