Author: Lisa_Morgan

This is awkward. This meal was as if we had been invited by our cousin's house for dinner because her Aunt from India had come for a visit and wanted to cook for her family. Once the meal is served, and you take your first...bite, you relax because you are sure that you are not going to have to be too polite. But you still go "Glad we are only here for one meal." Tonight was like this. We had our normal selection from an Indian restaurant: Pakoras, Kofta, Bhartha, and something new for me, ground beef Kabab (tandoori cooking being a house specialty), with garlic Naan (we made our own rice). We were hungry so we immediately dug in. After a few bites we looked at each other with that look of 'OK, not bad, but not good'. Why? Let me cover the timeline, and the reason for my title, and maybe the reason for our experience. We ordered right after they had opened (limited hours in this cozy restaurant in a NW strip mall). Waited the normal time for a pickup of 30 minutes. That night was our the impression of Good, or at least not Bad. The next day, because we had leftovers, the food had changed. In almost all cases, letting your stews/sauces sit overnight will develop greater flavor, and that is what happened with the food from Surya. The depth of flavor was there, with the initial expected heat from the curry, made the second night eats rise to being great. My one complaint, and this might just be my lack of experience with the dish, was that the Kabab was dry. Comes with no sauces, and was over cooked to be hard, long round pieces of meat difficult to cut, and very chewy. The other issue was when I arrived, I was like an unwanted guest, but then the hostess realized she had to deal with me, and was curt and unfriendly. Maybe just too high of an expectation from me. There was a chance of Surya becoming our alternative Indian indulgence, but we will continue looking.