When dinner starts with a drink in a jar, you know you're not in your everyday Indian restaurant.
You'd be in Mahan in Alhambra, where this tamarind martini is the top cocktail. It's composed of French vodka, lemon juice, freshly squeezed tamarind liquid, a dash of cayenne, Himalayan salt and sugar.
"It's a sipper. You drink it throughout a meal," says Sage Sharma, son of owners Anil and Poonam Sharma. At 22, Sage is adding fresh new touches to the restaurant, which opened 15 years ago.
The only Indian spot in the midst of Chinese and Japanese restaurants, Mahan could have played it safe with a standard menu. Instead, it has developed specialties that you won't find anywhere else.
Talk about unconventional--the idea for mango chicken tikka (above) came to Anil Sharma in a dream. To make the dream real, he worked out a spicy, tart, sweet sauce using fresh mango, canned pulp and sweet mango pickle. The result is as dreamy as the origin.
Mozzarella is in the stuffing of these crispy mushrooms. Coated with chickpea flour batter, they're topped with crisp strands of sev--chickpea flour in another form. The swirls are house-made tomato sauce.
Samosa chaat (above) transforms the potato-stuffed pastries. They're split, set on chickpea curry and dressed with raita, mint and tamarind chutneys and a dusting of chaat masala.
Mahan's gobi (cauliflower) manchurian (above) shows how exciting Indo-Chinese flavors can be. The sweet-sour, spicy sauce includes vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and a dash of Chinese chili paste with ginger and garlic.
Sweet-hot seasonings and caramelized onions make pumpkin curry (above) one of Mahan's best dishes. The pumpkin is cubed kabocha squash.
Not everything is showy. Malai kofta (above) looks like lumps in a plain orange sauce. But the sauce is good enough to eat by itself, like soup. It's creamy and rich with ground almonds and walnuts. The kofta are vegetable dumplings.
The word mahan means royal. That's appropriate because the level of cooking is high. Even tandoori fish (above) is perfectly done, not dry.
Good food isn't the only attraction. The restaurant is vegan friendly, has a daily lunch buffet, and parking is free.
Mahan Indian Restaurant, 110 W. Main St., Alhambra, CA 91801. Tel: (626) 458-6299.
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