Craving Indian

Last year in August, my sister and I traveled to South Florida to visit our other sister with the goal of eating our way through some carefully chosen restaurants. The first place on our list was Bombay Darbar. A colleague recommended this place being the best Indian restaurant he's experienced and he's Indian living in Chicago so I had to try it out myself!

This leads me to present day. In quarantine, I can't eat out at my favorite place or try new experiences but I was craving Indian food as I thought back to my experience in Fort Lauderdale at Bombay Darbar. I was almost certain there would not be a place in my little town but lo and behold my internet search brought me to Guru Restaurant just a short 15 minutes from our home. I was so excited to read the reviews and the accolades the Chef here has received. I had a really good feeling about Guru but a tiny bit of me was wanting Bombay Darbar.

For this purpose, I'm going to review both Guru and Bombay in one post.

At Bombay Darbar Fort Lauderdale, we came in to a mostly empty dining room having come between lunch and dinner (around 3pm). Decor was dark and elegant - walls painted with either dark blue or black paint and accents of gold a silver. We started off with vegetable samosas, a crunchy pastry filled with potato veggie base. The pastry was light but the potato base made this appetizer very filling, It paired well with the tamarind sauce.

We order plain naan and Tandori parathi naan.
Very similar but the Tandori parathi naan has a subtle buttery garlic flabor like Italian garlic knots.

We also ordered Tandoori Chicken - it had a red coloration and was cooked in a clay pot with yogurt, ginger and garlic. It was a very flavorful chicken. I can see why it is a common favorite.

And Lastly - the reason why I was craving Indian food is for Lamb Biryani. Bombay Darbar makes their lamb biryana very flavorful. I recall distinctly the cardamom and tumeric flavors but when you exhaled the mint was refreshingly present. I love the texture, taste and long grains of basmati rice. With this dish, there was a subtle sauciness about it that allowed each spoonful ease of passage down to your belly. the lumps of lamb pieces throughout the dish is like icing on a cake - tasty morsels of perfectly flavored and tender pieces of lamb. A complete dish. No need for anything else.

What I disliked about Bombay Darbar is the presents of nuts in so many of their dishes. They make lots of their dishes with cashews - even their butter chicken which I also knew was a common favorite was made with cashews. We ordered it but I was not able to try it here.

THANKFULLY! - Guru Restaurant makes their butter chicken without the presents of nuts. I re-asked, likely at the expense of annoying the person who was taking my order to reassure me there were no nuts - so I ordered butter chicken, Lamb Biryani and lamb naan.


Full disclosure, I was so excited to eat that I neglected to take pictures of how it was package but I was still excited for the leftover the next day when I realized a picture was needed!

The Lamb biryani was not as flavorful as I recalled and the mint was barely present. Still a very delicious dish and when adding on the sauce from the butter chicken, I created a power pack of flavors by marrying the two.  Alone, the butter chicken literally has a creamy buttery flavor with a slightly acidic tomato finish. It's a wonderful flavor added to basmati rice and you'll be full with delight before you know it.

The lamb naan was not as I expected it to be. More like a warm thin pita with lamb crumbles in it.

Since this experience, I've craved Indian food more often and I'm so happy that I have Guru here to help satisfy these cravings!

Go check them out - even if you don't live in Clermont - it's worth the drive.