Some say we are a town of Mexican restaurants. Some say we are a town of taverns. But if you put on the right pair of glasses and squint your eyes, we’re really a town of low-key neighborhood Indian/South Asian restaurants.
Little India. Royal India. Taste of India. Star of India. India Oven. Indian restaurants speckle the Front Range like polka dots on a party dress, each with a slightly different character but most with a similar formula: a casual room with friendly, colorful appointments and a vast roster of familiar dishes—dal, naan, samosas, pakora, curry, vindaloo and biryani.
Some of these restaurants are good. Some underperform. Many resemble one another, both physically and psychically, and the more you visit, the harder it can be to tell them apart in your mind.
So it’s a happy surprise when one, like Namaste Cuisine of India and Nepal in Lakewood, stands out. Not because it has a unique blueprint (it, too, follows the dal-pakora-vindaloo format), but because there’s an underlying energy, albeit a mellow and peaceful one, to the place.
Stuffed unceremoniously into the far corner of an awkward shopping complex, Namaste humbly outclasses its real estate with a comfortable, soft-toned and softly lit room pulsing with low, evocative Indian pop music. Settle into one of the lavender-upholstered booths by the wall and watch the waiters whisk hither and yon.
You won’t have trouble getting a table. Unlike Jewel of India in Westminster, where you’ll have a wait at peak times (the wait is worth it), Namaste is almost never completely full.
Order a Kingfisher lager while you peruse the menu.
Said menu is a standard collection of Indian restaurant fare, which is in itself a cherry- picked collage of dishes from a massive, and massively diverse, area.
I always wonder about the monolithic idea most of us operate under when we consider Indian food. India is anything but monolithic, a massive, and massively diverse, idea. And place.
While there are culinary similarities across the subcontinent, there are enough differences to render regional cuisines as distinct as European cuisines.
The cuisine of, say, Punjab or Rajasthan, heavy with ghee, lamb and roti is as different from the coconut, fish and rice of Hyderabad in the south as Swedish food is from Italian.
Considering the vastness of India and the range of culinary treasures it offers is a rich backdrop to mull while trying to settle on what to choose on the menu.
My picks: Silky, slow-cooked saag paneer (spinach with chunks of housemade cheese), smooth and soft and luxurious and faintly nutmeg-spicy. Lively, piquant chicken curry, bordello-red and exhilarating. Boti masala (broiled lamb in a tomato-cream sauce), tender and soothing and rich. Vegetarian momo, a steamed Nepali dumpling with a tangy tomato chutney.
Not my picks: The boti kabab, cubes of lamb skewered and roasted with electric tandoori spices, which left me dry-mouthed. The samosas which crumbled in my fingers not because they were so delicate and fresh but because they weren’t.
Hedge your bets by ordering one of the thali plates, vegetarian or non, each of which features six or seven dishes. Or, even better, come for the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet, which you should treat like a living menu, sampling everything that appeals before settling on one or two fill-er-uppers.
Authentic? Got me. Truth is, I’ve never been to India. I’ve eaten Indian food prepared by Indian cooks in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, California and of course Denver, but never in India. And as one who believes that place and context weigh as heavily on a meal as ingredients and techniques, I believe I won’t really have had true Indian/South Asian food (be it Goan, Bengali, Tamil or Kashmiri) until I’ve had it on its own turf.
But if I don’t know authenticity, I know what I like, and I like the simple, straightforward, elegant, light-handed food at Namaste.
More online: An archive of Tucker Shaw’s dining reviews
Namaste
Indian/Nepali. 3355 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood, 720-963-4005,
** RATING | Very Good
Atmosphere: Comfortable, casual, spacious room with several booths, four-tops and a bar. Populated, but never overcrowded.
Service: Agreeable, knowledgeable and efficient.
Wine: Beer is best.
Plates: Lunch buffet, $6.95. Dinner entrees $8.95-$15.95.
Hours: Lunch, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Dinner, 5-9:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday. 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Details: All credit cards. Parking lot. Wheelchair accessible. Take-out available. Call ahead with large parties.
Three visits
Our star system:
****: Excellent
***: Great
**: Very Good
*: Good
