Tandoor still currying favor with spice fans

"Have you been to India?" my old friend Matt would casually ask unsuspecting dinner guests. If the answer was no, Matt would hand them a cold beer or a piece of barbecued steak, or whatever other edible item was lying around, and say in his best Australian accent, "well, get this in-to-ya."

Have I been to India? No. And did I fall for Matt's two-liner joke? Only the first time. But during my stay in Warsaw, I think I've eaten enough curry meals at the Tandoor Palace to become a vicarious Indian tourist many times over. While I'm not as familiar with the streets of Delhi or the beach at Goa as someone who has physically tramped around this lamb-cutlet shaped sub-continent, I can navigate my way through a menu packed with kofta, vindaloo, pakora and paneer like an old hippy from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's school of transcendental meditation.

My husband, David, is just as adept with a Tandoor Palace menu. In fact he knew he'd graduated to a higher plain of dining existence when the Tandoor Palace home deliveryman presented him with his very own laminated "preferred customer" card. Tandoor Palace, resplendent with a padded ceiling and carved wooden screens on the wall, occupies a rather pedestrian-quiet corner of ulica Marszałkowska. The owner, Charanjit Singh, has been active on Warsaw's restaurant scene since 1997 when he opened his first Indian restaurant - Club Tandor, now called Asian Village - near Janki.

His empire has expanded to include the Toni Tandoori takeaway at Janki and an Indian catering service. But the pick of the bunch continues to be Tandoor Palace. (A recent visit to Asian Village left us disappointed: While the food was good, the Indian Kingfisher beer was warm, the service a little slow and the restaurant decor gave it all the ambience of a bus shelter.) In fact, Tandoor Palace is probably the only Polish restaurant that can boast having its very own Curry Club. Every Wednesday night the club president, Howard Floyd, and a band of other Warsaw curry diehards descend on Tandoor Palace for their weekly fix.

Floyd described the quality of food at Tandoor Palace as being "like curry sex." "I always like my curries with a bit of kick - not too hot but hot enough to bring tears to my eyes and to make my nose run," he said. And his favorite chili kick is the methi mutton - tender chunks of mutton cooked in a dry tomato sauce flavored with the spice fenugreek. He's also a fan of Tandoor Palace's chicken pakoras - chunks of chicken deep-fried in a chickpea-flour batter; onion bhaji - fried balls of spiced onion; and the sheek kebab lamb-mince skewers cooked in the tandoor oven.

When David and I embarked on our most recent expedition to Tandoor Palace, nibbling on a few pappadums - crispy lentil wafers - we waited for our plate of vegetable pakoras to arrive. Not exactly a culinary challenge, these little morsels of battered potato and onion seem to fulfill a deep primordial need for the occasional bit of fried food. For our main course, we shared chicken tikka butter masala - a rich, creamy dish seasoned with garam masala - plus a dish of palak paneer. Paneer is a rather bland homemade Indian cheese that is usually cut into cubes and cooked to give it some semblance of flavor. In this dish, it comes in a rather alarmingly green spinach sauce that is spiced with chili and exceedingly yummy.

For a bit of kick, I ordered the tandoor chicken sizzler. Sizzling dishes are always rather alarming and this one spits sauce like the best of them. The rich tomato sauce is wonderfully spicy and the chicken tender. And of course, what Indian meal would be complete without some naan - the deliciously soft and doughy leavened bread that is cooked on the wall of the clay tandoor oven. It comes in all sorts of varieties from garlic to rather exotic species that are stuffed with minced lamb or cottage cheese. The plain is my favorite and is perfect for finishing off the remnants of curry sauce.

I should also mention how good Tandoor Palace's tandoori chicken is. These distinctively bright-orange joints of chicken that are marinated in a spiced yogurt sauce and then baked in the tandoor oven are exceptionally tender and tasty. If you prefer your curries on the milder side of hot, never fear: all dishes served at this restaurant come with a chili rating. And for vegetarians, there's a host of dishes to choose from. The restaurant also serves Singaporean and Indo-Chinese dishes. Dinner for two, including a few beers, came to zł. 144.50 ($35). (If you're interested in the Curry Club, call Howard Floyd during business hours at 816-2288)

On the menu Chicken pakora zł. 26 Vegetable samosas zł. 15 Tandoor chicken sizzler zł. 33 Chicken tikka butter masala zł. 31 Methi mutton zł. 33 Vegetable kofta zł. 24