Madras Grill, Chelmsford MA

Madras Grill. Good food & decor, to sum it up.  New Indian restaurant in Chelmsford, MA.

Update Feb 2012:

Karaikudi Chicken - 9/10.
Ask the chef to make it semi-dry (and spicy if desired). Very flavorful gravy, soft juicy chicken.
Description: A delicacy from the southern region called chettinadu, bone in chicken cooked with some distinct ingredients such as poppy seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds that give a very special aroma to the curry.

Mirapakaya Kodi Kura Chicken - 9/10.
Cooked similar to the Karaikudi Chicken above, but different flavor (Andhra style). Having it semi-dry doesnt dilute the tasty gravy.
Description: A spicy andhra bone in chicken dish cooked with green chillis and home ground south indian spicy masala.


From the buffet:

Chilli chicken - 8/10. Not too spicy, dry (good), not messed up with bell peppers or gravy (good).

Chicken tikka masala - 8/10. Very soft and juicy chicken, almost the 'melt in your mouth' kinds.

Chicken tandoori - 7/10. Better than the usual, well marinated, but by the time you get half way through the meat, the marination wears off... and you are back to 'white meat'.

Chicken with black pepper and hint of coconut (I forget the name) - 7/10. Tasty. Nice gravy.

Naan - nice thin fresh ones.

Filter coffee - decent. The real deal (not machine made). Could be a bit stronger.

Carrot halwa & sooji halwa - nice.

The veggie food was generally good too. The (moong-daal?) dosa with potato stuffing, that comes with the buffet, was ok, and so was the zucchini mixed vegetable.

Recommended overall.

Lunch buffet on all days, $9.95 M-F, $12.95 S-S. Menu looks interesting too, but a bit pricey.

7 Summer Street
Chelmsford, MA - 01824
Phone : (978) 330-5133

Email : info@themadrasgrill.com

Punjab, Arlington MA

Punjab - punjabarlington.com
485 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington - (781) 643-0943

Update 4/9/09
Tandoori chicken - 6/10. Juicy, with a good coating of masala, but still not enough to get into the meat. It was fresh, on insistence that they make it well.
Chicken curry - 6/10. Rich, above average hot, on demand.

Lamb seekh kabab - good flavor - 7/10
Goat curry - tasty, although the gravy was a bit rich and on the sweeter side (probably because of the long fried 'caramelized-like' onions). 7/10
Fresh naan - 7/10 (when we ordered from the menu)

Order more - the above meal (with 3 naans/rice) wasnt enough for 2 guys.
Nice ambience. They have a buffet too.

Pongal, Billerica MA

Pongal, 786 Boston Rd Billerica, MA 01821
(978) 667-3443

Update 4/25/10

By far the best Indian restaurant this side of town! It also has a good selection of Indo-Chinese food.

Chilli paneer dry - 8/10. Very good, well made, comes very close to the Indian Chinese style, probably without much MSG

Chilli chicken dry - 8/10. ditto. The real deal, not adulterated by green peppers and such, although it has onions (the Indian one is just green chillies and chicken)

Chicken chettinad - 8/10. Very tasty and flavorful. It didn't feel like chicken thrown in some standard gravy, as we also ordered veggie chettinad. The chicken was juicy and prepared well.

Vegetable chettinad - 7/10. Good stuff.

Lamb seekh kabab - 7/10. This one was a bit disappointing, given the other good food and expectations, but not bad nonetheless. Could have been a bit more moist and flavorful.

Overall, this is the place to goto if you are in the Northwest area.

Update 1/1/10

The weekend buffet is good, 7/10 on average.

They have a good mix of veg and non veg. Their tandoori chicken is much better than the average fare elsewhere. Its well marinated.

Goat curry - 7/10

Lamb biryani - 7/10

Naan - 7/10

Chicken tikka - 7/10

One of the best in the area.

This restaurant replaced Masala. The decor is better, but the food is average.
Update 4/9/09Heard from many foodies that the buffet is much better on weekends.

Buffet included:
Tandoori chicken - 5/10
Chicken tikka masala - 5/10 - the chicken pieces were dry and the gravy as usual
Lamb meat balls - 6/10 - nice flavor, but the gravy could have been better - the ingridients and spices werent well mixed in, which left the gravy chunky (much like an amateur cook - how most bachelors cook at home :)
Ginger chicken - 5/10
Bhindi (okra) entree - undercooked okra
Garlic naan - 6/10 (was fresh and served as part of the buffet)
Service was slow.

Aangan

Aangan Fine Indian Cuisine (717) 909-7777
3500 Walnut St, Harrisburg, PA

Nice dinner buffet.
Goat curry - rich and tasty - 6/10
Tandoori chicken - 5/10
Chicken tikka masala - 5/10

Gajar halwa - 5/10
Gulab jamun - 5/10

Passage To India

Passage To India
525 S Front St, Harrisburg, PA - (717) 233-1202

Nice ambience, next to the Susquehanna river.
Average food.

