Claypit - Austin, TX

Been a while...so time for another post and another restaurant review !!! Again..this is a desi restaurant, but before I proceed further... CLAYPIT totally rocks!

Claypit is located in downtown Austin. Downtown Austin is the popular weekend hangout spot...wat with rows and rows of pubs, night clubs, live music and well...a lot of colorful people (a wideeee grin :D). I have been to claypit a number of times, and there has never been a time when I have returned disappointed!

They claim to be one of the best Indian restaurants in Austin..and trust me...they truly are ! I haven't been to their lunch buffets, but I have had dinner there plenty of times...their food tastes authentically desi...yum yum !! So for all those who miss..hot and spicy indian food...this is the place to go. From their appetizers to the entrées… they have it all. Not to forget their desserts. I can’t really rave about their desserts coz I haven’t tasted those...but I can go on and on about their appetizers and entrées.
Their menu is great...from veg to non-veg...they have it all. From naans and rotis...to tandoori chicken...biriyani...and well even meen curry (fish curry)...their spread is mouth watering. I was fortunate to taste their naans, meen curry, tandoori chicken bites, lamb roganjosh, lamb biriyani...and the list seems never endless (now dont get me wrong...I dint eat it all at the same time !!!) Every morsel was mouth watering and tasty..with authentic indian taste. And I must specially mention their biriyani...we were skeptical to order biriyani coz not many Indian restaurants in the US serve good desi biriyani...but Claypit served such tasty lamb biriyani (yummm!!)..quite unlike what I have never tasted elsewhere. The lamb roganjosh was great as well. I cannot say much about the tandoori chicken bites, coz I felt that the meat was not well marinated as I did not get the taste of the masala...although I must confess that it looked deliciously appetizing!

Enough said about the food..lets talk about the decor and the atmosphere. The decor was simple and inviting..wooden floors...natural walls (limestone ?? not sure...)...little floating candles...and just pure warmth...this is a place that welcomes all :)....

So if you have been yearning to eat desi food..Claypit is the place to be. The place is a litle pricey..but hey...if the food's good..its worth the price ! But remember...this place gets real crowded...so dont forget to make a reservation...and one small tip...ask to be seated at the basement...it gives you a more private relaxed feel, the only drawback being...it might get a little too hot down there during the Texas summer !

If you want to enjoy great tasting, delicious and authentic Indian food...dont miss Claypit ! Cheers !!

Tandoori Hut..A Desi Restaurant

This is my second attempt at writing restaurant reviews & today the review is on a restaurant that serves desi food and its called 'Tandoori Hut'. We had actually passed by this restaurant a couple of weeks earlier and the name 'Tandoori' caught my attention coz I am a big fan of tandoori food. And finally I got to visit this place for lunch yesterday.

To start off the review, the appearance and the ambience of the place was not very welcoming. The restaurant decor...well...it left asking for more...a 'lot lot more'. Nor was there a cheerful person at the front desk to welcome you. So we walked into this seemingly quiet place and were seated at a corner table (well...there was just only one other family around..so it had to be quiet. Can you imagine...at noon on a sunday afternoon you would expect any restaurant to be buzzing with activity. Sadly...not this one !) . Even the table arrangement was pretty shabby. Not a good first impression at all !!!

So we put behind the 'not-so-great' first impression and began our lunch. It was a buffet lunch. In a land where salads are an important part of any meal, the salads served here were not even close to appetizing. As I write this blog, I am not able to recall the salads, coz it was so badly presented that I just had a glimpse of it. Moving on to the other food..well...they did have both vegetarian and non-vegetarian...they had a couple of chicken dishes and surprisingly even beef (that was veryyy surprising, coz very few Indian restaurants serve beef). Their chicken tikka tasted absolutely lovely. It was well cooked and you could taste the wonderful masala (just goes to show how well marinated it was). But unfortunately, that seemed to be THE only dish to get a 4 star as far as taste was concerned, and yes off course the fresh nan too, which was made fresh and served hot at your table. I could probably rate the nan at four and a half out of five !!

But for these two dishes, there was not another dish that made you scream out and say 'Whowww....thats some awesome Indian food'. Their other chicken dishes seemed to lack in flavor, their dhals and veg curry seemed way off taste. Even something as popular as channa and potatoes left us wondering what was wrong with the taste!! Surprisingly, this place did not serve paneer. I say surprising coz there has never been a single tandoori restaurant that I have visited that did not serve naan and paneer !! So being a paneer fan, this was a little disappointing too !!

Finally, it was time for some desserts!!! But well..where were the desserts ? Ok...found it...tucked away in the middle of other food was 'kesari'. Just one dessert ? Thats seems weird !! Oh ok... I was wrong...there was another sweet at the other end of the table near the salad ! Well..that looked like some milk sweet...Milk Khoa..kheer ? No idea !! Coz there was no name card displaying what the dish was. Another black mark for the way the food was presented !! And let me tell you this…the desserts did not taste great either.

Usually, the way the food is presented is very important in a buffet setting. It starts with salads and appetizers...moves on to the main course and then ends with the desserts !! And every dish has a neatly placed name card to indicate what it was. But it looks like this restaurant tried to override all the rules of neat presentation !!! No name cards..no clean presentation...and not so great tasting food !! Tandoori Hut was just not a place that I would want to visit again.

But before I forget to mention, their buffet was about two to three dollars less than other places. But that still does not justify the below average spread and taste that this place offered !!! So to sum it up...Tandoori Hut was a disappointing experience!!