My New Favorite Indian Restaurant?

With the boy off on his summer vacation adventures, the husband and I are largely free to do with our weekends as we want. Which is nice since our weeks seem already crammed full of schedulings and appointments that, when combined with the soaring heat, leave us wanting to do very little.

Except, perhaps, find any excuse to be near the Dairy Queen so that we can score this month's Blizzard 'o the Month, brownie batter. (Say that when you're drunk, tired or giddy, and it comes out somewhere along the lines of brownie bladder, which hardly sounds appealing. Wouldn't you agree, Gentle Reader?) After a busy Saturday of going to the gym early--and waiting an hour for it to open since the numbskull who was supposed to open didn't show up and the guy who is usually there on Saturday who happened to be off that day had to come and do it--and then selling some more plasma (I tells ya, Gentle Reader, when a skilled phlebotomist gets the needle in right, I'm done in less than 30 minutes) before zipping off to far South Austin to get my CPR/AED certification so I can once again teach at Gold's before hitting the veloway for four laps around the 3.1-mile course, we were not looking to do much this Sunday except score a brownie batter Blizzard--and maybe try a new restaurant.

Sarovar Is Not Hindu for Located Near Dairy Queen
For some five years or so, the husband or I drove past Sarovar practically daily as one of us ferried the boy to daycare. We knew it was an Indian restaurant, but in all that time, we never were curious enough to try it out. Even more recently, as we discussed places we might like to try out while the boy's away, Sarovar was not one that earned a "Ooh! Ooh! Gotta try that! Jonesin' to try that!" Let's face it: Far too many Indian restaurants--particularly ones that offer a buffet--feature the same array of dishes, and while the flavors might differ slightly, chicken tikka masala is chicken tikka masala.

Add the possibility of getting a brownie batter Blizzard on a lazy Sunday when the temperature's expected to reach 105 degrees with a heat index around 110 degrees, and suddenly Sarovar seemed like a very intriguing place for the husband and I to luncheon.

Fond Memories of the Late Rangoli
Sarovar's buffet features a nice combination of North and South Indian fare--which means you get both meat-focused dishes and vegetarian ones and both creamier ones with hot and spicy ones. If you love Indian food as much as I do, then you too, Gentle Reader, might be excited about getting chicken biryani and a bowl of sambar along with some idlis at one place. That's why I was so bummed when Rangoli went under: It combined the carnivore delights of Indian Palace and Taj Palace (granted, we haven't been there in...three years now, I think) with the herbivore delights of Madras Pavilion.

On the first visit to the buffet, I scored some sambar (not too spicy and not too runny, but the veggies were a little lacking) and an idli (just right!), a dosa (these don't work well on a buffet unless they're kept under the right conditions, and these weren't--but that doesn't mean my dosa wasn't tasty) that I stuffed with the spicy turmeric potatoes and peas filling (kept in a separate pan, thankfully), both vegetable and chicken biryani (both excellent and not too greasy, as the chicken biryani is wont to be at Taj Palace), a wedge of naan (good, but not in any way standoutish--which isn't a bad thing) and some pepper fish, which was a dish of fish pieces (couldn't tell what type of fish) that, I think, was lightly breaded with besan flavored with chili pepper. That fish was fabulous and sinus-openingly spicy!

The husband stuck with his usuals: A piece of tandoori chicken, some basmati rice pilaf, some chicken curry (just labeled as such, which was kind of unhelpful), some of the spicy turmeric potatoes and peas (he ate around the peas) and what looked like a large and slightly misshaped hushpuppy that turned out to be medu vada holes. Now understand, Gentle Reader, that medu vada, as I've heretofore had them, look just like donuts. Since these medu vada were round balls, just like donut holes, we called these at Sarovar medu vada holes. Plus these medu vada were not as spicy as the ones we've had previously. In fact, there was even a sweetness to them.

Just a note on that chicken curry: It was a bit of a disappointment. The flavor was muddled--kind of gingery, but not necessarily so. The sauce was a little too soupy for my tastes, and the chicken appeared to be bone-in hunks of chicken legs and other parts not used for tandoori that had been cut up. Because the meat was still attached to the bone, you could not use a piece of naan and your fork to scoop up some rice mixed with the curry and chew contented away. No, you had to politely use your fingers and fork (or just your fingers) to remove the small chunks of bone. And those bone pieces are cut small enough as to go relatively unseen and become a choking hazard.

