So, just because I run a website about Oklahoma City restaurants, it doesn’t mean I’m thoroughly versed in every type of cuisine. In my short 33 year life, I’ve tried a lot of restaurants and a lot of different types of food, but there’s still much to be tasted. Indian food is one such frontier for me. Sure, I’ve had some Indian food in my life, but not enough to really explore it as it deserves to be explored. So, I recently began my journey in earnest into Oklahoma City’s Indian food landscape and I started at Gopuram Taste of India.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me that Gopuram is at the top of Oklahoma City’s Indian restaurant choices. Some of you even commented such on Andrew’s review of Kha-Zhana. Others of you emailed in directly to recommend it. Plus, I work with quite a few Indian food lovers at my office, and they indicated that Gopuram was a great place to begin. After visiting, I have to agree. Granted, I haven’t tried the other places in the city, but I thoroughly enjoyed Gopuram and I would highly recommend it, especially for the lunch buffet.

Indian cuisine is quickly climbing up toward the top of my favorites. The richness, complexity and spiciness is all so very appealing to me. Also, while I typically don’t enjoy all-you-can-eat buffet’s (since they usually lead to over-eating), I do feel that experiencing Indian food through a buffet is a great option for the variety of things you get to try. This is particularly true when you are new to the experience.

Gopuram offers an excellent buffet. I went at lunch and the cost was $7.95 (it’s $10.95 on Saturday / Sunday and at dinner, and children 3-9 are half price). They offered soups, fruit, and a wide array of appetizers and main dishes, plus some desserts. I appreciated that all of the offerings were always kept well-stocked. They never seemed to run out of anything on the line.

As appetizers, I had a very rich and creamy tomato soup that was very, very good. The naan bread was also plentiful and very nice, plus I tried the vegetarian samosas which I really loved. I appreciated the fact that these samosas had a fairly natural and earthy flavor, not overly seasoned, though definitely savory enough for me.

From the main dishes, I tried just about everything I could. One of the highlights was the Chicken Tikka Masala. This is boneless chicken cooked in amazing creamy tomato-based sauce. I thought the chicken was perfectly tender and the sauce was incredibly smooth and flavorful. Another chicken option is the Tandoori chicken which consists of stand alone pieces of chicken that have been marinated well and baked in a Tandoor oven.

There were a lot of other dishes on the line as well, and they were all quite good. One great thing about Indian cuisine is that there are lots of vegetarian options. I sampled several vegetable dishes on the buffet and Gopuram’s menu also features many vegetarian features.

One thing that I always heard about Gopuram is that the atmosphere is really well done. I was very anxious to see what everyone was talking about. I agree that it is nicely appointed, though the style wasn’t exactly my taste. I’ve not been to India, so I don’t know how authentic it is, but it seemed a little over-the-top to me.

However, you can tell that they have put a lot of effort into the atmosphere in their restaurant and I can appreciate that, no matter what the style. There is a large open seating area with a circular fireplace in the middle (it wasn’t burning when we went in the 90 degree weather, but I assume it would be great for the winter). Plus, they have built in some more private dining areas — a selection of individual rooms where you can get a more isolated environment. These could be very nice for a quiet dinner. You can see pictures and descriptions of these rooms as well as the main dining room and their banquet room on their website gallery.

The whole environment just feels really solid. It’s not temporary or cheap. It seems like it has been there a long time and that they are planning to stay. They also use nice, heavy dinnerware and large, solid silverware pieces. This, in combination with the extremely polite and well-dressed wait staff creates a higher-end dining experience, even when you’re there for the lunch buffet. It’s nice to be able to get such an experience for under $8.

It seems that on Friday and Saturday nights, they even offer dinner shows that they call “Arabian Nights” at 7:30pm and 8:30pm with music and dancing.

Gopuram Taste of India was an excellent starting place on my journey of Oklahoma City’s Indian cuisine. If you’re an Indian food novice like me, I highly recommend it as a place to begin. Not that it’s just for novices because obviously there a lot of Indian food experts out there who recommend it as well. I will say that those in the know have told me that Gopuram represents North Indian cuisine which tends to be a little less spicy and more palatable for the American taste. Taj apparently represents South Indian cuisine which can be more bold. I look forward to trying Taj soon to taste the difference for myself.

