There are more and more Indian restaurants popping up in the suburbs, a good development as far as we’re concerned. St Louis has good restaurants, to be sure, but St. Louisans’ palates, on the whole, are rather conservative, and the spread of the comparatively exotic food of southern Asia speaks of widening our eating horizons.
Why is this happening? One theory is that the introduction of the now nearly ubiquitous lunch buffet was the tipping point. Somebody who’d tried Indian food (probably the only one in the office, we visualize) suggested it, and a couple of others thought, "What the heck, it’s inexpensive, and I don’t want to look like some wimp," and off they went, discovering this stuff is really pretty tasty. And they encouraged others, brought their spouses and dates, converting at least some.
All this is to introduce Flavor of India, a charming, worthy-of-visiting new restaurant at I-270 and Olive boulevard, across the street from the Drury Inn, in a strip of shops that’s slightly below eye level from some angles. The room is rather low-key, in shades of beige and tan; the fireworks come from the food.
The menu is a large one, so diners need to plan on some exploration before they order. As is becoming more frequent, side dishes like raita, the cooling yoghurt relish, and chutney, must be ordered separately. Servings of each are large enough to justify the expense, especially the house’s version of raita, which is slightly sweet, and laced with thin ribbons of crunchy pickled cucumber.
Food cooked in the high-heat clay oven called a tandoori is often an easy entry to Indian dining. Bits of tandoori chicken go into the mulligatawny soup, a bronze broth full of flavor without being incendiary. Like so many Indian soups, it’s a fine dish for a cold night. Our only possible quibble is that it was a mite greasy. Tandoori chicken wings arrive on a sizzling platter, as is the tradition, the sliced onion underneath serving as garnish and relish. The wings had good spicing and were ungreasy, making for a fine flavor-texture combination.
From the vegetarian menu, we tried aloo mushroom, or mushrooms and potatoes cooked with tomatoes and onions. It was what’s sometimes referred to as a "dry" curry, which is to say it wasn’t heavily sauced. The usual spicing for the dish is mild, and the kitchen turned the heat up a little at our request. At what the restaurant called medium, the non-chili flavors were still easily distinguishable, including the mushrooms. The potatoes were not overcooked, and might have been even tastier.
Vindaloo, in contrast, is a "wet" curry. It’s also known to fans of Indian fare as the hottest of the curries. Several kinds of vindaloos are offered; we chose fish, which brought us chunks of a mild fish in a tomato-based sauce that was good enough to eat on its own over the basmati rice flecked with cumin, the way a good marinara over pasta needs no additional meat. Yes, it was hot, although not so much as a few of the salsas we’ve found in Mexican restaurants on Cherokee street, or even vindaloos we’ve had in London.
The only disappointment was in the kheer, the traditional Indian dessert of rice pudding. It’s usually spiced with cardamom, and the menu describes it that way. But if it had been added, it was in such scant quantities as to be indiscernible. Lightly sweet, and with crunchy pistachios, it would have been very nice—if it had been adequately spiced.
There’s a lunch buffet every day of the week, but we’d be very tempted to investigate the various soups and stuffed breads. Incidentally, all of the latter are vegetarian, too, and we suspect at least one of the soups is, as well.
Beer is our usual beverage of choice with Indian food, and there’s a proper selection. But while the wine list shows some gewurtztraminer and other suitable go-withs, the by-the-glass list offers only bare bones that really don’t match up with the spicy, delicious food. Service from the white-shirted waiter corps is attentive and reassuring.
Flavor of India
11939 Olive Blvd., Creve Coeur
314-997-4224
Lunch and Dinner daily
Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair access: Fair
Smoking: No
Entrees: $9-$16
