A Passage To India

[January 18th, 2006] There are a couple of things restaurants do that make me wince. When I spy the description "cooked to perfection" on a menu, I think, "Uh-oh, this is not going to be good." Baraka Bar, a new Indian-inspired restaurant, initially evoked a few of those "uh-oh" moments—that is, until the food arrived.

First, there's the Northeast Alberta Street restaurant's interior design: uncomfortable bamboo folding chairs, reed-lined walls, bizarre banquettes made of mud-hut material. and video screens showing old VHS tapes of fire and migratory birds. It's a fun take on the Tiki Room at Disneyland, but it doesn't set the stage for serious food. And then there are the puns. The menu is full of them. Though a mandarin-infused vodka cocktail named "Secret Asian Man" ($7) might tempt a wry smile, a thali dinner entree called "Thali Lama" is taking it just a bit too far.

Thankfully, these "uh-ohs" don't affect the food. Baraka's kitchen, run by Bombay native Leela Pastala, turns out dishes brimming with the vivid flavors of toasted spices, sour tamarind and rich coconut milk. Though the menu is vegan-friendly, omnivores can fill up, too—free-range chicken and shrimp are offered as à la carte additions to most entrees.

Tucking into the huge samosas ($6), crisp pastries filled with potatoes, peas, coriander and cumin with a palate-tingling tamarind dipping sauce, was an impressive start. Likewise, the sambar ($3 cup, $6 bowl), a southern Indian lentil soup with chunks of carrot, cauliflower and the earthy accent of curry leaves topped with a crisp papadum, had me calling for an encore.

The exotic mas dosa ($8), a platter-sized, crisp rice-flour crêpe filled with a lusty combination of spices and potatoes coupled with a cooling, fresh coconut chutney, is an authentic taste of southern India rarely found on restaurant menus. The Thali Lama ($15), which is not currently on Baraka's menu but is an item the kitchen wants to resurrect as a Sunday-only special, offered six mini-portions of regular menu items like mana loba—a creamy spinach and black-eyed-pea curry—and specials like a spicy, tamarind-tart eggplant-tomato stew and a cooling cardamom-and-saffron pudding called paysum.

Not all the dishes are Indian: The refreshing "enlightened beans" ($6), long beans sautéed in soy-based, sweet-salty "sacred sauce," and the mealy, lemongrass-marinated chicken skewers ($10) have a decidedly Southeast Asian flair.

Desserts are open to creative alchemy. The cacao pie ($5), made with raw chocolate and coconut, tastes like a really good energy bar, while the coconut-milk sorbet ($5) with creamy brûléed banana pieces is more of an upscale, after-dinner treat.

Yes, there are some "uh-ohs" at Baraka: The service isn't always smooth, and the decor is a bit more theme-club than restaurant. It may not look anything like a serious paean to Indian cuisine, but after a bowl of spicy sambar and a "Bombay the Hard Way" cocktail ($7), it sure tastes like it.