by Steven Doyle
I am a sucker for an Indian restaurant, and love trying new ones that I spot along my merry way. Often times I have dinner remorse, or worse, dinner regret. Last night while zooming through Addison I spotted for the fifth time an Indian restaurant that has actually been in business since November, but it blended into the landscape a bit next to the Chili’s with its outlandish new makeover and glowingly bright paint job.
Barwachi Signature Indian Cuisine is part of a local family of restaurants that spread out as far as Denton, with an outpost in Plano and Carrollton. This also happens to be the very beautiful former Clay Pit location in Addison on Beltline. I was never a fan of the Indian fusion that was going on at Clay Pit, and avoided it other than a few sporadic family summits that were hosted at the now closed restaurant. I walked into Barwachi with much trepidation.
The building hadn’t changed a bit, other than the lack of clientele. Perhaps it is the abundance of tech tourists that is so unkind to Indian restaurants in this region of Dallas County, but regardless the chains do extremely well. And Richard Chamberlain. And Kenny Bowers. Well, the bars do well in Addison, as well. Smoking is a bonus in these parts.
Regardless, we sat down to sample a bit of the cuisine amongst the mostly Desi clientele. Good sign perhaps. The dishes are mostly Northern India cuisine which is thick with creamy sauces that can be spicy and fragrant. A good amount of vegetables and fruits are used in the cuisine and includes dishes such as butter chicken, samosas, and mutton. The use of cream and cheese is very prevalent, as is ghee. The food is lush.
The Southern Indian fare is more vegetable and seafood happy, and less on the creams. Also included are dosas, sambhar, biryani and kebabs. Note that the southern cuisine is more rice friendly, whereas the North is wheat country.
To compartmentalize the cuisine by ripping a country in half is probably a sin, as it is very localized by state. None the less, our restaurant today has flavors from both Northern and Southern India. However the dishes we sampled were extremely happy with cream and were pleased to give any heat level requested on a 1 to 10 scale.
Service included something that Texans would find comforting, chips and salsa. Well, how about chips of poppadum and an assortment of chutneys.
The absence of diners might actually be the price point of Barwachi. I can list at least a half dozen spots around the city that serve biryani for around five bucks, and the servings are plentiful for two. But this is a slick operation geared towards the New World, and the biryani can reach a much higher $15. A proud price point for a bowl of seasoned rice and a boiled egg. I am sure it was delicious.
What we did sample were the creamier of the lot, the Lamb Korma and the Palek Paneer. The paneer had the flavor of homemade cheese with a sweet cream milk, soft and supple. The creamed spinach bathed the cheese and was a bit heavy for the dish, but altogether delicious.
Our Korma was thick with cream as well, but sweet and spicy as it should be prepared. We got exactly what we ordered and were happy.
Check out one of the many other locations of Barwachi for some fun Indian style dishes that will leave you with leftovers the next day.
Interesting internet site – how exciting!
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