Please leave your comments on Gopuram and Indian food in general. I look forward to learning more from you guys as I continue on my journey.

As a rule, choosing the Shady Restaurant of the Month is far from easy. Perhaps what once stood out as an abnormality in my pre-conditioned culinary mind has simply become the norm. You see, I eat at shady dives and taco stands nearly every day now, so having one stand out as particularly more shady than the others is becoming more of a challenge. This time, though, the decision came fast and clear. The moment I heard myself actually say out loud, “wow, I’m eating goat meat in a gas station … and it’s delicious!” — that was the moment I knew I had a winner.

JRS Travel Center sits on the corner of Reno and Martin Luther King Avenue. Many a trucker stops here for a fill up and an energy drink, but it’s what is going on in the attached restaurant that will keep me coming back. When we first walked in, there was a sign for Corky’s Grill and a big picture of a nauseating star-shaped burger patty. Everyone has unfortunately experienced one of these unnaturally misshapen mystery meat patties at one time or another. I think the last one I had was at the hospital after my last kid was born. These can be tricky because everyone else is eating them and it makes you want to believe that they aren’t rancid, but it’s never the case. Thankfully, Corky’s has been bought out by an enterprising group of Indian chefs who have turned it into a tandoor grill.

The interior is awesome! The entire menu from Corky’s remains above the counter as well as all of the old signs advertising it’s American truck stop fare. You’ll need to ignore the Corky’s menu. Sorry for the inconvenience to all of you looking for a frozen chicken fried steak with fake gravy. They have draped some bright-colored cloths on the walls to give that distinct Indian feel, but then you sit down in booths that make you feel like you’re eating at Carl’s Jr. OK, maybe Carl’s Jr. in New Delhi.

Of course, a mismatched interior is what shady dining is all about. We’re looking for the place that can surprise us by delivering taste far beyond the expectations set up by appearances. And in the taste department, Tandoor is getting it right.

Tandoor Restaurant delivers the culture, spice, and flavor of Indian cuisine to all those daring enough to try something new. They will gladly show you a beat-up, laminated menu of what they really serve. I didn’t need a menu. When we walked in there was a dry-erase board with a big, bold proclamation:

“Now serving Halal goat!”

I knew what I was getting. No, it’s not because I’m a practicing Muslim needing to follow Halal standards, but rather because I’m a sucker for goat meat. The choices ranged from curries, to masalas, to biryani dishes. For those of you who have never experienced a biryani dish (and that used to include me), imagine an Indian version of fried rice. Indian food purists will surely mock my description. Speaking of Indian food purists … since visiting Tandoor, I have mentioned this place to various India natives and those friends of mine who have traveled extensively in India, and they all say this is one of their favorite places in town. Apparently, I’ve been out of the loop. The buffets in town surely don’t do Indian food this type of justice.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the flavor of the goat biryani. It really heated up as I went though. I found myself wishing I had ordered a Dr. Pepper with my meal this time. Talk about a hidden spiciness, this dish really creeps up on you. The only drawback of this particular selection was picking all of the goat bones out of my mouth. They are basically stewing the goat meat in a pressure cooker so that you get that marrowy, gelatin goodness in the stock. This makes it very tasty, but also means bones are going to break down and sometimes be small enough to hide under piles of rice. That, as well as the whole cloves, made it a little tedious to chew. I’m sure you can safely chew up and swallow these items, but I wasn’t in the mood for how this could have affected my digestive tract over the following few hours so I chose to discard these pieces as politely as I could.

My shady companions got a range of other biryani dishes and curries. We were not prepared for the level of spice. These dishes get warm quickly. However, fantastic flavors accompany that heat and they make the temporary palate-pain well worth it. I, for one, love the explosion of flavor that comes with saffron, clove, and other Indian spice staples.

Perhaps the highlight of the food was the naan. Naan is an unleavened bread found all across the Middle East and into India. It resembles pita bread, but it is much softer and infused with more flavors. They served a garlic naan which had cloves of garlic woven artfully through the dough. It was out of this world. The smell of roasted garlic enveloped our table and made our mouths water. We also ordered plain naan and onion naan. They were both very good. It was like naan other naan I have ever had. Ha!

