Posted by Jim at January 8th, 2005

I like Indian food. By this I don’t mean American Indian food (which aside from liking fry bread, I haven’t eaten), but rather food from India.

Like many Indian restaurants, Taste of India’s entrees fall into four basic categories:

Tandoori: Marinated, roasted meats from northern India where Islam is common.
Lamb curries: Lamb stewed in a sauce. You’re supposed to put it over rice. Taste of India serves many of the more common lamb dishes such as Lamb Vindaloo (lamb in a hot tomato based sauce), Lamb Saag (lamb in a spinach based sauce) and Rogan Josh (can’t remember precisely, but I do like it).
Chicken curries: Chicken stewed in a sauce. I seldom get the chicken dishes, but some are a chicken variation of the lamb entrees.
Vegetarian entrees: These range from dals (bean curries) to palak paneer (spinach and cheese) to vegetable based curries (cauliflower, cabbage, etc…).

It also serves lassi (a yogurt based drink much like a shake), various appetizers and has a good selection of Indian flatbreads (roti). Roti are a bit like pita bread, but are often stuffed with vegetables (for example: potatoes, onions, peas…). I like them a lot.

I honestly don’t know whether Taste of India is a good Indian restaurant relative to restaurants in a larger city. It’s one of three Indian restaurants in Grand Rapids that I’m familiar with. The other two are Bombay Cuisine and India House.It seems that I’m more likely to see people of Indian descent at Taste of India than I am at the other two, but what that means I’m not sure.

Whatever the case, I enjoy the food.

If you want to try it cheaply, you might go during lunch. They’ve got a buffet. Taste of India is a 44th and Breton in Grand Rapids. It’s in the same strip mall as Horrocks and is just south of the D&W on that same corner.