Nashville, TN
I watch Maneet Chauhan on #chopped so it was surreal walking into her restaurant. I know I wasn't alone in the feeling watching everyone else's face...just like mine. Hanging golden globes. Exposed brick. Beautiful colored saree drapes over the windows. Clips of hindi movies playing on the wall. She did a damn good job setting the tone as you walk in.
Her menu is simple which makes it easier when you're a group of 8. She has 11 Indian-American fusion appetizers and it was so hard to choose what we wanted to share as a group. Below the appetizers, you have the signature preparations (i.e. entrees) and the Desi Fare. For the Desi Fare, you can have a full Indian meal but you can customize the protein and sauce. There are also small extras on the bottom of the menu for some of your classic favorites like garlic parmesan naan, daal of the day and raita. If you have nut allergies, they have a nut free menu but you have to ask for it. The servers and staff there are extremely nice and check up on your table.
Wanting to try as much as we could, we ordered a plethora of the appetizers: keema papadi nachos, hot chicken pakoras, cheese naan knots tandoori chicken poutine, calamari-65 and naan. All of the dishes were delicious; my only complaint would be MORE of everything in one order! The Keema Papadi Nachos were papad chips with braised lamb keema on top sprinkled with a cucumber tomato kachumbar and tamarind chutney; it came on a nice big platter perfect to share with multiple people. The Hot Chicken Pakora was chicken fried with a batter on the outside served with an orange, ghost pepper sauce; there were about 4 chicken balls per order. Is there anything more to say about Cheese Naan Knots? Kasoori methi dough with chilli cheese melted on the inside. Calamari-65 recipe had been changed recently. It showed up on the nut-free menu however it does have whole peanuts in the mix. We mentioned it to the staff and make sure you double-check it if you have someone in your group that allergic to nuts. It has fried calamari with similar items to a mixture. I've had poutine before but the Tandoori Chicken Poutine here is even better; the masala fries had sprinkled tandoori chicken, makhani sauce and a nice layer of melted cheese on top.
Seeing how well the dishes were done, we couldn't wait to look over the dessert menu. With five dessert items, we wanted to try them all but we picked the three table favorites: chocolate and chai cake, jackfruit sticky toffee upside down cake and gulab jamun rose cheesecake. If you like chai and chocolate, then the Chocolate & Chai is a good option for you; it's a chocolate sponge cake with milk chocolate chai soaked in Mantra Japa, dark chocolate buttercream and plated on top of Mantra Japa caramel. My favorite was the Jackfruit Sticky Toffee Upside Down Cake topped with a butter pecan ice cream and spiced pecans. The jackfruit gives it a nice texture but if you're not a jackfruit fan, just try it! It has all of the good qualities of jackfruit everyone loves! Last, there was the Gulab Jamun Rose Cheesecake with strawberry pomegranate molasses on top. I thought it would be too sweet but they paired it well! The rose flavor was subtle and everyone wanted a piece of cheesecake with a sliver of julab jamun in it! Overall, this place was amazing and we found out next door she has two more restaurant. Hopefully during my next visit, I'll run into her there!
