India Bistro

Address: 2301 NW Market St.

I was so excited for this particular restaurant. I've been wanting to try Indian food for a while. J was a little skeptical about the whole Indian food thing...he thought we'd have to eat on the ground with our hands, guess I was a little nervous about this too! To make this visit even more exciting...me and J had our very own Indian food expert with us that night! My old college roommate who worked at an Indian restaurant in high school joined us for the fun.

At every Indian restaurant...or so my roomie says...they serve papadan while you wait, think of this as chips and salsa at a Mexican place. The papadan is sort of a crispy, thin flat bread that's served with two different dipping sauces. Both have distinct flavors, the red sauce has a tangy mango flavor while the green sauce is minty yet spicy...a combination that sounds somewhat strange, but trust me it is great, especially if you like spicy. We got the Garlic Nan (2.50) for an appetizer at K's suggestion. It was a pita bread with a garlic and oil spread. It was a light appetizer, so it didn't make us too stuffed before our main dishes. For me, the nan could have had more flavor...and maybe a complimentary flavor to the garlic. However...it was great and J enjoyed it.

One thing I noticed off the bat in the menu was the large vegetarian section, since K's a vegetarian...I can see why she loves Indian food. She ordered the Aloo Gobhi (9.95) which kind of looked like vegetable tempura. I actually didn't try her dish, but it smelled great and she enjoyed it. J ordered the Chicken Curry (10.95) on the mild side, he enjoyed the curry and it's also served with basmiti rice. If you haven't tried traditional Indian curry, I would describe it as a stew cooked with tomato sauce, it's probably the most popular dish. I got the Murg Jalfrazies (10.95), which is basically a chicken dish sauteed tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and other vegetables. It's like the Chicken Curry, but with more of a kick...I can't really describe the flavor, but it definitely has more flavor than the curry.

Overall atmosphere is pretty classy...white table cloths, stemmed water glasses. However, the restaurant is fairly small so our table was about 5 inches away from our table, so not much elbow room. Also, don't have real intimate conversations here...we could hear everything the table next to us was saying! Prizes were in the medium range, expect to pay about $10-13 for a main entree. Serving size is pretty generous, I couldn't wait to get home and finish my leftovers! I was really impressed with how much I enjoyed my meal! I cannot wait to try more Indian food...I think I found a new favorite :)

J&C Rate this: 4 3/4 out of 5...Need to go back soon!

Check out their full menu at: http://www.seattleindiabistro.com/ballard.html