Indian Palate
2120 Salzedo St.
Coral Gables/S. Miami
786-360-3664
This Coral Gables restaurant is nothing if not ambitious, the menu delving into regional dishes not seen in our other Indian joints. You can find chicken cooked in the styles of not only tandoori, biryani, khorma, and tikka masala, but also noorjehani, karachi, jalfrezi, makhani, andhra, and chettinad. The last, a curry specialty from Tamilnadu in South India, features strips of boneless chicken stir-fried with onions and tomatoes, all hot and pungent with fresh ground masalas - including star aniseed, whole red chilies, cinnamon, and curry leaves. The more conventional tandoori chicken was notably moist and requisitely piquant. For starters, you can't go wrong with textbook vegetable samosas, but better is a memorable rendition of steamed mussels with tandoori-clarified butter and tangy tamarind sauce. Have a yen for lentils? Sample them here as patties, pancakes, doughnuts, dumplings, crêpes, or as plain yellow dal. You can also order combination plates comprising four dishes from a specific region. The "North Indian palate" brings moist morsels of Navabi-style lamb spotted with cashews and raisins in a rich curry sauce; chicken tikka masala in a mild, traditional tomato-tinted sauce with a slight spritz of coconut milk; shrimp malai curry, a Bengali dish potent with garam masala, coconut, and ginger; and aloo palak, a spinach-spud spin. The extensive menu contains more misses than one would hope for, but Indian Palate will likely satisfy those whose palate craves Indian.
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