Indian Restaurants

The proprietor of a company that supplies many Baltimore-area Indian restaurants has been charged with defrauding the federal government of more than $500,000 in federal food stamp benefits.Amarit Sing Aulakh, the owner of Bombay Bazaar in the 1500 block of W. Pratt St. was charged in a one-count information.He is accused of purchasing hundreds of thousands of dollars in food stamp benefits for less than face value, taking reimbursements for the full amount, and pocketing the difference. Federal law prohibits selling or exchanging food stamp benefits for cash.

Another Gino's Maryland's second Gino's Burgers & Chicken opened Monday in the Honeygo Shopping Center in Perry Hall. Former Gino's executive Tom Romano engineered the current Gino's revival. A company-owned store opened in King of Prussia, Pa., in October 2010, and the first franchise operation opened in August 2011 in Towson. Another store is operating in Bensalem, Pa. Gino's was founded in Baltimore, but the company relocated its headquarters to King of Prussia before it was acquired by Marriott Corp.

Given the number of different regions in India and the complexity of their cuisines, it's surprising how alike the menus of Baltimore's Indian restaurants are. You would think there are only about 10 Indian dishes in the whole world: vegetable samosas, lamb saag, tandoori chicken -- you get the idea. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean. And for some reason, they all have lunch buffets, which I don't think of as particularly Indian, but that's another story. Baltimore's highest profile Indian restaurant, the Ambassador, surprised people when it opened in 1997 because it was different.

If you're a fan of Indian buffets and you're anywhere near 322 N. Charles and haven't already discovered Lumbini Restaurant, you owe it to yourself to check out this small, quiet Nepalese/Indian restaurant. Alongside Indian standards, Lumbini introduces highly complementary fare from Nepal, the southern Asian country that shares borders with India and China. Lumbini is certainly capable of becoming your favorite Indian buffet stop, both for its collection of tastes and it's conversation-friendly ambience.

If anyone had asked my opinion about opening a restaurant in the Ambassador Apartments, I would have argued against it. The dining room's track record hasn't been good in recent years. The location is fine, but the parking situation isn't. And you wouldn't know the dining room was there from the street, so it doesn't get walk-in business. Finally, there has always been something about the dining room itself: It was pleasant enough, but not very exciting.If I had had to guess what kind of restaurant might possibly succeed there, I would not have said Indian.

Maybe all the competition in the neighborhood has kept Akbar on its toes. Mount Vernon has more than its share of good ethnic restaurants, including three good Indian restaurants. Who would have thought that one of them, Akbar, would be even better than when it opened?It's been so long I can't quite remember what Akbar's dining room looked like then, but it seems warmer and cozier now. Banquettes line one wall; on the other side is a floor-to-ceiling mirror that opens up the small room.When Akbar first appeared in a basement dining room under the Green Earth on North Charles Street, it was something Baltimore hadn't seen before: an Indian restaurant that specialized in dishes like crab Malabar (crab meat in a coriander cream sauce)

Steve Efstathiou says people are telling him he's crazy. "We bought a nice restaurant, but I tore it down. I wanted it to have my look." He's talking about the space where the Tuscany Grill and before it Milano's used to be at 2047 York Road in Timonium. Efstathiou is one of the owners of the new Nautilis Diner, scheduled to open late this summer. Nautilis will be an upscale diner, open 24 hours a day and serving everything from "eggs to lobster tail," Efstathiou says. It also has a liquor license.

Poached meat for the trendyHTCThe current issue of Esquire features respected food critic John Mariani's best new restaurants of 1996. Alas, he didn't get to Baltimore. But he did include his list of the trendiest new menu items. Keep an eye out for:Amish chicken. The new au naturel poulet, free-range and corn-fed.Frico. An Italian snack consisting of Parmigiano cheese melted into crisp wafers.Upscale chicken wings. Instead of Wings from Hell, look for ailerons de volaille on the menu.Tortilla soup.

Clarification In last Sunday's review of Bombay Grill, Akbar was mentioned as one of several Indian restaurants in the area that had closed. Akbar did close but reopened under new management and continues to operate in Randallstown as Akbar Palace. The folks who run the local chain of Bombay Grills, of which the one in Owings Mills is the fifth, are old pros by now. They started modestly 13 years ago, in the basement of a townhouse in Mount Vernon. Their restaurants are located as far away as Columbia and Frederick.

Aravind Bhambore and his chef-partner, Neel Kamal, have sky-high aspirations for their small restaurant. Not content with providing the cheap, filling fare you get at many Indian restaurants, they say they want to make their customers feel like Mogul emperors. I'm all for that. With its sky theme and rococo embellishments, the Sky Room is like no other Indian restaurant you've ever seen. I would even go so far as to say it's like no other restaurant, at least as far as decor goes. The room is compact, seating only 55, but is filled with ornate silver tables inlaid with green marble and even more ornate, high-backed, silver chairs, handmade and imported directly from the Pink City of Jaipur in Rajasthan, India.

