Most Advantageous

Thursday evening dinner was Cafe Maharani. Been wanting to check it out for a long time. Site of the former Javarama by the Down To Earth in McCully. We used to be fixtures at Javarama. Cafe Maharani is an Indian restaurant crammed into that small space. I was worried about parking, but I found a stall in back, and Derek lucked out and scooped prime parking right in front. Checking things out from outside it was already pretty packed inside, wonderful aroma of spices waft out, and they are equiped with a tandoori oven, we were sold. We were told we would have about a 15 minute wait, so we took a stroll to Star to find some beer as Maharani is BYOB. Timing perfect, table is ready for us when we get back.

We decide to do the 2 person dinner combo which consists of samosa appetizer, choice of two entrees, rice & naan. The veggie samosa is a deep fried pastry stuffed with a curry spiced veggie filling, served with a spicy tamarind chutney, and a cool yogurt sauces. Both nice, but the tamarind sauce is wonderful. We do the eggplant tikka masala and chicken vindaloo our entrees. Oh, and this seems wrong, they have beef as entree choices.

Word to the wise, come hungry. This is our two person dinner and its a healthy portion! We are thoroughly enjoying the food, wonderfuly spicy and flavorful. The chicken we order hot, our server mentioned one higher level of heat, that would have been a bit much. The hot was just right, a nice heat that builds and makes you want to keep eating and then pause for a breather, before digging in for more.

Dave is Whistler bound, this dinner choice was inspired by that since we knew he’d be going to our favorite restaurant there, Tandoori Grill. Dave, when you get back, we’ll have to go to Maharani. It’s a respectable rival, and we can cap dinner with mango lassi too! Value is quite good too, Maharani easily earns four happy monkeys!