Minerva Indian Cuisine

One of the great things about living in the suburbs of the Washington DC area is the wide array of authentic ethnic dining from a dizzying array of choices. It almost seems absurd that having Indian cuisine for dinner would be one of the less exotic choices you could go with around here. Regardless, many of the Indian restaurants I’ve eaten at are of above average to excellent quality, without the severe price hike you’d come to expect dining within the District.

Minerva is an excellent chain of restaurants serving up authentic North Indian cuisine. Each of the various suburban locations (four in the DC Metro area: Fairfax, Chantilly, Centreville, and Gaithersburg) has the added bonus of offering a lunch buffet that is guaranteed to send you to foodcomaville (population: you) for hours on end. Afternoon productivity? Don’t count on it.

For this visit, Jen and I dropped into the Fairfax location. The space is larger than it appears from the outside with cavernous depth and styled with simple decor, probably in favor of the various large 42 inch LCD televisions that adorn the walls. Service here isn’t particularly great, but it’s not terrible either. Visiting is definitely to take advantage of the well-priced dining.

You have your choice of ordering either a la carte (another French term, which translates roughly to “from the kitchen via a flaming wheelbarrow”) or the full dinner entree. The a la carte option will get you the dish you ordered with no sides, although it’s pretty likely that whatever you picked pairs up very well with a separate order of naan (traditional Indian flatbread). Jen wisely went this route, ordering up the Chana Masala (chickpeas aka garbanzo beans in a tomato sauce) with a side of Garlic Naan.

Chana Masala, photo courtesy of Seattle Pi

I ordered the Chicken Pasanda dinner, which arrived with a small army of sauce samplers, rice, and plain naan. I really wish I could identify all the various sauces/dips that came with my order, but none of them really stood out. There was one yogurt sauce, three tomato based sauces, and another sauce that had fried cubed of cottage cheese, with the texture of firm tofu. There was also some sort of bread pudding like dish that had a unique and mildly sweet flavor to it.

The Chicken Pasanda, however, is OUTSTANDING. The sauce is a yogurt and curry based sauce that I was close to devouring up with a spoon after finishing off the chicken. That alone is worth it for me to return to this place and go Shiva-Destroyer-of-Worlds on their buffet selection.

Pasanda Curry, photo courtesy of myindianfoodrecipes.com

If you’re a wine drinker, you’re in for a treat. Wine is on the super cheap here. Jen seriously considered the merits of ordering a half carafe at the FIRE! sale price of $8, but then opted to go for just a glass to avoid having to pay her respects to the Porcelain God after we got home. Still, the wine by the glass is an extraordinary deal. The waiter gingerly walked from the bar to our table with her glass of riesling, and it wasn’t until when he set it on the table, almost completely filled to the brim, did it dawn on me why he was doing the ninja trot in the first place.

If you’re going to make a visit for dinner, I’d suggest going to the a la carte route with the naan of your choice. The value is better if you consider going for something other than the regular naan, and you’re not missing out on much from the dinner entree. You’ll also have a bit more room for dessert, which Jen and I missed out on this go around. She really talked up the Gulab Jamoon at Minerva, which are described as deep fried dumplings of dried milk and flour soaked in a sugar syrup. Sweet merciful glycemic overload that sounds like it should come with a waiver. There’s apparently something about the process of creating these things where the dumplings defy physics and nature, soaking in more syrup that should be physically possible. I’ll head back soon and report more on these deep fried black holes soon.

All this fantastic food with nary a word of breaking the bank. Nice.