Panjwani’s menu offers a few tips on ordering Indian food and the regional origins of some dishes, and talking to her (which I did by phone) is very helpful if you’re unfamiliar with the cuisine.
The chef likens the many types of curry to the many types of pasta: they’re similar, but different. From a palette of 30 or more herbs and spices, various combinations are chosen and paired with different bases to create unique flavors and aromas.
Vindaloo curries, for instance, are made with their particular spice profile and a tomato and onion base. Similarly (but different), masala curries are made with their unique spices and a (mainly) tomato base, then finished with cream.
Panjwani bought the former Shangri La Cuisine on Main Street almost three years ago and renovated the space to include a decent-sized club, in the rear, for live music and dancing on weekends.
Apart from the Bollywoodesque club out back, the long, narrow saffron-colored space has the look and feel of an average Indian family restaurant, circa 2011: It has two large, flat-screen TVs at the small bar up front. During one visit, the news, on low volume, reported on a tragic disaster while soothing Indian music played in the background.
Guru has many vegetarian dishes, and the potato and pea samosa in the mixed vegetarian platter appetizer ($7) has a pleasingly moist interior and a light pastry. The platter’s vegetable pakora fritters are also tasty, light, and crunchy. Not so the paneer pakora that came on the platter, which is somewhat tasteless.
The fish pakora appetizer ($8) is eight bite-sized pieces of deep-fried fish in the pakora’s characteristic chickpea batter.
The mixed tandoori grille ($21) is a large platter of various meats barbecued in a tandoor - a traditional clay oven. The large plate, which comes with a small side of sweet and mild curry, includes tandoori dishes that our incandescently happy Nepali waiter identifies for us: chicken tikka; malai chicken boti; lamb boti kebab; prawns; and a whole chicken leg.
