Eatery - Tandoori Garden (CA)
30 S Anaheim Blvd, Anaheim, CA 92805
Pricing - $$/$$$ | Dining - Casual, Nicer than Casual | Cuisine - Indian
www.tandoorigarden.com
Y'know, I think all the daily deal sites have really helped improved the social interactions that people have with each other. They lead to more date nights and more experimenting with new places. Duc and I went to Tandoori Garden because he had purchased a Groupon and knew that I loved Indian food. It was also going to be fun because he had never had Indian food before so I got to educate him as I put in all the orders for us that night.
So we went on a weeknight and were pretty much the only patrons there at the time. There was one man sitting near the wall who was eating along but that was it. It was cool to choose wherever we wanted to sit so we chose a fairly central table. I say that the atmosphere was casual but also a little nicer than casual in some areas because the interior was pretty nice and had low, "romantic" lighting. The wait staff was quite mindful and polished.
Drinks came first so I snagged a glass of their mango lassi (specialty Indian drink of homemade yogurt, milk, mango pulp, and crushed ice). It was very smooth and delicious. I had to resist from finishing it before all the food came out. Duc got one of the Indian beers but it ended up not really being his thing.
We started off with their vegetable samosas. I wanted him to get a chance to taste what a good samosa was like (we had had a sample one at OC Decadence that I didn't like nor did I like any of the other Indian food samples that were offered). Tandoori Garden's version was chock-full of potato and spiced peas. It was very good and flavorful.
Based off of Yelp reviews, we decided that we would do three entrees since people said the portions were small. We got the basics of Indian food - chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, and lamb saag. They came out in traditional Indian food serving-ware (neat!) and were deceptively small looking in volume. As we found out throughout the night though, the portions were actually quite large considering the richness of flavor. The chicken tikka masala was pretty good; it was a lot sweeter than I typically have had it but in a good way. I actually liked it for its sweet savoriness over being too spice-heavy. The saag paneer was also not what I was accustomed to because the spinach was very blended and they had the real Indian cheese in it. Delicious (I had it often for leftover meals the days after)! The lamb saag was my least favorite of the three but it wasn't bad. I just felt like the spinach overpowered the lamb. Overall, fantastic entrees with so many spices as is fit of Indian food!
Of course, because we were forewarned by Yelp reviews that there wasn't rice with the entrees, we also got a full portion of their Basmati rice. It was well-done and quite colorful actually. The cilantro was a nice fresh touch. We also had an order of their regular naan and their garlic naan. The garlic naan was superb. It was warm and fresh with a nice crispy skin. It was seasoned well and definitely done properly. Great naan!
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