Baba India

It’s been a long time since hound had Indian food for dinner. It is such a usual staple for lunch, that it usually doesn’t pop up as a dinner choice. However, since we were invited by friends, why not?

The choice for the evening was Baba India on Madison Road in Oakley. I’ve been there numerous times, but probably not in the last year or more. From what I remembered, the meals were generally quite good and I looked forward to returning. The first thing you notice is the unbelievable amount of carry out business. This place must be a Friday night Mecca for the Oakley residents! The downside to this is that it tends to slow down the orders destined for the dining room and interfere with bringing our orders out together. While the appetizers arrived at the same time, the entrees came in waves. For our party of six, three were delivered first, then it must have been 5 minutes or more for the other three to arrive. Not a huge delay, but an awkward start since we were not dining family style.

Samosa, Pappardamm and Kingfisher

For appetizers I had a veggie samosa and a pappadum, naturally served with the requisite container of tamarind, onion and mint/cilantro chutneys. The samosa was crispy and flaky outside with a tender, steaming interior. Perfect! As always, the pappardamm was crispy and peppery to the bite. Too bad no one around here has the ultra spicy pappardamm like they make at home in India. To digress, I had an Indian friend in grad school who went home for Christmas break. He brought back a huge bag of pappardamm made by his mother he wanted us to try. Wow, those were real mouth numbers that you couldn’t stop eating. His idea was to sell them to bars who would put them out as free snacks. His reasoning was that they would see a huge increase in beer sales. Vinkatesh just might have had a great idea there.

Chicken Makhani

Saag Kofta

Aloo Naan

Back to Baba. When everyone finally had their food, it was time to dive in. I went with a standard dish of Chicken Makhani, while Mrs. Hound ordered the Saag Kofta with the intent we would share the two entrees. (she couldn’t decide between the Saag Mushroom or Saag Paneer, so I talked her into the Kofta – my mistake) These are classic dishes, so you pretty much know what the acceptable baseline is. Unfortunately, Baba fell pretty far below the mark. You know that sinfully rich, creamy sauce that Makhani stands for (you know, butter and cream with tomatoes) ? Well, this version was not it – it was more like an adapted version taken from the pages of Cooking Light. Hey, I take Lipitor for a reason! The saag was thick and heavy, not the creamy delight that was anticipated. But the kofta were even more disappointing. Bone dry balls of veggie matter with little or no flavor. I guess I’ve been spoiled by the ones at Brij Mohan. While the aloo naan wasn't too bad, it was a little moister on the inside than I would have liked.

Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meals, but perhaps we were all just being polite. I try to never put a damper on someone else’s enjoyment of their food. I did have a taste of someone else’s lamb curry, which I felt suffered similarly to mine: tender meat, but the sauce was definitely lacking character.

Bottom line: Baba – Na Na !