judyonthenet

Saturday afternoon, I was grinding through Pokemon (literally grinding… my Pokemon were too weak for the final battles). It came to be too boring for me, so I think I surfed internet for the rest of the day until Chris called me randomly and asked if I was free to hang out. Obviously I was, but he was only 5-10 minutes away when he called, so there was a mad rush to get the apartment to a not-so-embarrassing state. Chris suggested Indian food for dinner, so we went to Rangoli India Restaurant, a place near work I’d been curious about because I pass by it everyday and it has a nice sign. I’m apprehensive about Indian food, but I suppose it was a good time as ever to see if I was being paranoid.

Rangoli India Restaurant is at the end of a random little strip mall. The windows are covered, so you can’t really see inside. The sign sticks out with its nice font, but the red/green color scheme makes me think pizza joint, so I was expecting this place to be a low-end Indian restaurant. Walking into Rangoli, it was way more fancy looking than I had originally thought it would be. It was really dark inside, with candles everywhere providing much of the lighting. The customers seemed older and more refined than us. I certainly felt underdressed in my Cheapassgamer T-shirt (which was on backwards! I remember thinking… gee, I hope they won’t be insulted by my CAG shirt *looking down at chest* where’s the design? Oh crap! Maybe I shouldn’t change from my jammies so quickly. Anyways, I eventually fixed my shirt.) and baggy jeans. We were seated fairly quickly (though the waiter took the long way, so we could see how fancy their joint is) and given fancy looking menus and a wine list to look at. I liked the decor: very modern fused with Indian touches.

Entrees ranged between $13-$17, so it wasn’t too bad. As starters, Chris and I got mango lassi(s) which is some sort of yogurt drink, and those were pretty good. I got Tandoori Tikka Kabob, which was surprisingly moist and not overwhelmingly spiced. Very tasty. (My issue with Indian food is that the spices and combination of flavors is too much for me. Anybody who knows me knows I can’t stand curry unless it’s the super mild coconut milk curry in Thai food. Actually, there was a Chinese restaurant in Boston that had a regular spicy curry chicken that I LOVED and ordered all the time. That’s the only time I’ve ever liked regular curry… and I still can’t figure out why I liked it so much.) Kelvin got the Lamb Korma, and Chris got the Chicken Tikka Masala (I think). Those were way too strong for me (but I think in terms of Indian food, they were good). Kelvin said the Lamb Korma is kinda plain with the rice, but great with the naan. Chris said the Tikka Masala had stronger flavors than what he’s used to, but that he liked it. I wasn’t a fan of the Garlic Naan, particularly by itself. However, Kelvin was right in that the Garlic Naan was very complimentary to the curries (almost tolerable). The rice was good, firm and fluffy at the same time. Presentation was nice; all our entrees were served on very different containers.

After having a waitress very nicely describe all of the desserts, we got 3 out of the 4 desserts they had: Pistachio Kulfi, Gulab Jamun, and Rice Pudding. The kulfi had a weird texture, but only because I kept expecting it to be like ice cream (it’s not ice cream). It was very pistachio-y as the name implies. The Gulab Jamun was very sweet, but not heavy. The Rice Pudding reminded me of oatmeal in terms of its milkiness; the rosewater gave it an interesting sweetness.

The entire time we sat there, the waiters and waitress were super friendly and fairly quick; I was very happy with the service. Rangoli even has nice patrons! While we were staring at the this basket of powdered stuff, an elderly Indian came over and explained to us what it is (some after dinner treat). When he talked it about, it seemed like he was reminiscing to a time when he enjoyed it as a child. It was a very good dining experience overall. I’m still not a fan of Indian food, but I’m glad I gave it a shot at Rangoli. I give it an 8/10 (probably would be higher if I liked Indian food and if it wasn’t a bit on the pricier side for Indian food).

For those interested in checking it out (btw, they have a $10 lunch buffet that’s very popular with the Yelpers):

New thing I learned today: Gulab Jamun is a traditional Indian treat that is made by frying little balls of dough mostly made of milk. They look like donut holes, and they are served in syrup. “Gulab” translates to “rose” in Hindi, and “Jamun” is a dark purple fruit found in South Asia.