Baluchi's Indian on 5th Ave opening this week!!!!

Correction on the phone number!

It's (718) 832-5555

Subject: Baluchis review

Baluchis on Saturday night was fine. But worth the extra money over Kinara. All four of us thought not. Probably a better place to sit in that Kinara, I am guessing, but we got delivery. The Chana Saag was better than Kinara, less spicy. The Chicken Makhani was not as good, the Malai Kofta was not as good, the Veggie Jalfrazie was equal. Overall, less spicy than Kinara, which was good for 2 of the four palates. Dinner plus app was $15 each, and Kinara doe sit for $13 I think....

Subject: Cilantro

As a youth, I grooved through the Indian subcontinent for 2 years, on the "Hippie Trail" in the late 60's. I cannot recall ever tasting cilantro in any Indian food there, unless it was used very sparingly, unlike the food here in the US, which shouts "CILANTRO!!" (Granted, I ate pretty cheaply back then. Maybe cilantro is a more "high-caste brahmin" ingredient than "hippie-harijan"). Cilantro now seems to be used by most Indian restaurants I've been to in the US. Is this an authentic Indian ingredient? I know the seeds are coriander, which is certainly authentic. But cilantro leaves???

Yes, cilantro is authentic. My friends from Mumbai are up there, caste/class wise, and they cook with it all the time.

I just finished ordering dinner from them. We are getting some samosas, chicken curry and lamb rogan josh. Hope it's as good as most people say.

Subject: Re: Cilantro

[quote="camaysar"]As a youth, I grooved through the Indian subcontinent for 2 years, on the "Hippie Trail" in the late 60's. I cannot recall ever tasting cilantro in any Indian food there, unless it was used very sparingly, unlike the food here in the US, which shouts "CILANTRO!!" (Granted, I ate pretty cheaply back then. /quote]

Perhaps you were grooving out too hard with other herbs to recognize cilantro?

Ground cilantro/coriander is used in many masalas and the leaves are often chopped up small and in recognizable leaf form.

Will they have the half-off lunch special?

I don't mean to derail, but about this cilantro... is that what the Palo Santo people put in everything making my mouth taste funny for hours? I know some people hate it or have an allergy to it; that's not me, but I do think a little goes a long way - sometimes too far.

Update to our dinner. Delivery was very fast, we got our food within 20 minutes (we are right up the block from them).

The food was fine, nothing special and IMO, not any better or worse than other Indian places around here. We will probably order from them again just for the fact that they are so close, not because we had the food and went "Wow! finally great Indian food!"

I usually refrain from reviewing a restaurant until it has had a few weeks to shake out the rust, but I had to post in response to Filmlover's comment that this place "is MUCH better than Kinara."

I had takeout on Saturday too. I live just a couple of blocks away and it came within 25 minutes. I ordered Samosas, Chicken Tikka Masala and Saag Panir. It came with rice and naan. The samosas were excellent. Good and spicy. The naan was pretty good, as good as any naan that comes via takeout, and the rice was fine too. I was disappointed with the chicken and spinach as both were under spiced and lacking any noticeable flavor.

Kinera is far from perfect. Every once in a while the regular chef seems to be out and nothing is working, but for the most part, the food is very good and the delivery is fast. On the whole, Baluchi's on 5th Avenue has a long way to go before I would say that that it is MUCH better than Kinera.

I will certainly give it another chance though. My guess is that Baluchi's will get better and it will become the Indian restaurant we eat at and Kinera will remain our takeout place.

That was part of our problem too Jamzer, we both felt the food was under spiced and needed more flavor. But, then again, we are dealing with a chain restaurant which made me leery about ordering from them to begin with.

I had take out too and was underwhelmed. The lamb meat was really good, tender, no nasty fatty parts. But the saag, spinach, was bland.

Mamacita wrote: I had take out too and was underwhelmed. The lamb meat was really good, tender, no nasty fatty parts. But the saag, spinach, was bland.

I LOVE when people agree with me Mamacita!

Jamzer wrote: I usually refrain from reviewing a restaurant until it has had a few weeks to shake out the rust, but I had to post in response to Filmlover's comment that this place "is MUCH better than Kinara.

