India Palace (7/19/08) (The Subcontinent meets Roseville Parking Lot)

I have a rule against eating in any restaurant surrounded by a parking lot. It's not as stringent as some of my other rules, like "don't give your address to strangers" or "take a shower every day before work," but it's a rule I almost always adhere to. This may seem like the nit-pickiness of a canvas-grocery-sack-toting-urban-snob, but my rule is based on the following observations:

1) Restaurants surrounded by a parking lot are almost always located in the suburbs. Which means diners waiting for tables rarely have the luxury of a pre-meal stroll. There's no noteworthy architecture to admire, no neighborhood character to explore, and every patch of green is bounded by light grey concrete.
2) The parking lots surrounding these restaurants are generally filled with enormous SUV's, minvans, and Buicks. This means patrons with kids. Families. And I'm terrified of both.
3) Restaurants surrounded by parking lots generally have their menus created by some corporate entity outside of our metro area. This corporate entity buys ingredients in bulk, ships them, bundled in plastic and coated in preservatives, all over tarnation before they are run through the kitchen equivalent of paint by numbers and the meal lands on your table. This is not conducive to an innovative, seasonally-inspired meal crafted by hands that are passionate about food.

Liberal foodie rhetoric aside, India Palace is a locally-owned oasis in the middle of a concrete suburban desert. Bounded by a budget hotel, a frame of highways, and within minutes of a shopping mall, this place transports you from suburban ho-hum to exotica in a matter of minutes.

We arrived at India Palace around 8:15 on a Saturday night and were seated immediately. The restaurant was busy but not packed, with diverse clientèle and attentive waitstaff. To kick the mean off I ordered a mango lassi, a yogurt-based drink blended with sweet mango puree and usually a bit of water for liquidity. The drink was thick and refreshing, perfect for a warm July evening. For dinner I ordered Shahi Paneer, medium spicy, and the dish delighted. Paneer is a south Asian, unaged cheese with a tofu-like consistency and a mild, almost mozzarela-like flavor. It came cubed, drowning in yellow curry gravy, with toasted almonds for nutty crunch and raisins for a surprising bite of sweetness. This was served over a bed of fluffy basmati rice, which gave a nice, dry, grainy c contrast to the rich sauce. My partner ordered tandoori chicken, which was served sizzling in a round, skillet-like dish similar to how fajitas are often presented. I didn't taste his dish and was so enamored with my paneer that I didn't pry for the tandoori run-down, but judging from the bones left on his plate he must have been satisfied.

Overall, our experience with India Palace was commendable. The menu was varied and although we somewhat selected our entrees at random, we were both pleased with the outcome. Our water glasses were refreshed often, our friendly waiter checked on us just often enough without being intrusive, and for the duration of our meal I was convinced that Baliwood was steps from our table while the Rosedale AMC theater was several continents away.