Little India

One of my favorite places to go for lunch is Little India, one of Saratoga's hidden treasures. I went with two friends on a weekday and we were one of three tables taken up, I think they get most of their lunch business from take out so it wasn't that sad restaurant kind of empty. As soon as we sat down we were greeted by one of the waitresses, all of the staff there are extremely friendly and are happy to explain anything on the menu. I think especially for people who have never had Indian food before the menu can seem a bit overwhelming, but they can always help you pick out something you'll like. I also love the family atmosphere here, while we were having lunch there was a little girl having a blast playing with the cash register who was just too cute. This is definitely a place where families are more than welcome to bring little ones yet it is still intimate enough to bring a hot date.

Back to lunch. We ended up ordering an assorted vegetarian platter, Aloo Chana, and order on naan, and Vegetarian Korma...don't worry I'll explain what that all is. First we'll start with the vegetarian platter. This is just a great way to sample a little bit of everything, samosa (big guy on the left), pakora (small brown fritters on the edges) and some aloo tikki (round one in the middle).



A lot of times I'll get this as a meal, but we decided share everything so this was perfect so that everyone could have some of all the appetizers. I actually think I prefer it now as an appetizer because it's different variations of fried vegetables which can be a little heavy as a whole meal. It's also fun to mix and match all of these sauces with the appetizers and the naan, which is traditional Indian bread. Sorry, I'm not going to even pretend to know what the sauces are...all I know is I really like the brown sweet sauce...





So for three people we got one appetizer and two entrees, which was still enough for everyone to go home with a decent amount of leftovers. For entrees we got Aloo Chana and Vegetarian Korma. Aloo Chana is chick peas with potatoes in a gingery tomato sauce. You can ask for it either mild, medium or spicy. We went for medium and it was just enough heat but not so much that you can't taste any of the flavors.



Vegetarian Korma is a sweeter dish with vegetables, cheese, raisins and sliced almonds.



There were a bunch of different vegetables in there but I really liked the broccoli and getting a spoonful of both the cheese and the raisins...yum!

We ended our meal with some Indian tea. This tea is a sweetened black tea with milk and spices...pretty much just tastes like a dessert-y chai tea. Simple but very satisfying at the end of a midday feast.



And one last thing I wanted to point out to you...



The food is not the only thing that keeps me coming back for more. You just can't beat ten dollars per person PLUS leftovers! Little India has great lunch specials that are still dinner sizes, very easy on the wallet.