Mint Leaf Indian Brasserie

• Cuisine(s): Indian
  Hours: Daily 12pm-10:45pm
  Price: $$$ $$$
  Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
• Attire: Casual
  Features: Business Dining, Catering, Family Style, Kid Friendly, Private Party, Takeout, Vegetarian Friendly, Wheelchair Accessible
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Alcohol: Beer/Wine
• Reservations: Accepted, Highly Recommended, Online Reservations Available
  Parking: Meters

Description

Mint Leaf's most distinctive offerings are its dosas: thin, crisp pancakes made from ground fermented lentils and rice that come folded around a choice of stuffers such as masala lamb, spicy chicken, or the traditional potatoes and onions -- a knish with chutzpah (and tasty). Other starters include crisply fried keema samosas crammed with semi-piquant minced lamb, tender tandoor-roasted hunks of boneless baby chicken meat (murg tandoori), and chaats (street foods) such as bheel poori, a snack-like potpourri of puffed rice, crushed biscuits, potatoes, onions, and peanuts lightly dressed in tangy chutneys. Entrées divide into seafood, chicken, lamb, rice, and vegetarian, the last encompassing some of the most satisfying dishes. Try dal makhani: black lentils cooked overnight and finished with caramelized onions and cream, all steeped in a deep, slow heat that creeps into the throat a few seconds after swallowing. Lamb rogan josh is stewed in a curried tomato sauce of properly potent piquancy; swipe it up with Mint Leaf's breads -- arguably the best in town -- and wash it down with a Kingfisher beer ($4.95). The usual medley of phyllo-wrapped desserts is on hand, as well as butter-laden gajjar ka halwa, aptly referred to as "warm carrot fudge," and shrikand, saffron-and-sugar-suffused yogurt custard. Mint Leaf doesn't cost a mint; the prices are in line with other local places of its genre. That said, it is expensive for Indian food; most nonvegetarian entrées run $16 to $20, plus add breads, appetizers, and a plate of steamed basmati rice ($3.50).