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Last Friday, Pere and I met friends for dinner at Star of India, one of my favorite Indian places in the valley. The decor is nothing fancy, but the food is well prepared and the service is usually excellent. When we arrived, the place was pretty busy. The only open table was on the opposite side of the main dining room. Our host apologized and asked if this would still be ok. It was fine with us. In fact, the location offered a good bit of privacy which worked out well.

As soon as we were seated, the waiter dropped off an order of papadam (Indian flatbread) with two sauces. The green sauce was tart and spicy and was by far the favorite. The second sauce was a sweet brown sauce that tasted similar to a soy glaze. Once the waiter returned, we ordered drinks. We decided to stick with Indian beer, and our waiter suggested the Himalayan Lager as by far the best they had to offer. The beer came in 22 oz bottles and tasted just like a typical lager with nothing to really distinguishing about it.

Whenever I eat at the Star of India, I almost always order one of two things, either the vegetarian sampler or the non-vegetarian sampler. I prefer the samplers over regular menu items simply for the variety. Each sampler comes with a samosa, two curries, daal, raita, basmati rice, naan, and dessert. On this occasion, I opted for the non-vegetarian sampler which gives you a piece of tandori chicken in lieu of one of the curries. I asked our waiter if he could swap out the tandori chicken for another curry since tandori chicken is one of those things I can take or leave. I'd much rather have one of their excellent curries, and he was happy to oblige. Given a choice, I opted for the saag paneer (spinach with semi-soft cheese). I also asked for a side of mango pickle, one of my favorite accompaniments. Again the waiter was more than happy to help out, going so far as to exclaim "of course, on the house!". Pere went with the vegetarian sampler. Our two friends each ordered individual menu items - chicken tikka masala and chicken makhani with a side order of basmati rice and naan.

The restaurant was very busy. After about twenty minutes, the owner stopped by with a basked of fried vegetables which he said were compliments of the house because of the long wait. That was fine by us even though none of us felt like things were taking all that long. We had our beer and were happy just having a chance to catch up. The fact that the restaurant went out of the way to make sure we were enjoying ourselves and to apologize for the wait is something that I deeply appreciate.

After another ten minutes or so, our food arrived. At this point, I was really looking forward to my food. Everything was steaming hot (except for the raita, of course) and very fragrant. The meat curry that came with my sampler turned out to be chicken tikka masala. This was fine by me as it's one of those dishes that's very tasty when scooped up with naan. Although chicken tikka masala isn't really Indian (the masala part was added to the traditional chicken tikka dish in order to please British palates), I'm not enough of a purist to mind. If I like the way something tastes, that's good enough for me. The saag paneer was also very good, although mine was a bit light on the chunks of paneer. The daal was good as well, but it's my least favorite component of the sampler. Pere's sampler was essentially the same as mine, although instead of a meat curry, she had an additional vegetarian variety. It seemed to be along the same lines as my chicken tikka masala but contained potatoes instead.

By the time we were finished and dessert came, we were all stuffed. Our sampler platters both came with an order of gulab jamun, sweet dough balls steeped in sugar syrup. I usually don't like gulab jamun because they are so sweet and the dough is usually soggy, but I was surprised that the ones we were given were actually quite good. Still, they were so sweet I was only able to eat one. Along with the gulab jamun, the owner stopped back by with a small plate containing four scoops of pistachio ice cream which he also gave to us on the house. There was a lot of pistachio flavor along with lots of small bits of chopped pistachio. This proved to be just the right ending to the evening's get together.

I really like Star of India and don't get there nearly as much as I should. I much prefer it for dinner over lunch where they have the typical Indian buffet. Although their buffet is better than most, I find that it's usually missing an item or two that I'm craving and tends to only be available on the dinner menu. If you find yourself over in Ahwatukee with a craving for good Indian food served by a very friendly and capable staff, Star of India is worth a visit.