DINNER: Saturday, September 20, 2003

It was a fine, beautiful day. No humidity, not a cloud in the sky, so Wendy & I decided to take advantage of the wonderful weather by…

…taking in a movie. We went to The Esquire down in Clifton to see WHALE RIDER, which we enjoyed. After the show, we walked around the shops in Clifton for a while before heading to a new Indian restaurant — we think called INDIA PALACE — down near Cincinnati State Technical & Community College.

The restaurant is visually nondescript — two generic rectangular rooms with booths and tables. The tablecloths are protected by plastic, and the utensils are metal. The food, however, did not match the bland nature of the decor. Wendy’s Chicken Biryani was nicely spicy and in a portion huge enough that she’ll be eating it for days. The cooling raita was a nice foil to the spicy rice.

My Paneer Makani was good — rich creamy tomato sauce full of flavor. The cheese cubes were generous as were the raisins and slivered nuts in the dish.

We decided that it’s not quite as good as our favorite Indian place (Taj Mahal), but if we’re ever down in Clifton craving Indian food, it’s a reasonable alternative to the more expensive AMBAR INDIA up the hill.