Back for More: Passport to the Punjab

Just as the pseudo-Cantonese dishes served everywhere from Detroit to Dagenham have come to represent Chinese food abroad, the cuisine of the Punjab region has, over time, contributed the mainstay of what you might call Anglo-Indian cooking.

Lucky Street’s Punjabi Indian Restaurant is a paragon of such fare:meat and breads hot from the tandoor, paneer cheese dishes and “gravy” curries like butter chicken rich with artery-clogging ghee. In a spotless display kitchen, a single swarthy chef bakes creditable roti bread (RMB 15) and roasts skewers of chicken and lamb in a sunken oven. For such a choreographed show, I wonder why they haven’t shifted the microwaves stage-left.

Consider this a warning not to be seduced by the RMB 88 evening buffet with its fancy motion-sensing serving trays and unlimited beer (long-necked Yanjing poured into glasses). I’ve sampled both buffet and a la carte versions of the lamb rogan josh in the same evening and they don’t compare – the former watery and tough, the latter rich and tender. Stick to a la carte ordering and you’ll find a curry fix for every occasion: malai tikka masala (RMB 50) for the mid-week lull, murgh vindaloo (RMB 50) for the birthday blowout, and vegetarian mutter paneer (RMB 42) for the morning after. Or sample the new “discovery teaser” (RMB 158 for two) featuring a six-course spread of the restaurant’s biggest hits.

Punjabi Indian Restaurant
Daily 11am-11pm. 2/F, C-8 Lucky Street, 1 Chaoyang Gongyuan Lu, Chaoyang District (5867 0221)
朝阳区朝阳公园路1号好运街C-8号2层

Photo: Judy Zhou