BFRLC Lunch #5 – SERENDIPITY

Hello, all you loyal fans and members of the BFRLC. Today was a historic moment for the Club, one for the records, one for the history books, a lunch that will go down in BFRLC Lore. I rode Portland’s very fine mass transit system to the office today and accidentally went a couple stops by my normal stop. Low and behold, an Indian Lunch buffet was at the corner of my accidental stop. This place just appeared out of nowhere and for all the times that I have walked by this intersection this was the first time my eyes set sight on the place. A BFRLC Miracle!

Tandoor Indian Kitchen sits on the corner of SW Oak and 4th in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon. Our members congregated with appetites like, well, underfed Bigfoot. After scanning this busy place for a table, the host came by and asked us to put down our coats on some chairs as he cleaned us off a table in the middle of all their happy diners. We quickly got in line for the buffet. To start off, I grabbed a fresh, but somewhat buttery Naan. This traditional bread is done in lots of different ways and is always a treat to sop up the rich sauces of the cuisine. I filled my plate with basmati rice, Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower), Chana Masala (garbanzo beans in a nice sauce), Eggplant and Peppers (dipped in a batter and fried) and dal (lentils). The eggplant was not as juicy as I would have liked, but an interesting dish regardless. The Aloo Gobi was great – potatoes and cauliflower cooked perfectly with no over starchiness and nicely seasoned. The Chana Masala was fresh and the chickpeas were tender. The dal reminded me of a dish that I make with yellow lentils. Although slightly watery, the ghee (clarified butter) had a nice mouth feel and was nice to sop up with the naan.

Another member couldn’t get enough of the Egg Curry, a dish that for all my years of Indian eating had yet to come across. This dish contains whole, hardboiled eggs in a curry. Epic Gilgamesh, we salute you for your dedication to eating almost a half dozen eggs.

The atmosphere was okay. Traditional Indian art adorned the walls – Ganesh looked over us with approval as we dined. A flat screen TV in the corner was playing the international channel of B4U. I imagine this to be Bollywood for You. Normally a TV while eating is a no-no, but in this case, it was perfect. Bollywood musical videos were playing with dancers dancing and lipsyncers lipsyncing in full Bollywood displays of color and choreography.

As for water refill rates: This was sort of a bizarre occurrence. The restaurant was quite busy and the server poured half glasses of water and hardly ever came back to top them off. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to refill them ourselves at the soda fountain. I think something was lost in translation. We won’t hold this against the overall rating of the restaurant. There are lots of Indian Lunch Buffets in the greater Portland area which are excellent. For downtown, this was pretty good. Overall, I am quite happy to have found it.