Great new Indian restuarant in Minneapolis

Residents and visitors of the Twin Cities now have a new excellent Indian restaurant to choose. Although the Twin Cities hosts a number of excellent Indian food sources, there is always room for one more!

I'm particularly excited about the most recent one, because I can walk there. When I lived in Washington, DC, we lived just one block from an excellent Indian restaurant, the White Tiger. That was a dangerous proximity!

We walked through the rain several blocks last week to the newly opened Gandhi Mahal at 3009 27th Avenue South--right next door to Midori's Floating World Cafe. Gandi Mahal is the site of the former Greek restaurant, Calypso, and other previously unsuccessful ventures.

As the Rake Magazine notes, it's unclear if the Mahatma would approve of the seafood and beef[!] entrees. The likeness of Gandhi looks over each table, making you uncomfortable to order a non-vegetarian dish. We compromised and got a chicken entree and a vegetarian thali (essentially a "sampler") to share. Both were excellent. I highly recommend the Chicken Tikki Masala. At first I thought the prices were high for Minneapolis standards. Each entree is $10-$16. But the portions are generous and the food is near perfect. Unless you are fairly hungry, two adults could split a single entree. (But then you wouldn't have leftovers for home--and what is better than 2nd day Indian for lunch the next day?)

Because they are new, no liquor license yet. But I believe you can bring your own wine and serve yourself in the meantime. The restaurant can provide wine glasses. AND, there is a liquor store directly across the street! So you can order your food, and then figure out what kind of wine works best as you take a quick stroll across the street. (I like a dry German Reisling with spicy Indian food myself.)

Two funny things about the restaurant. First, mahal means palace, which isn't the first thing I associate with Gandhi. Second, they don't have a website. Seriously, if you have a new business that serves customers, you need a website. It doesn't have to be fancy. It should have a picture, your menu, links to any good reviews, a phone number, address, and hours. Nothing flashy. Just spend the $50 to host and put it up!

Thankfully, they do have an email address. Here are the details:

Gandhi Mahal
Indian cuisine, lassi bar, and thali-tapas
3009 27th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55406
612-729-5222
612-729-5953
gandhimahal@gmail.com

News Topic: Elephants

Today's random news topic deals with elephants. All are from the last couple of days.

• Wild elephants hold up Sri Lanka vote - Not Tamil Tigers, but real elephants want to stop the democratic process in Sri Lanka. (The AFP stock picture accompanying the article shows African Elephants, which do not live in Sri Lanka.)
  
• A jumbo wish of a senior citizen in Bengal - A man wishes to adopt a wild elephant. He has already made accommodations at his guest house.
• Kerala govt. direction on elephant rules - "The Kerala government on Saturday directed officials concerned to strictly implement laws under The Captive Elephant Management Rules following a rise in the number of incidents involving elephants participating in temple festivals becoming wild, causing hardship to people."
• Trees, ants and elephants: Balance gone bad in Africa - A lesson on ecology.
• The big story: Thailand - "Elephants are the symbol of Thailand and you can’t go without being lured into a park (in this case the Mae Taeng Elephant Park) to watch them paint pictures, dance, and play football better than Bafana bafana."
• More than 75 years later, circus still packing 'em in - I'm all for informal language, but it's a bit much to shorten "them" to "'em" in this southwest Missouri paper nicknamed the Misleader.