Bawarchi Indian Cuisine

She said:

Tucked away between a specialty cheesecake place and a bicycle shop in a commercial district, this nondescript restaurant could be easy to miss. When we first stepped inside, I wasn’t overly impressed with the sparseness of it all.

After we sat down at a booth, I perused our surroundings a little more closely. Our booth was constructed of a long wooden table and slate-blue vinyl seats. A modern light fixture that resembled a round glass fishbowl with strands of crystals suspended in its center hung above our heads. Gray and slate-blue-patterned Berber carpeting lay beneath our feet. The bright, stark white walls were adorned with a mural of an elephant and henna-inspired swirls. Interesting paintings of scenes from India were interspersed throughout the restaurant.

Although there was a full menu that could be accessed by scanning a QR code, the waiter approached us and handed us one-page laminated Lunch Specials menus. After looking at their offerings, I decided on the Chicken Tikka Masala plate. When my meal was set in front of me, I was impressed by the amount of food on my platter—and the variety. It included plain naan bread, basmati rice, chicken in Masala sauce, grilled herbed chicken on the side, a version of a creamy rice pudding, and a lentil compote of sorts called dal. Although this style of Indian fare was different from what I’m accustomed to, I found myself enjoying the rich, creamy earthiness of my Chicken Tikka Masala, the robust flavor and texture of the dal, and the lightness of the naan. It tasted slightly nutty and buttery to me.

Yep, I’d say I was pleasantly surprised and pleased.

He said:

I really liked this place, but my first impression wasn’t so generous. Let me start with some of the negatives and I’ll finish with what made it great.

The interior was simple. Although bright with welcoming colors, it was a bit cluttered with stuff that should have been in a storeroom. Boxes of to-go boxes and bathroom tissue sat in stacks near the entrance, including atop one of the waiting benches. Further inside, more boxes and a vacuum cleaner sat in front of what may have been an emergency exit. Not long ago, Kathy and I had admired another restaurant’s attention to detail. This restaurant didn’t seem to notice many.

As Kathy mentioned, the waiter brought us a menu of their lunch specials. However, when I asked for a full menu, he directed me to the QR code that was peeling up from the center of the table. I didn’t get much out of the menu on my phone as navigation was difficult and the items lacked photos and had only minimal descriptions. At this point, I reminded Kathy that a restaurant doesn’t need to be fancy to be good. So, we reserved judgment while I directed my attention to the lunch menu.

I don’t know what the dinner service is like, but the lunch combos offer great value and include an impressive array of side dishes that enhanced our experience. The menu was divided into two parts: the Curry Combos and the Biryani Combos. Both offered “Veg” and “Non Veg” options in typical Indian fashion. Kathy’s Chicken Tikka Masala came from the Curry section, so I decided to order from the Biryani section. I didn’t recognize any of the options, so I asked the waiter to recommend one. He asked just two questions: did I like spice (I don’t mind it) and did I want it with bones or boneless (definitely boneless). I accepted his recommendation of something I won’t be able to pronounce on my own: the Vijayawada Special Chicken Biryani Combo.

I had Biryani a few years ago during my visit to Bangalore, India. I recall two things about it: it was very spicy, and the chicken had bones in it. Biryani consists of basmati rice, spices, and possibly meat, all mixed together in one bowl. It was rather disconcerting to me to discover morsels of chicken hidden in my bowl of rice, only to then find small bones when I bit into them. And picking bones out of a piece of meat covered in rice seemed graceless. So, I was happy to find that Bawarchi has boneless varieties. Oddly, though—to me, at least—they seem to offer versions with bones, as well.

My platter arrived with several accompaniments. The biryani bowl was large and overflowing with its bright orange and yellow rice mixture, topped with a piece of naan. Alongside it sat small bowls of a chicken curry, herbed and spiced chicken, raita (a sauce made with yogurt, cucumbers, and carrots), salan (a mildly spicy dipping sauce), and a rice pudding dessert. At least, I think the waiter said it was a rice pudding. The “rice” seemed more like a sort of vermicelli, but it had a familiar creamy, cinnamon flavor to it.

The biryani bowl easily had two servings’ worth of rice. Hidden in the middle was a generous layer of chicken with a spicy sauce. It was definitely too spicy to offer Kathy a taste. I liked it, but I noticed it did leave me with a warm simmer in my belly all afternoon.

In addition to the lunch combos, we also ordered the Peshwari Naan and the Gulab Jamun. The Peshwari Naan was thick and fluffy, filled with a delicious paste of cashews, walnuts, cherries, and coconut. The Gulab Jamun consisted of two pastry balls in a rose-flavored sugar syrup.

I’ve sometimes talked about dining being an experiential event. Good food is just one part of the experience. Other factors contribute to our enjoyment, including the setting, ambiance, people (both the restaurant staff and other patrons), thematic elements, and more. In this case, the food alone provided an enjoyable experience for us. The lunch combos allowed us to enjoy many different flavors on one plate. We’re becoming increasingly familiar with the various main dishes of Indian restaurants, but these side dishes expanded our palates with more flavors of India. I recognized some of the flavors from my earlier trip to Bangalore. In this case, the lunch combos alone made up for all the issues that impaired my first impression.

Conclusion:

Although housed in a simple, non-prepossessing space, the Bawarchi restaurant offers a terrific lunch combo menu. The combos deliver great value with a variety of authentic Indian side dishes.