Kebab platter - assortment of tandoori kababs. 5/10
Chicken tikka masala - 5/10
Goa shrimp curry - 5/10
Crab Goa - 5/10

Mantra

Mantra
52 Temple Pl, Boston, MA
(617) 542-8111

Update 1/1/10

Custom ordered a few items from the menu (vs the lunch buffet)

Goat curry - 7/10, made well if you tell them exactly what you want and how you want it

Lamb boti kabab - be very specific on how you want it, they made it well, twice 7/10, and messed it up bad, once 4/10

Lamb seekh kabab - 7/10

Naan - specifically asked for the freshest ones from the tandoor and they obliged. 6/10. They could have been a bit fluffier.

The ambience of this place is worth mentioning. Mentioned. Decorated differently than the usual rows of chairs and tables.
They are a Indian buffet place by day and a fusion food place by night (which I heard is better than the day food).
The weekday buffet had:
Tandoori chicken (with a mint - aka "pudina" - marinate) - 6.5/10. This one was marinated well, with the flavor well below the surface of the chicken, unlike most other restaurants. But the food was not even moderately hot (otherwise this would have been a 7/10)
Chicken tikka masala - 6/10. This was nice too. Tasty, but not hot.
Chicken biryani - 4/10. The biryani was not worth it. No taste, utterly bland. Not even spicy.
Naan - 6/10. They made fresh naans, thinner than the usual Indian naans (kind of like the thin crust pizza at Dominos).
Paneer tikka masala - 5/10. Average.
Rice kheer - 6/10. Nice.
Heard that their vegetable "pakodas" (deep fried dumplings) were slightly on the raw side. They did make fresh "aaloo tikkis" onsite. They were ok.
Definitely better than the nearby Tantric Bar & Grill restaurant.

Kebab Factory
414 Washington St, Somerville, MA
(617) 354-4996


Here's the deal with this place. I heard you should ensure that the "Sardarji" is cooking when you eat there, and maybe even call him out and tell him that you want authentic Indian food. Then the stuff is good. A trusted source of mine knows how to get the best out of this place.

Kali mirch ka murga - 7/10
Lamb seekh kabab - 6/10

At another time (no Sardarji in the kitchen), I got some chicken wings like stuff, in a hot copper pot, inverted on a plate (I forget the name of the dish), which was hopeless - like having the usual American chicken wings.

Jaipur Cafe - closed.
500 Providence Hwy, Norwood, MA 02062
(781) 551-9797

Decent rich food.
Chicken tikka masala - 6/10.

Update: the place closed.

Tantric Bar & Grill
123 Stuart St, Boston, MA
(617) 367-8742

Buffet - 5/10. No great shakes. Very little variety. 2 non-veg, rajma, daal and potato-okra (which was undercooked)

Buffet had these:
Chicken tikka masala - 5/10. Its takes effort to screw up CTM. So the average dish is tasty. This one did not have well marinated chicken tikka. The gravy was tasty, but with the amount of cream the gravy has, thats a given.
Tandoori chicken - 4/10 - the usual mediocre TC that all restaurants serve, where the chicken is colored red, and as soon as the top 1/2 mm of the masala is removed, the rest is tasteless unmarinated white meat. Utterly useless.
Aaloo-bhindi - 4/10. Undercooked.
Rajma - 4/10 I cook better than that.
Kheer - this was nice. But kheer follows the "cant screw up" principles of chicken tikka masala. Cream and sugar. How can you go wrong with that?

The decor is nice. But I dont go to eat the decor. Buffet is $9.95.

Punjabi Dhaba Restaurant

Punjabi Dhaba Restaurant
225 Hampshire St, Cambridge, MA
(617) 547-8272

12/31/08 update

Chicken tikka masala - average 5/10

Chilli paneer masala - 6/10 (you can ask them to make it spicy, that will add an edge to the cream sauce)
The veggie omlette stinks a bit - 4/10
Lamb seekh kabab - 6/10
A few other items are between 5-6/10
Nan is generally fresh and puffed, not flat - 5/10.
Small hole in the wall, unkempt.

Indian Village, Billerica, MA
279 Boston Rd, North Billerica, MA (978) 670-0001

Buffet - 6/10. Some buffet dishes are above the average fare dished out at restaurants (the lamb curry for example).
From the menu:
Chilli paneer (wet) - 4/10. Yuck. The paneer tasted like tofu (its not supposed to, normally).
Chicken tikka masala - 4/10. Chicken in McDonalds is better. Maybe it was just the day, but both these dishes were unedibly bad. You have to try hard to mess up CTM, but they did it.

Nan N Curry, Turk St and Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA
Nan N Curry, San Francisco, CA
533 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA (415) 693-0499

Lamb seekh kabab - 8/10
Mutton biryani - 8/10
These 2 were great! Their chicken tikka masala was the most popular dish and was nice too (juicy chicken chunks in creamy sauce, tasty).
Chicken tikka masala - 6/10

There are at least 2 Nan N Curry restaurants in SFO. I had these at the new one at the intersection of Turk St and Van Ness Ave, not the Jackson St one below. But this one may have the same stuff.