Get My Goat
I'd wisely taken small portions on my first go-round of the buffet because I spied plenty of dishes I wanted to try on a second trip. And here's where I have to register a complaint with Sarovar: The buffet doesn't offer nearly enough bowls to put the more soup- and stew-like dishes into. For you see, Gentle Reader, I saved the toor dal (yellow lentil) dish for my second trip, along with the chana masala and the eggplant curry and the goat curry. I didn't want any of these dishes mingling on my plate and tainting their respective flavors. Unfortunately, there weren't enough bowls available, and the plates were flat enough that I knew for sure I wouldn't be able to keep my selections separate. But I did my best.

The toor dal was tasty, with the dal being not too mushy but not too...well, solid and distinct. The chana masala was, in my opinion, unremarkable. Not that that's a bad thing, but I was hoping for some variation or some thing to make it unique, but it tasted much like the chana masala I enjoy at Indian Palace and Madras Pavilion.

As for the two new-to-me dishes, they were, I think, the highlight of the main meal. The eggplant curry had a thicker sauce that was wonderfully flavorful, and the eggplant pieces were not unidentifiable mush. The goat curry was also very flavorful, if perhaps a bit reminiscent of the beef aloo we enjoy at Indian Palace. One literal bone of contention with this dish: The meat was also bone-in pieces, so scooping up some curry and rice with a piece of naan to nosh on was not doable.

Halwa Heaven
While the eggplant curry and goat curry were wonderful finds, the dessert offerings are what allowed Sarovar to clinch the top spot on my list of favorite Indian restaurants.

Carrot halwa. And lots of it.

It's been ages since I've had carrot halwa--and I don't count the carrot halwa-like pieces of "cake" Indian Palace has recently started offering. Sarovar's carrot halwa is the consistency that I like--very thick with a nice texture, not creamy and smooth like pudding. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but some of the big mound I scooped out for the husband and I to share was warm, and some of the big mound was cold. (I'm chalking this up to an oddity with the chaffing dish, but carrot halwa can be served cold or hot, depending on where in Indian you're eating it.) Trust me, Gentle Reader, when I say that it was good both ways.

The dessert offerings included gulab jamuns, all nice and warm and soft in their cardamom and rose syrup, and a third dish I'd never tried before but found quite tasty, ras malai. Or at least I'm guessing that's what it was from looking at Sarovar's menu and using the good 'ol process of elimination. These cheese cakes floating in milk syrup looked like miniature idlis, and that's why I initially hesitated to sample the dish. You see, Gentle Reader, idlis and medu vada--although usually it's medu vada--are sometimes served floating in a pool of raita, a yogurt concoction that looks like it should be sweet but isn't. Imagine my delight, then, when I found the ras malai to be sweet. And the cheese cakes were not like, well, any sort of cheese I've ever had, which I'll grant you my experience with cheese is rather limited. The cakes had the texture and consistency of idlis, so they were more bread-like than cheese-like. But as I said, Gentle Reader, my experience with cheese is limited, so perhaps there's a cheese out there that does have the texture and consistency that's more breadlike.

(A quick search of "ras malai" on Google reveals to me that these cakes are made from ricotta or cottage cheese. Given that gulab jamuns are also made from milk solids, I'm not surprised now by the consistency and texture of these Indian cheese cakes.)

The husband, who is not as much of culinary adventurer as I am (not eating much that is red or green kind of hinders one's culinary explorations), was not as ready to sing the praises of Sarovar. He still has Indian Palace at the top of his Indian restaurant favorites list, and that's fine. It's a good place to go to satisfy your Indian carnivorous hankerings. Me, I like a combination of meat and veggie dishes--and a massive mound of carrot halwa to finish it all off!

(Yes, Gentle Reader, we did get the Blizzard, even though we were thoroughly stuffed after lunch. We nibbled on it a bit on the drive home then enjoyed it while watching Diamonds Are Forever. It was far more palatable than an aged, thick Sean Connery in an early 70s-era leisure suit.

Get that man a wax job!)