Kanishka Cuisine of India in Redmond

June 6, 2008

The heart of Microsoft runs on lunch buffet curry. There is no shortage of Indian restaurants immediately residing in the vicinity of Microsoft. I’ve been to 4 so far, and they’ve all been within 8 blocks of one another. But, are they any good?

Kanishka’s, right off of Redmond way (about a block from Redmond Town Center) is the best I’ve had so far, especially for a lunch buffet. The price is quite reasonable (around $9 without tip), and their offerings go a little farther than your normal butter chicken/naan/random salad that a substandard lunch buffet would offer. The buffet is small enough that the curry is never given a chance to congeal, but deep enough that you’re not waiting in line for them to reload on the naan.

I’m not very good at remembering names of Indian curries (is it uncouth to not bring a notepad to lunch if you’re a food blogger?), so bear with me. However, I’m pretty good at loading my plate up at a buffet. They have a nice, creamy spinach curry with bits of cheese hidden within. The tawa chicken really packs a punch, like a really spicy sweet and sour chicken. Not greasy at all either.  There’s a light cheese curry, I believe it’s a Marsala but I’m not sure. It was good though. Butter chicken is glowing red in the center there, if you’ve had a butter chicken once you’ve had them all. No better or worse than what I’ve had from any other restaurant.

Many a time I’ve found that the tandoori chicken at lunch buffets are subpar at best, with the restaurant rushing it out, panicking to refill the rapidly depleting trays on the cart. Kanishka’s does a fine job, however. The tandoori chicken is cooked thoroughly to the bone, and is slightly crisp on the outside, just the way I like it. The pieces are also large enough that you don’t feel like you have to grab 5 chicken legs to satisfy your quota.

One of my tablemates ordered a specialty naan for us. I forget what it was called but I’ll make a note to ask him. Anyways, it was filled with garlic, lentils, and various spices. It was good, but nothing beats a good spinach naan (note extra glob of spinach curry just for this reason).

While the meal is definitely a lunch buffet, I’d like to explore eating here at dinner (I hear there’s live sitar), just to get a sense of how exactly it stacks up to Seattle stalwarts Taste of India and Cedar’s. Since those two restaurants are quite overpriced and lacking in any sort of distinction that would justify a $13 dollar price tag, I’m projecting that Kanishka’s may compare favorably (we’ll see).

 

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Gyros 2 Go in Redmond

March 9, 2008

I write about Redmond/Bellevue food because I have to more often than I want to. I find that Redmond is a black hole when it comes to lunch cuisine, offering little more than strip mall fare and the office cafeteria. There are a lot of choices for sure, but it’s difficult to find something actually worth having to eat, picking between such gold medal establishments as Fatburger and Jimmy John’s. I do have a couple favorites, relative standouts in the microcosm of blah that is the eastside.

The sign

I had to run some bank errands the other day, so I wanted something quick and easy to eat. I ended up going to Gyros 2 Go (16855 Redmond Way). There are a few places to get a gyro around here, but most of them seem pretty sterile and unappetizing. I hear that Santorini’s in Kirkland is the best place, but I really have no desire to drive out to Kirkland for gyros. Maybe someday I’ll go out there and see what all the hooplah is about.

Anyways, even though the sign looks nice this isn’t a chain of any sort. The interior has a long glass case (like a meat display at the grocery store) with a few non-sandwich type items, such as baklava and those grape leaves with the stuff inside of them, I can’t remember the name. I really ought to start taking pictures inside the restaurant.

I got a lamb/beef gyro and a side of fries.

The order

The fries aren’t anything special, just the thick, frozen bag-o’-fries variety, like you can get at the Gyro-cery in the U-district. You can get greek fries, which I think are just fries with that red spice all over them and a side of tzatziki sauce. They give you more than an ample amount for the price, around $2 or so.

Speaking of ample, the gyro sandwich itself is also more than enough for a normal appetite. My sandwich is literally busting at its seams with meat and sauce. They put a little tomato and red onion in for good measure (no lettuce, most likely because there’s no room for it).

The sizeThe guts

I realize that these pictures are far from appetizing and that gyros themselves are not the prettiest of foods. But hey, it tasted pretty good. The lamb/beef meat was juicy to the point of leaving a small amount of essence in the pool of my wrapper. The sauce tastes homemade, it has a cool bite to it that’s subtly unique to the other gyros I’ve had. The food comes out fast, 10 mins from ordering to carrying out. They have a couple tables, but, like their name says, they expect you to take it “2 Go.”

I end up eating this thing too fast and feeling sleepy all day. The next morning is like “Prison Break,” except I am the prison. It’s a gyro, what do you expect? Happy bowels?

I’ve had falafel there before too, and while it was nothing amazing Gyros 2 Go is at least on par with the Gyrocery and the other gyro places that people swear by in Seattle. The sweetened desserts are actually fairly good. The baklava is the best baklava I’ve had from a gyro place, crisp and sweet and a large portion for under two dollars. it never feels like a raw deal when I get a piece.

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