Neela's Review

Neela's Food

Friends tell us that most of the Indian food that you commonly see today is from the Northern regions of India. Neela's tries to show that there's more to life than chicken tikka misala.

Appetizers

We started off wtih the sindhi champas which are some small lamb chops poached with some spices and then seared with a mix of coriander, cayenne, and mango powder.

When we first got them, we were thinking that they might be tough because they looked overdone, but that turned out not to be the case. Fairly flavorful and tender with a pretty strong spice mix. The issue here primarily was the price. I forget the exact price, but I want to say that these were about $12 which seemed like a bad deal if you take a look at the meat to bone ratio in this picture.

Entrees

We had the sindhi kardhi which is a lentil based curry and a mix of vegetables, basmati rice, and lentil pappadums.

This dish believe it or not was about $18 for a handful of vegetables (carrots, eggplant, green beans, etc.) in a very light sauce that basically makes no impression whatsoever. The lentil based curry was also very light. I understand that not all Indian food is some thick, spicy sauce, but I'm pretty sure this dish isn't the prime example of the lighter side of Indian cooking. If Neelas serves too many dishes like this for $18, they'll be out of business within 1-2 years because even the Napa Valley tourist premium cannot hide such a weak offering.

We had the makhni tikka which is a chicken tikka in a tomato butter sauce. It came with some onion naan and a chopped salad of cucumbers and red onions. Apparently, this picture was taken with Superman's heat vision on full blast.

Some restaurants, can get away with small portions, but I don't think Neela's is one of them. This too was about $21. They should seriously consider a smaller plate, adding something to the dish like rice, or *something* to avoid raising the question "that's it?". The chicken itself was fairly flavorful, but not immensely so. The soup which seemed like a continuation of the sauce was nice and made for a good dipping sauce for the naan. Good dish, yes. The cucumber, red onion salad with cilantro was a nice way to break the spice of the dish.

Desserts

We also had the cayenne chocolate cake. We both happened to like this. I've had spicy chocolates before in various form, and I've always thought it went well together. So, I liked the combination. But I've seen other folks complain about the heat. Sort of depends on where you are on the spiciness meter, I guess (On a sidenote, in the midwest grocery stores, we'd come across extra-mild salsa. What's the point of an "extra-mild" salsa?)

So, overall, my wife has written Neela's off because of the bang for the buck ratio, and you're talking about folks who are used to the premium pricing in the area for the food.

But here's the deal. The restaurant is new. Whenever you do something new and take risks like opening a restaurant, it's not uncommon for people to make mistakes. So, we might check back in 6 months to see how they've responded.

Lunch

Despite the dinner experience, I went back for lunch later in the week just to see what was up and was pleasantly surprised.  They have a a lunch sampler ranging from $12-$16, and it's good eats. It's a platter of little tastes built around the central ingredient. In this case, I got the tandoor-cooked chicken. Rather than getting the bright red chicken that most people associate with tandoori chicken, I got 2 nice, juicy, very flavorful pieces of meat. And all the other pieces, the small bowl of soup, the fritter with the spicy dipping sauce, the pick-me up of the chopped salad of cucumbers and red onions, and the naan made for a pretty nice, varied, flavorful, but yet still light lunch.

Somehow, despite this solid effort, Neelas still managed to stick it to me by giving me some nasty basmati rice where every spoonful managed to have at least one piece of dried up rice that either you had to crunch through or get stuck between your teeth. Either they left it exposed too long, they were re-using old rice, didn't put enough water in, or something, but I've never had rice that crappy in probably hundreds of meals with rice from all ranges of the price spectrum.

Assuming the rice issue was an aberration, I did like the lunch overall. Dinner? Well, like I said, we'll check back in 6 months to see how they've responded to their initial efforts. If dinner doesn't change, they're going to be in for a rough time. However, if they make their dinner more like their lunch (more reasonably priced (or conversely, a bit more food) and more of a showcase of the different tastes, etc.), they could make it here given the lack of higher-end ethnic cuisine in the area. I'm hoping for the best as I'd really like a good Indian place closer to the area instead of heading to another city.

Neela's setting and service

The inside is a mix of a modern,  trendy, foreign restaurant with some mixes of old India tossed in with various objects. The more noticeable aspect of the restaurant is the constant stream of Bollywood videos on the TV monitors and being pumped in through the soundsystem. Some people like this kind of things; some people hate it. But in any case, it’s kind of hard not to watch a Bollywood video. :-) Service was spotty the first time we went. It was about 15 minutes before we even had somebody come in to check on us after we’ve been seated. But these things are fairly common to new restaurant openings, and I don’t think too much of it. Now, if they’re still like that 6 months from now, that’s a different story.

Neela’s was pretty busy in its first few days open which I thought was pretty impressive for a brand new restaurant without a lot of ties to the area. Part of it is that it benefits from being next to Pizza Azzurro which always has a large amount of traffic. Lots of curious onlookers from Azzurro were wandering over to Neela’s to check it out, and I’m sure a number of them changed their mind to go to Neela's at the last second. Part of it seems to have benefitted from some advance publicity. Part of it is that it’s a “contemporary” upscale Indian restaurant. Maybe part of it is Neela’s rep as a cookbook author and the success of her SoCal restaurants. But you usually don't see that kind of a crowd at the start. Now, here's the rub: will they come back?

Price of our meal

1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 1 dessert, 2 glasses of wine, 1 naan sampler + tax & tip = $120

Other Neela's reviews and links

• Napa Valley Register's article giving more background behind Neelas.
• Yelp reviews on Neela's.
• The Cork Board's review
• SF Gate's review