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Ambassador of India2333 Main Street Glastonbury 06033 860-659-2529 By STEVE and LISA ALCAZARI Hartford Advocate Published: 4/10/2003 Ambassador of India in Glastonbury has vibrant yellow walls hung with brightly colored paintings of Indian dancers and temple scenes. The openness of the dining room space and the lightness of the color scheme stand out in contrast to the earthy tones and cluttered decor of so many Indian restaurants. The restaurant distinguishes itself in more important realms beyond design, too. The food is seasoned with surprising flash in some dishes and unexpected restraint and subtlety in others. Lisa and I rushed in to Ambassador of India late on a week night, just as a large party was leaving. We were the only customers inside. The dining room has about 20 tables, with slightly elevated sections along either wall and what look like stylized brass bundt cake forms as lampshades hanging from the ceiling. Diners who require the privacy of a booth to enjoy a night out will be disappointed. No booths here. We had shown up toward the end of the dinner service, so we ordered a rapid-fire string of items from the kitchen before it closed. Trying to sample some of our favorites, while experimenting with interesting and new dishes, we ordered the vegetable samosas (richly seasoned peas and potatoes wrapped in pastry and fried), a bowl of shorba e murg (a chicken soup with cilantro), an order of naan bread, aloo gobhi (potatoes and cauliflower cooked in a tomato sauce) and a fish curry. A basket of papadum (spicy, thin and crispy fried wafers made with chick pea flour) was brought to the table with a tray of three chutneys. Ambassador of India is generous with the papadums, serving up several, some spiced with whole cumin seeds and some plain. Indian restaurants usually serve two chutneys -- a sweet brownish-purple sauce that tastes a bit like raisins and is made with tamarind, and a piquant green sauce made with cilantro, ginger and citrus juice. Ambassador added a reddish relish of pickled onions to the mix. The samosas were light, with the mix of vegetables inside the pastry maintaining a nice consistency. The shorba e murg soup was a surprise. It consisted of small chunks of grilled chicken in a chicken broth heavily seasoned with cilantro. This was more like a Thai soup than anything I've ever had at an Indian restaurant. For the Goan fish curry I had hoped to try the swordfish, but was informed that of the two choices on the menu, the kitchen had only salmon. Goa is in the northwestern part of India, and the cooking there is influenced by the Portuguese who controlled the area for centuries. Smooth, creamy, and spicy without being heavy, the Goan fish curry is flavorful but not too filling. The tomato sauce had a hint of cinnamon and the faint sting of hot pepper and a healthy, almost medicinal amount of garlic, but it was ideal for scooping up with bits of the buttery naan. If it's on the menu, Lisa and I sample the aloo gobhi at just about every Indian restaurant we go to. It's surprising how many different ways such a simple dish can be prepared. The basics stay the same -- the cauliflower and potatoes, and the tomato sauce, but consistency is often what makes or breaks the dish, and it can vary greatly. It usually comes down to the over- or under-cooking of the cauliflower and potatoes. Both vegetables can either have an unpleasant crunch if undercooked, or become mush when boiled too long. Finding the right spot in the middle is the trick. In addition to being a huge helping, the aloo gobhi at Ambassador had the right pliant give. Like everything we were served at the restaurant, a covering of chopped cilantro had been showered over it. The portions were such that we were left with about half of our entrees uneaten and ready to be brought home. The waiter asked if everything could go in one bag, which seemed like a nice question to help first daters avoid having to awkwardly open up the to-go containers to figure out who gets what before kissing good night. The waiters did set up the buffet table for the afternoon lunch special, which could be viewed as a little gauche. But aside from that, we were never rushed at all, even though it was obvious the staff was winding things down for the night.
I enjoyed a mango lassi (a sweet yogurt shake) while our food was packed up, but we didn't taste any of the desserts, which included pistachio or mango ice cream, gulab jamun (a dumpling soaked in honey syrup) among other sweets. Dinner cost $44.
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