Shish Mahal

Shish Mahal in South Windsor is a family operation, a father-and-son team with the father in the kitchen and the son waiting on tables.

Open seven days a week, the restaurant has been around for about a year, and the owners are working hard to attract new customers. They're putting together a new website, and our waiter told us they have an expensive new sign in the works, to catch the eyes of passersby on Route 5. They aim to please.

There may be a little work needed to distinguish Shish Mahal from its surroundings. The restaurant's neighbors include a package store and a hockey shop. Inside, a mix of posters decorates the walls -- some of Hindu deities, animals and a slightly incongruous one of Jesus. The dining area is mostly white, with lavender trim. Visual atmosphere isn't the restaurant's strongest asset. For me, one of the draws of eating at Indian restaurants is the likelihood of hearing lively Bollywood soundtracks, and Shish Mahal came through on that score. We dropped in a bit late, in the middle of the week, and there was one other diner.

Lisa and I split a bottle of Taj Mahal beer and crunched away on complimentary crisp papadums drizzled with tangy cilantro chutney while looking over the offerings. Vegetarians will be happy to see the meat-free dinner combos. The restaurant also serves a variety of lamb, chicken, seafood and even a few beef specialties.

They were out of the mulligatawny soup, so I sampled some lentil soup, and we had an order of vegetable samosas. Like most Indian dals, the lentil soup was thin, but the flavor was surprisingly potent, with turmeric, cloves and pepper infusing the broth. Samosas are turnovers stuffed with potatoes, peas and spices, and they are a great vehicle for the zingy green chutney or the sweet plum-colored tamarind variety. Things were off to a good a start.

We also sampled the naan, a fluffy bread made with a yogurt dough and cooked in a clay oven. The naan at Shish Mahal was a little dry, but I was surprised to detect what I thought was mahleb (a popular Middle Eastern spice made from ground black cherry pits) in the naan and other dishes. With its buttery cinnamon taste, mahleb is often used in pastries, and it nudged the naan toward the dessert category.

The biggest problem could be that Shish Mahal aims too hard at pleasing. I suspected that the food was simplified for the American palate; perhaps the cook held some punches in the spice department.

Lisa is a saag paneer fanatic, so we had the spinach and cheese dish in addition to a fish curry and chicken tikka masala. Some saag paneer is simply cooked and seasoned spinach with a few cubes of mild homemade cheese tucked in the center. The saag at Shish Mahal had dozens of the firm white cheese chunks, and the spinach seemed to have a bit of yogurt or butter whipped into it.

Everything came on stainless steel platters, the serving ware of choice at many Indian restaurants. There was also a rounded mound of basmati rice crowned with a few strands of crispy fried onions. Both the chicken and the fish sawm in deep brick-colored sauces. The curries would have benefited from other flavors to compete with the sweetness. In place of the strong spices I expect from Indian food, there was mildness that didn't stack up against some of the ingredients. The sauce in the Goa fish curry, for instance, was not up to the task of flavoring the salmon used in the dish, although it did have a nice sprinkling of fresh cilantro on top. The yogurt curry sauces were on the thick side too. The tikka masala was better, but the chunks of chicken required a little picking over.

It must be said that the appetizers we sampled were better than the entrees. But there are over 100 items on the menu at Shish Mahal, and we tried about eight of them. So it's very possible that there are some fantastic dishes lurking there. The hint of mahleb indicated that there are likely to be other interesting twists to the food.

When the waiter found out it was our first visit to the restaurant he told us dessert was on the house. At first he said we would get to sample fresh gulab jamun, a donut-like pastry covered in sweet syrup, but the pastry wasn't done cooking. So he brought us small bowls of rice pudding. With the sweet tastes being something of a specialty there, it was no surprise that the pudding was quite good, with strong cinnamon and cardamom flavors coming through.

We spent just under $45 for our meal, and we had a bag full of leftovers. Shish Mahal also offers a lunch buffet.

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Connecticut restaurants, Hartford County restaurants, South Windsor restaurants, Indian restaurants