Indian restaurants in this country differ from those in England or Canada in one basic way. Most of them rely on one or at most two masalas, or spice mixtures, to flavor the curries, stews and cooked dishes. That’s a no-no an Indian home cook would never be guilty of.
Another problem with them is that menus tend to be similar, and represent north Indian, or more specifically, Punjabi cuisine. It’s rare to find a south Indian restaurant outside of New York or the Bay Area. (Little India in Artesia, Calif., south of L.A., has Woodlands, one of the best south Indian chains, and Pioneer Boulevard, the main drag there, has several Gujurati farsan, or snack shops.)
In Vegas, fans of Indian cuisine have limited choices. India Market, on Maryland Pkwy., sells Indian groceries and rents all the new Bollywood movies. The creative, spotty Origin India offers a non-traditional fusion menu. MoZen Bistro at the Mandarin Oriental prepares a good tandoori meat platter. Sensi at the Bellagio has the best naan in the city.
But for all-around dependability, I like Tamba, because the chef, a man named Om Singh, is my favorite Indian chef in town. You may recall my piece on this Website about Namaste, the chef’s former digs. But he up and left that restaurant last fall, and the kitchen hasn’t recovered.
Tamba isn’t perfect. To get there, you have to be keelhauled through a cheesy crowd in Hawaiian Marketplace Mall, where one endures street hawkers, tourists singing karaoke, and several of the ugliest kiosks in a city loaded with ugly kiosks.
Cross the mall, open the doors and ride the escalator up to level two, to enter this huge restaurant, which serves the largest Indian buffet on the Strip at lunchtime. I loathe buffets, even the good ones, so I like to come here for dinner. Tamba, incidentally, has a full bar. You’ll need it. It’s daunting to find parking spaces behind this mall, but they do exist.
Tamba is a dark room with Indian themed murals and comfy furniture. Most of the waiters and cooks, chef Singh included, are Nepali, and so is my wife, so we come here often. Normally, we start with samosa, a deep fried pastry pyramid with pea and potato stuffing in the center. I also love the chef’s lightly battered fish pakoras, dusted with turmeric.
Both these starters are served with two chutneys, mint and tamarind, piquant, lively sauces capable of waking up the palate.
Another starter I like is pani puri, a street snack from Bombay’s Chowpatty Beach. On the beach, it’s done in a paper cone, but here, you’ll eat it on a proper plate. Picture puffy round breads, glistening in an oily sheen, filled with potatoes, chickpeas, cilantro, and flat wheat flour crisps, all mixed up with two kinds of chutneys, sweet and sour. It’s all a little weird, and strangely addictive.
Singh’s tandoori meats, from the clay oven, are superb. The big deal tandoori meat selection is an assortment of four kabobs, adhraki seekh, fresh ginger flavored ground lamb rolls, malai tikka, bite sized pieces of broiled white meat chicken, tandoori murgh, or chicken on the bone, and wonderful, spice crusted lamb chops.
Singh has also imported his famous green tandoori chicken from the beleaguered Namaste. When I blogged about Namaste, I referred to this chicken as “a life-changing dish similar to what you’d get at the Copper Chimney in Bombay.” I still stand by that recommendation, in spite of the fact that Namaste used sizzling plates, and Tamba doesn’t.
Still and all, the chicken has a thick, crisp batter from its yoghurt based marinade, and fall apart tender meat. It’s not on the regular menu, so call in advance to order some. What is on the menu, though, is tulsi malai tikka, sort of like the world’s finest chicken McNuggets, thanks to a brilliant marinade of cream cheese, basil and mint.
Everyone loves the chef’s cooked dishes as well, Goan chicken curry, flavored with coconut milk, lamb dum vindaloo, an incendiary dish also from Goa, and his peerless goat curry, which sometimes appears at no extra charge on the lunch buffet.
His vegetable dishes are peerless too; kurkari bhindi masala, spiced, stewed okra, malai kofta, savory vegetable balls, channa masala, the richest chickpea and gravy dish you’ll ever taste, and kail dal, a slow cooked lentil gravy.
Saffron rice pilaf and naan breads, also from the clay oven, round out a meal at Tamba nicely. Garlic naan has enough garlic to kill a vampire, and kabuli naan is studded with cashews and dried cherries. The best sweet, incidentally, is gulab jamun, cheese balls that look like they are ready for a golf tee. Just make sure they were made that day.
How can you be sure? Ask one of the Nepali waiters. Nepalis never lie, according to my wife.
Tamba, 3743 Las Vegas Blvd. in the Hawaiian Marketplace. 798-7889.
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Great point about the limitations of indian restaurants. The next time you are in the DC area you should check out the variety of South Asian restaurants. While I love Uidipi, the south Indian restaurant we frequented in my youth -driving up from Richmond VA, our new favorites include Indique Heighes, which has street fare, a Burmese and a Nepalese restaurants.
Great food…even if the pictures did suck! Get a Canon!