Restaurant Review: Rasika

We had dinner at Rasika last night. The place is so popular that we made reservations two months ago. That was the soonest we could get in--2 months. Rasika is upscale Indian food. Unfortunately we couldn't eat any naan or gulab jamun (it's Passover.) Still, everything we ate was divine. We had crunchy spinach--that kind of tasted like a crunchy salsa. I had a lamb curry, Ross had a green chicken curry, Nicole had cod, and Ryan had duck. The green chicken curry also tasted a little like Mexican Food. Oh, and I ordered a side of potatoes and eggplant in a tomato sauce--super yummy.

The food was spicy, but not overly so. It was spicy enough that I ate almost all of my rice. Oh, drinks. I had a cucumber vesper, Nicole had the mango cosmo, and Ryan had a pisco sour. My drink tasted like cucumber rocket fuel until the food came. It was much better with the spicy food.

The food is so good that we've already decided to make reservations right away for our next dinner there. We'll see if that's two months from now.

Rasika is great, but I don't think it's the best restaurant I've ever been to. And I'm not sure it's the best Indian food either. I've had some great meals at Taj Palace in Austin.

Because I'm super picky I have three complaints.

My three complaints:
1. There was no toilet paper holder in the bathroom. Come on people. If I'm eating in a restaurant of that caliber I don't expect to find the toilet paper on the back of the toilet. The toilet paper holder is broken--so run out an get a standing toilet paper holder.

2. The waitress at first said that one of the dessert choices was mango pepper sorbet. When she returned and I asked her to repeat the sorbet/ice cream options she said "Mandarin Orange Pepper Sorbet." When I clarified that it wasn't mango, she said "No, it's orange."  Well, guess what, it was mango. Luckily I like mango, and I'm not allergic to it.

3. Ross's iced tea was gross and his chai was bland. Messing up tea is really bad. The iced tea was flavored, and we couldn't place the flavors. Ross said it tasted like menthol. The chai was really spice-less. That's better than it being overdone with spices, but you think they'd have something in there.

Like I said, we are going back because the food was good. I don't give a crap about ambiance. I care about the food. It was good and so was the service. Good thing it isn't close by, cause it is pricey.

Nicole's take on dinner, with photos.