I've always been a fan of Floyd Cardoz so I was excited when he opened up a new Indian restaurant in Soho (I was not a huge fan of the previous restaurant he was at North End Grill). The food here isn't straight up traditional Indian food but a combination of Portuguese and Indian food. Paowalla is a term that is a Portuguese/Indian hybrid term for a person who sells bread, which seems appropriate for this place. Usually I'm not a huge fan of "fusion" food, especially when it comes to Asian cuisine but several friends liked the food here, so I was open to trying it out.
As one would expect from the origin of the name, bread is a big focus on the menu. They have a whole section breads and chutneys. We got the cheddar cheese kulcha ($11) to start as well as the chaat ($14) and egg kejriwal ($14). For mains, Lav got the kichidi ($23) and got the "saag paneer" ($25) - they put that last dish in quotes on the menu, which I didn't really understand. I had never had kulcha before but Lav was raving about it. Essentially it's kind of like flatbread meets nan. This one had cheddar cheese stuffed in between it making it like a quesadilla. In any case, it was warm, gooey and delicious. Anything that has soft bread and cheese is a winner in my book and this one was no exception.
One of my favorite Indian appetizers is chaat, which is a sweet and savory snack served in Southeast Asia. This one had roasted green chickpeas, sweet onions, chilies and tamarind. The chilies definitely added some heat to it and when I combined the bite with the chilled sweetness of the chaat, it was a delightful taste of sweet, salty and spicy. Next we tried the egg kejriwal, which had cheddar cheese and coconut chili chutney. I've never had this type of dish before and to compare it to something I know, it's kind of like a grilled cheese with a sunny side up egg on the toast smothered in green chutney. It was delicious but I was glad we were splitting it for health reasons.
Lastly came the entrees, which I thought lagged behind the appetizers. While I know saag paneer is kind of a basic standard Indian dish, I was craving rice so I thought this was a good combination to it. Usually when I get saag paneer, it's got a thick creamy texture to it but this one was practically steamed spinach with a few cubes of paneer tossed it. There was no creaminess to it at all. While it's probably better for my health and frankly it tasted fine, it just didn't feel like I was eating a real authentic paneer dish. I was originally thinking of getting the sea bream wrapped in banana leaf with coconut rice but decided to get something more "traditional" and now I really wished I had gotten that dish instead. I guess that's why the saag dish was written in quotation marks on the menu?
As the name implies, get everything and anything bread related here. They were all excellent and addictive. While the mains weren't bad, they lacked behind the starters here and it made me wish I was eating more traditional Indian food. But as fusion food goes, this one is a winner and I'm happy to see Floyd back on the scene with what he knows best. Total bill: $169 for 2 people with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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