When we realized that Maharaja on Sukhumvit Soi 8 closed down, we were a little upset. Once we heard that the same owner has been running another Indian restaurant, though, we didn’t hesitate to go there and taste if the king still has his crown or not. The eatery is now in the middle of a tourist pathway in Nana, so it’s no surprise that we saw tourists marching in and out throughout the evening. Getting a seat in this place may be a little hectic—reservations aren’t necessary but if you get there when it’s busy, you might have to wait. If you see the “manager” going nuts and shouting at the staff, just ignore it. It’s normal around here. As usual, we asked the wait staff to recommend something spicy and delicious, and they brought us their samosa keema (three pieces, Indian lamb curry puff). These looked similar to the Thai curry puff, but what was inside was the definition of superb Indian flavor. For our main course, we chose the chicken vindaloo (chicken with vindaloo curry paste), which was heralded as hotter than the usual curry, but it really wasn’t that spicy. We sent it back for a little more heat and it came back perfecto. The second dish we ordered was chicken tandoori (grilled chicken Indian style), which turned out to be the most impressive dish of the night—charcoal grilled tender chicken thighs with a touch of scented herbs and curry so savory it created heart palpitations. Mutton rogen johh (lamb curry) was slightly salty but soft and flavorful without drowning out the taste of the lamb. Navratan korman (vegetarian curry with cheese) was a meat-free dish we sampled, and though the cheese and curry was meant to ease our tongues, we found it suffered from the same symptom as the mutton dish—a bit too salty. We had all these dishes with traditional naan and basmati rice. In an effort to reduce the salt in our veins we headed for the sweets. Gulab jaman is an Indian dessert composed of two balls laced in a sweet syrup—a bit too sweet for our tastes. Maybe it would have been better if we had them with black coffee instead of water? New Bukhar’s gets top marks from us on service, as our glasses were instantly filled and the food was on par with what we expected. Just don’t take the table next to the door as you may wilt from the heat storm every time a new customer comes in. Corkage B200.