When water damage caused the Carlyle Club to close for renovations, it gave the upscale Lebanese cafe an opportunity to reinvent itself - a necessity because it had become a semi-forgotten restaurant. It's hard to be an upscale dining room in a Quality Inn & Suites. This has always been a difficult location for restaurants. I'm not sure why other than the parking, which is no better and no worse than there is around many city places. For more years than I can remember, the Carlyle's dining room was a Chinese restaurant called the Dragon Palace.

Aravind Bhambore and his chef-partner, Neel Kamal, have sky-high aspirations for their small restaurant. Not content with providing the cheap, filling fare you get at many Indian restaurants, they say they want to make their customers feel like Mogul emperors. I'm all for that. With its sky theme and rococo embellishments, the Sky Room is like no other Indian restaurant you've ever seen. I would even go so far as to say it's like no other restaurant, at least as far as decor goes. The room is compact, seating only 55, but is filled with ornate silver tables inlaid with green marble and even more ornate, high-backed, silver chairs, handmade and imported directly from the Pink City of Jaipur in Rajasthan, India.

Until recently, a sit-down meal at Lexington Market meant gobbling a Faidley's crab cake while perched on a tiny stool near the famous vendor. But recently, MemSahib began offering sit-down dinners. This is a bold move for the Indian restaurant. I love Indian food and I love Lexington Market, but luring customers to the historic market after it closes at 6 p.m. is clearly an uphill battle. However, after enjoying a lovely dinner there, I sincerely hope it succeeds. MemSahib opened in Lexington Market in mid-2003, and for its first few months, it was open only for lunch, with a $7.95 buffet that gives patrons an assortment of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, plus breads and desserts.

Given the number of different regions in India and the complexity of their cuisines, it's surprising how alike the menus of Baltimore's Indian restaurants are. You would think there are only about 10 Indian dishes in the whole world: vegetable samosas, lamb saag, tandoori chicken -- you get the idea. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean. And for some reason, they all have lunch buffets, which I don't think of as particularly Indian, but that's another story. Baltimore's highest profile Indian restaurant, the Ambassador, surprised people when it opened in 1997 because it was different.

Here are the three most important things to know about King's Kabab. One, kebabs make up only a portion of the menu. Two, order the non-vegetarian dhakai thali for a good sample of what the restaurant has to offer. Three, make sure there's a full glass of water on the table before you dig in. King's Kabab, which opened last May in Columbia's King's Contrivance village center, is really a traditional Indian restaurant, not a kebab house, and offers the usual assortment of curries, masalas, vindaloos, tandooris and, yes, kebabs.

In a year when Americana took on an almost mythic importance, nostalgia ruled, and there was a resurgence of interest in comfort food, Baltimore often went in a different direction, at least as far as new restaurants were concerned. Let's call 2002 the year of globalization -- maybe even the year of Asian restaurants, although the city did get a good new Lebanese restaurant, the Carlyle Club on University Parkway. (Come to think of it, Lebanon is in Asia.) When a Maryland fixture like the Manor Tavern in Monkton introduces a new menu that includes scallops Shanghai and rare ahi tuna with Chinese dumplings as well as old favorites, you know Asian food has gone mainstream.

When water damage caused the Carlyle Club to close for renovations, it gave the upscale Lebanese cafe an opportunity to reinvent itself - a necessity because it had become a semi-forgotten restaurant. It's hard to be an upscale dining room in a Quality Inn & Suites. This has always been a difficult location for restaurants. I'm not sure why other than the parking, which is no better and no worse than there is around many city places. For more years than I can remember, the Carlyle's dining room was a Chinese restaurant called the Dragon Palace.

Tandoor Palace, 6424 Baltimore National Pike, (410) 744-2777 Open every day for lunch and dinner. Major credit cards. No-smoking area: yes. Wheelchair accessible: no. Prices: appetizers, $2.95-$5.25; entrees, $7.50-$14.95.Not every meal at the Tandoor Palace, I'm sure, will start with Indian fortunetellers wandering in off the street. But they added a certain atmosphere to our evening, even though they wanted to tell the manager's fortune, not ours.The babuji, as they're known, hook you by pressing a piece of paper in your hand and asking you to name something (a number, a month of the year)

Just a minute or two down U.S. 1 from Columbia is one of Howard County's latest additions to the Indian restaurant scene: Kabab Indian Restaurant, which opened in June. "We liked the look of the building," owner and chef Jiwanlal Bhanot said. "It was convenient to both Columbia and Laurel." Bhanot, who also owns Banjara Indian Restaurant in Baltimore, co-owns this restaurant with Parmjit Sharma. The hospitality of Indians is legendary. In Sanskrit literature, the three famous words - atithi devo bhava, or "the guest is truly your god" - sum it up. Indian culture places a high value on sharing meals with guests - invited or not. In this case, the guests are very much invited.

Baltimore has more than its share of good Indian restaurants, but only one that's competing directly with the city's high-end places for its customers. It does so with a refined setting, waiters in black tie and a respectable wine list. (And, of course, by being one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, Indian restaurant in the area.) Five years ago Keir Singh, owner of Banjara in South Baltimore, took over the staid Ambassador, an apartment-house dining room, and with just a few changes transformed the restaurant into a clubby setting worthy of the British Empire.