Dining > Restaurant Reviews

Kashmir Indian Restaurant
Kashmir offers thrill of discovery

Kashmir Indian Restaurant 1285 Bardstown Road (502) 473-8765 Food: Extensive menu of Indian fare includes more than 20 vegetarian items, not including seafood selections. Kormas, curries, rice dishes, vindaloo, tandoori and masala recipes are all represented. And there's a long list of Indian breads. Mood: Repainted and freshened up after a fire that closed the restaurant for several months, the dining rooms are bright and cheerful. Off-white walls and lace curtains provide a neutral backdrop for large, boldly colored velvet paintings with Indian themes. Value: Lunch entrées are $5.50 to $8.95, and dinner dishes range from $5.95 to $13.99. Quantities are generous enough to allow easy sharing, but you probably won't have leftovers. Service is very welcoming, but can become absent-minded. Reservations: Accepted. Credit cards: AE, DS, MC, V. Children's Menu/Portions: No special menu, but one of the appetizers or soups could easily satisfy a small diner. Smoking: Separate areas for smokers and nonsmokers. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10:30 p.m. A lunch buffet is available from noon until 3 p.m., Saturday through Tuesday.

Decades ago, the little house set back from busy Bardstown Road was a rare-book shop. Located right across from the Mid City Mall, it was one of those easily overlooked places that seemed somewhat magical, because there was an air of discovery about going there. Inside there was the distinctive, enticing and spicy smell of old inks, paper and leather.

During the intervening years, the former bookshop has housed several restaurants offering French, Chinese and even Cajun cuisine. None has had much staying power, perhaps because the unassuming house is still easily overlooked.

But Kashmir Indian Restaurant may prove to have more tenacity. The restaurant already has managed to reopen after a fire that forced its closure for months -- and that could well have meant its demise.

The good news is that not only is Kashmir back, it seemed to me on a recent visit that the food was actually better than before the fire. And there's something about the melange of exotic spice aromas that permeates the restaurant -- scents that could be borne on trade winds from the East -- that evokes the same sense of discovery and anticipation I remember from the days the house was a bookshop.

Of course the treasures at Kashmir are edible. And there are many from which to choose.

There are more than a dozen appetizers, including pakoras and tikka. There are some 15 breads. And there are nearly 60 main dishes on the dinner menu. This sort of wide selection can, at first glance, make a sampling job seem pretty daunting. But part of the variety comes from using the same seasonings with different ingredients. For instance, the creamy, coriander-laced spinach called saag is served with chickpeas, chicken, lamb or shrimp. So a friend and I decided we'd check out several sections of the menu in order to take in the variety.

As soon as we were seated, a server brought a plate of pappadam (crispy lentil wafers laced with cracked black pepper) and water so we had something to munch on while we considered our selections.

I suggested we share an order of vegetable samosas ($2.75) to start. The pair of triangular, crusty turnovers contained a stuffing of mashed peas and potatoes seasoned with fresh cilantro and a dash of hot pepper. A sweet-pungent tamarind dipping sauce was provided with the samosas, which were also good with the onion chutney that had been brought to our table with the pappadam.

For my main dish I ordered the shrimp curry ($6.99). Typically, many curries are a deep yellow-gold color because tumeric is one of the base spices in a curry mix. But this curry was reddish, probably from the use of tomatoes in the sauce. I had asked that it be medium-spicy (you can also specify "mild" and "hot"), and the sauce had enough kick to bring on just the right eyelid moisture. There were several plump, tender shrimp swimming in the sauce, and the dish was served with aromatic basmati rice.

My friend ordered chicken korma ($9.50), which contained well-cooked pieces of dark and light chicken meat in a creamy sauce that also contained pistachios. It was not quite as spicy as my shrimp, but the seasoning tasted more subtle and complex. It came with rice as well.

We used pieces of spinach nan ($2.75, a warm, unleavened, floppy bread) to mop up our sauces. The flat bread was stuffed with a thin layer of spinach and onions -- and, while the menu has described it as also being flavored with ginger, I couldn't detect any. Perhaps the onions overpowered it.

Since its reopening, Kashmir also has acquired a short but serviceable wine and beer list. I like the way beers, especially dry Indian lagers, complement the spicy fare, so we each had a 12-ounce bottle of Kingfisher lager ($2.75) with our meal. Brewed by High Range Brewery of Voranad and Kerala, this pilsner-style, light-gold beer has a pleasant sweetness up front and a long, dry finish. It's also hard to resist a beer that has such a charming label slogan: "Most thrilling chilled!" It was fine with the food.

We didn't have room for dessert, but Kashmir does offer a short selection of sweets ($2.00). They are rasmalai (homemade cheese patties in milk sauce with almonds), gulab jamun (deep-fried cheese and milk balls soaked in syrup), kulfi (ice cream with nuts) and kheer (rice pudding with raisins).

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