Ugh. The last time that I had Kinara it was truly horrible. I haven't tried any of the vegetable dishes and probable wont and I don't eat bread so I can't comment on the other dishes besides the Madras and Vindaloo.

filmlover44 wrote: [quote=Jamzer]I usually refrain from reviewing a restaurant until it has had a few weeks to shake out the rust, but I had to post in response to Filmlover's comment that this place "is MUCH better than Kinara.

Ugh. The last time that I had Kinara it was truly horrible. I haven't tried any of the vegetable dishes and probable wont and I don't eat bread so I can't comment on the other dishes besides the Madras and Vindaloo.

If an Indian place can't do Saag Panir right, they got issues!

filmlover44 wrote: [quote=Jamzer]I usually refrain from reviewing a restaurant until it has had a few weeks to shake out the rust, but I had to post in response to Filmlover's comment that this place "is MUCH better than Kinara.

Ugh. The last time that I had Kinara it was truly horrible. I haven't tried any of the vegetable dishes and probable wont and I don't eat bread so I can't comment on the other dishes besides the Madras and Vindaloo.

If an Indian place can't do Saag Panir right, they got issues!

Heh. And all I care about is the Curry!

Heh. And all I care about is the Curry!

meh for curry. Spinach is the true test of quality Indian.

meh for curry. Spinach is the true test of quality Indian.

At every Indian place I have ever been to I always order either saag paneer or Saag lamb. I agree with Jamzer, it's all about the miracle of turning yucky spinach into something I crave!

At every Indian place I have ever been to I always order either saag paneer or Saag lamb. I agree with Jamzer, it's all about the miracle of turning yucky spinach into something I crave!

and I say meh for Spinach!

I developed my taste for good curry in England back when it was the only decent food that you could get in the country. I never even knew that Spinach was on the menu till a couple of years ago!

and I say meh for Spinach!

I developed my taste for good curry in England back when it was the only decent food that you could get in the country. I never even knew that Spinach was on the menu till a couple of years ago!

EAT YOUR VEGGIES FILMLOVER!

Happy Thanksgiving. Curried or not.

EAT YOUR VEGGIES FILMLOVER!

Happy Thanksgiving. Curried or not.

We had a late lunch here on Saturday and loved it.

Service was initially a little slow... had to wait what seemed quite a while for menus and water (they were in the middle of a staff-orientation meeting). We weren't asked if we wanted "drinks" which was ok since we only wanted water, but it didn't appear that they had any liquour/beer in the place anyway.

We shared my personal fave as an appetizer - Ka-Chori (chickpea/potato mix in yogurt/tamarind sauce on a lentil patty) and then shared a shrimp curry, an okra side dish and cumin rice. Everything was great - really fresh, perfectly cooked and very tasty.

We've only had crap experiences with Kinara - the last time, after an hour wait and several phone calls, they insisted they had delivered our order... but if they did, it wasn't to us. And Bombay Grill.... meh.

Looking forward to trying more of Baluchi's menu.

Anyone else been in yet?

We had a late lunch here on Saturday and loved it.

Service was initially a little slow... had to wait what seemed quite a while for menus and water (they were in the middle of a staff-orientation meeting). We weren't asked if we wanted "drinks" which was ok since we only wanted water, but it didn't appear that they had any liquour/beer in the place anyway.

We shared my personal fave as an appetizer - Ka-Chori (chickpea/potato mix in yogurt/tamarind sauce on a lentil patty) and then shared a shrimp curry, an okra side dish and cumin rice. Everything was great - really fresh, perfectly cooked and very tasty.

We've only had crap experiences with Kinara - the last time, after an hour wait and several phone calls, they insisted they had delivered our order... but if they did, it wasn't to us. And Bombay Grill.... meh.

Looking forward to trying more of Baluchi's menu.

Anyone else been in yet?

We had take out from them again on Friday night and we both felt the same way about them again, bleh!

The food was only ok, nothing special, nothing better than any other place around here, maybe even a tad worse (they tend to be bland). We won't be getting food from them again. It's really a shame, we both like Indian food a lot and aren't able to get any good food near us.

We had take out from them again on Friday night and we both felt the same way about them again, bleh!

The food was only ok, nothing special, nothing better than any other place around here, maybe even a tad worse (they tend to be bland). We won't be getting food from them again. It's really a shame, we both like Indian food a lot and aren't able to get any good food near us.