Lawrence

The vegetarian Vasanta Bhavan is absolutely my favorite Indian restaurant in the area, although Palace of Asia is a close second. When we want meat, Palace is the choice. Vasanta, however, is just extraordinary. Their food is fresh, tasty, and we enjoy almost everything we have tried. The desserts are an acquired taste, too sweet for me. They make delicious dosas of many varieties. The curries are wonderful. The samosas are the best I have ever had. We especially like the Panir curries like Panir Shahi, Panir Tikka Masala, and Palak Panir.

The staff is always friendly. The primary service shortcoming is the uncertainty of the sequence in which various dishes are served. You may order pakoras, a dosa, and a couple of curries. You can never be certain what item will be served first or whether all might come out virtually simultaneously. None-the-less I like the service. Everyone is cheerful. They like the food. They can usually be very informative about the ingredients and preparation. Although, when there is new staff, they may start without much of a clue about the menu items.

In the evening, Vasanta Bhavan offers discounts based on the Princeton Packet discount card. The lunch service is a great buffet.

On a Friday evening in mid March [2006], we and two vegetarian neighbors ate once more at Vasanta. We ordered Medu Vada, Samosas, Special Rava Dosa, Paneer Burji, Channa Palak, Kashmiri Naan, and Kulcha stuffed with fenugreek. Instead of the Special Rava Doas and the Paneer Burji [curry], we received a plain Rava Dosa [missing the spicy potato stuffing] and a Paneer Burji Dosa instead of the curry. We had a new waiter. As usual at Vasanta, the waiter was very pleasant, cheerful, and trying mightily hard. So we didn't ask for replacements. Both mistakes were minor, in terms of basic flavor. We enjoyed them, but this is the aspect of service that is somewhat less than professional. The food, however, was as always wonderfully fresh and tasty.

The Palace of Asia is the restaurant that originally taught us to love Indian food. It is our non-vegetarian Indian restaurant of choice. The service is friendly and usually very efficient. It is a pretty space although a bit overdesigned. Palace strives to be a palace. We like the panir curries almost as much as those at Vasanta, but Palace's edge is meat, especially chicken. The chicken is moist, tender, and flavorful. We particularly like the Malai Kebab. The vegetable curries do not seem to us to be as freshly made as at Vasanta Bhavan. The breads are excellent, but not as diverse as at Vasanta.

We don't eat at Passage to India nearly as frequently as we do at Vasanta and Palace, but their food is excellent. Like Palace they serve well prepared meats. Their array of curries and roti are somewhat different than Palace's. The recipies for some items are substantially different. The Panir Tikka Masala is more complex than it is at either Palace or Vasanta, not better, not worse, just more complex. I not sure why we prefer Palace, perhaps just loyalty and habit. The food is very, very good.