by Robin Garr » Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:36 pm
We went by today and enjoyed it very much. It's an old city storefront at the corner of Preston and East Ormsby - from Crescent Hill it was an easy ride in Oak/St. Catherine to Preston, hook a left and go about three blocks, looking for the pretty orange-painted storefront on the left.
I'll write more for LEO and LouisvilleHotBytes in a coming issue, but briefly told ...
The menu is brief, and at first glance you notice the modestly priced American dishes - burgers, chicken, fried fish and tuna fish sandwiches ... but at the bottom you'll find a half-dozen Pakistani entrees plus combos (with pita or rice and a salad) and a list of sides including a couple of Pakistani items.
The building looks old and it's kind of off the beaten track (although actually it's just one block across I-65 from Old Louisville), but it has been beautifully cleaned up and painted - the floor is absolutely sparkling and the walls freshly painted; tables and chairs look like they came from an upscale place. The family that runs the place are extremely cordial, glad to answer questions, and speak excellent English.
We very much enjoyed chicken Handi ($5.99), similar to Indian chicken tikka; chicken Biryani, white and yellow rice with baked chicken and lemon; and onion bhaji, a spice-cented pile of crisp-fried onion strands.
Everything was extremely good, nicely spiced but not fiery, and the price tag (with giant cups of fountain drinks) came out less than $15; it's hard to find a better buy.
The proprietors told us about how India and Pakistan used to be the same country, but when the British left in 1947, they "partitioned" Pakistan and India as Muslim and Hindu countries, respectively, a decision that caused a lot of violence at the time and has left broken relationships ever since (my words, not theirs). The food, as they pointed out, is similar, but I can report that the quality of the dishes we enjoyed today was exceptional, fresh and relatively light, not at all greasy, with clear-cut aromatic flavors. Two thumbs up, and we'll definitely be back.