The massive space in the shopping center on McKee Road that once housed a series of failed restaurants–most recently, Jimmy’s American Tavern–has been divided into smaller parcels. Taking over one of them is Haveli Indian Restaurant, which offers an array of tasty lunch buffet and dinner menu items, although with a few setbacks.
A theme to my meal was that the meats were a little tough. For example, the otherwise delicious chicken curry ($12.50), which was a rich sauce of onions, garlic, ginger, yogurt and spices, was marred by the chewy chicken. I felt similarly about the lamb vindaloo ($13.95), a mouth-watering concoction of potatoes, onions and vinegar sauce that was unfortunately paired with not-so-tender meat. Also, I ordered the vindaloo medium spicy, but it was definitely mild.
I highly doubt you can find more flavorful rice than that found in Haveli’s biryani, which was just incredibly savory with its perfect blend of spices. I ordered mine with goat ($13.95). It, too, was tough to chew. In addition, I didn’t think it would be a problem at first, but the goat meat came with the bone, and some chunks had small pieces of bone that had to be carefully pulled out lest you break your teeth.
From the appetizers, I picked the meat platter ($7.95), which came with chicken pakora (fried chicken; too dry), fish pakora (I would eat this over cod for my Friday fish fry!) and a lamb samosa (absolutely the best samosa I’ve ever had; excellent fried flavor, though it seemed more of a empanada than a samosa).
The lunch buffet serves many of the same delicious menu items, plus soup, salad and desserts. Vegetarians would be particularly pleased with the selection.
On future visits, I’ll likely try some of the tandoori dishes (e.g. tandoori mixed grill, which includes chicken, chicken kabob, shrimp and fish tikka for $15.95) and the seafood dishes (e.g. goan fish curry for $13.95). And I’ll be sure to get more biryani and lamb samosas.
Haveli is open for lunch (buffet) and dinner Tuesday-Sunday.