You do need to be aware of the pricing and the size of the dishes here. The prices were quite high, ranging from $7 to $12, depending on the dish. My goat dish was $11 after tax and I declined the beverage. The good news is that these dishes could feed two or three people comfortably. I think the best course of action is to take six to eight people and order four or five dishes, in essence making your own buffet. I can promise it will be much more tasty than any buffet you have ever had, and less likely to spread disease (depending on who you invite to eat with you, of course).

The shady experience at Tandoor Restaurant will provide you with good food, good fun, and the ability to pick up a pack of cigarettes, an energy drink, and one of those cool, mesh-backed trucker caps with the clever sayings on your way out. Bring an appetite, be prepared for a little spice, and get ready for what is perhaps the best Indian food in the city. But don’t take my word for it, go try it yourself. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Growing up, I remember my grandfather going to India and always taking lots of peanut butter and crackers so he wouldn’t have to eat the food. I remember disregarding his advice and trying a few Indian places long my life’s journey, including places here in town, and having a similar sentiment. I never hated it, it just seemed the flavors and spices were a bit strong for my taste and they seemed to linger on the palate and skin for hours, and even days, to come. I was invited several months back to an Oklahoma Indian food place that changed my perception, opened my taste buds to dynamic flavors, and gave me the opportunity to eat one of my favorite occasional meats … goat!

The owners of Khazana position themselves as a trendy Indian buffet experience. They have the curries and masalas that you expect to see on any Indian buffet, but they somehow bring a level of flavor that puts the other Indian buffet’s in town to shame. My favorite is the goat masala, but it is not offered every day. It seems to be there a few times a month. The fine Indian chef geniuses at Khazana know we need to be healthy and strong and eat our spinach, so they serve it a few different ways. They have Palak Paneer, which is a spinach curry. It doesn’t look that great in my opinion (sort of like a vegetable puree), but it tastes fantastic. According to my local Indian expert, Palak means spinach, and Paneer means cheese. I sure didn’t see cheese in it, but it tasted good. They also kick spinach up another notch by deep frying it. Brilliant!

You know, I think our Indian friends could learn a little from our French friends when it comes to presentation. I mean, curries, masalas, and other Indian favorites don’t look all that great to me on the plate. Maybe that is why some people are hesitant to try Indian food since the saying “you eat it first with your eyes” is a very accurate reality. These dishes, however, have to be tasted before you write them off by their looks. The chicken and lamb curries are good. They are spicy but not so hot you can’t enjoy them. I think I’m a bigger fan of the masalas. Masala is a blend of spices that ranges from spicy to sweet, including cinnamon and cumin, and really has a flavor that is unique and rich. I particularly like it poured over bits of stewed goat. Yum.

Perhaps the star of the show at Khazana, though, is the tandoori chicken. Tandoori chicken is chicken marinated in yogurt, then seasoned with a special tandoori masala and cooked in a tandoor (oven). It’s spicy, but not overly hot. It’s bright red and brown and leaves a nice red slick on your hands that doesn’t wipe off real easy. That’s why I use a fork. It’s very flavorful chicken, though. It pairs well with a couple slices of Indian bread, or Nan (a crispy flat bread also cooked in the tandoor). Other things to enjoy here are various rice and vegetable dishes. Lots of words that I can’t decipher or remember. All I know is that the food at Khazana is a real step above any other Indian place I have ever tried. It is a buffet, and that is the extent of my Indian food adventures. You can order off the menu here, but I have never done that. I’m sure if you knew what you were doing that would be a good thing. I bet I could get goat right off the menu. Hmmm.

There isn’t a lot of bad about Khazana. It’s a buffet, which I would normally say is bad, but in this case, it’s all I know, and it’s pretty good. The worst part, as I mentioned before, is that these aromas and flavors really stick to you and linger for some time. Do your coworkers and families a favor and have a breath mint, or a handful of fennel seed,which you can grab on the way out, to help soften the blow.

So, if you have never had Indian food before, or even if you have and haven’t liked it in the past, try Khazana. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.