Oye! Tandoori: Exotic Flavors and Other Surprises

As a big ethnic food fan, I was happy to discover tucked away in a strip mall off Poway Road as I visited one morning.  I like Indian food, but it’s a little harder to come by in this part of San Diego County.

Knowing my column was due soon, this gave me the perfect reason to visit. Perhaps this would be a diamond in the rough.

My first impression upon entering was that the smell was amazing.  Different. Exotic. Next, I was happy to see that most of the six or seven tables were occupied, which is always a good sign. Another important observation was that the place was clean and bright. This is something I look for when I visit a new spot, whether it’s busy or not. I’ve always thought a dirty establishment is an extension of sloppy cooking.

As I browsed the menu, I drew a complete blank as to what many of the dishes were, so I did a culinary Hail Mary and let the guy behind the counter decide for me. He was plenty nice and offered my husband, my youngest daughter and me small sample cups of the different curries and sauces that we could see behind the glass partition. All in all, the samples were quite tasty. 

After his second mention of the chicken biriyani ($10.99), I chose that for dinner. My husband selected a slightly off-menu selection of lamb curry in a combo with rice and plain naan (I believe this was $12-$13). We added in a mango lassi ($2), side salad ($2) and extra naan ($1.50) because one can never eat too much bread.

There were so many positives leading up to the point of receiving our food that I thought I had found my "diamond." Insert screeching sound. The food arrived. Yes it smells amazing, but the fact that it was brought out on paper plates was really a surprise. For what we paid for the dishes, I certainly wasn’t expecting that. Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting, but I can’t recall the last time I ate a $10-plus dish off disposable paper plates with flowers. That was a bummer.

On the upside, there was so much food on the plates, they almost folded under the weight. If you decide to visit, make a mental note that food for two people is really enough for four moderate eaters, therefore justifying a little bit of the price. We had heaps of food, half of which ended up going home with us.

The flavors were just what we imagined. So complex and interesting and delicious. A few bites in and I started to forget about the flower design on the plates looking up at me. The slightly sweet lamb curry was served with an entire plate of basmati rice and reminded me a little bit of a Mexican mole. Yum.

I loved the crunch in the chicken biriyani. The rice was fried, Indian style, which gave it a nice crunch. There were veggies mixed in along with countless spices: saffron, bay leaf, mint, coriander, garlic and maybe even some cardamom. Good thing it also came with raita, a yogurt sauce, to cool down my palate.

As for the naan, nothing bad could ever be said about it. No matter which Indian restaurant you go to, naan is always a highlight.

The side salad was plain but provided cool greens to munch on. Their mango lassi was my first and although I might not ever crave one, it was pretty good. If I had to describe it to other non-lassi drinkers, it tastes like a liquid version of a mango cheesecake.

We both ordered our dishes with a medium level of heat. Initially, we thought we got robbed on the heat scale, but that just proved we were novice eaters because five minutes later we were both sniffling and sweating. It wasn’t unmanageable at all, but it did sneak up on us. We enjoy spicy food so medium heat was, in the end, just right.

It’s hard to give mention to the presentation since Indian "fast food" usually isn’t pretty. The sauces tend to cover most of the plate. But presentation could’ve been stepped up a little given the paper-plate issue.

With regard to their meat-friendliness, I give Oye! Tandoori a 5. I think when most people think "meaty," the first thing that comes to mind is beef. However, Indians don’t eat beef, so there was none to be found on the menu. But they made up for it with chicken, lamb and even goat options.

This is also a great spot for any vegetarians and vegans. Since the non-meat dishes were as plentiful as the meaty ones, I couldn’t go higher than a 5. 

I recommend Oye! Tandoori for those of you who thought interesting ethnic food couldn’t be found in Poway. I know not everyone is up for hard-to-pronounce dishes with lamb or goat, but don’t let that fool you. If you’re OK with their prices and know to expect paper plates, you just may find something you like.