Bindi - Indian Cuisine @ 105 S 13th St.

Located on the 13th st between Sansom and Chestnut Street is this Indian BYOB restaurant called Bindi. I have read good reviews about this restaurant on several occasions including, Best of Philly, Zagat and Yelp. I wanted to try it out but on reviewing the website, I was kind of apprehensive of the authenticity of it. The chef was American and I was not sure how authentic the Indian food would be. Ethnic restaurants should be authentic unless they state they are fusion which is fine, as long as I know what I am getting into. I did not want to go this restaurant expecting Indian food and find myself eating chicken tikka masala with no masala in it.

The second factor that weighed in against this restaurant is the cost factor. The menu clearly shows that this restaurant caters to the upscale audience and the high price defeats the purpose of this blog. An occasion like a Birthday, anniversary etc could be used to go this restaurant where price is not a factor. On one such occasion I pulled my experimental side out and set forward to experience a culinary pleasure that was to happen.

We were four and were seated at the corner close to an emergency exit towards the glass wall. The interior was dimly lit as is a norm in restaurants in the evening. The ambiance is well suited for a date where you might want to impress your date with your experimental nature without actually getting burnt eating the spicy Indian food. Or that is what was my first impression on entering the restaurant was and that remained through the end of my dinner. There were about 6-8 tables on the main floor for seating differnt sized parties. It looked like they had an extended section in the basement as they were stairs leading downstairs. I have checked out the basement section and hence cannot confirm it. It might as well lead to a kitchen.

We skipped the appetizers and ordered the main course directly. We ordered, the 4 types of breads(roti) hat the menu contained and 3 entress namely Prawn and Pumpkin curry, Ghost(Lamb) curry and spicy Tomato Cauliflower vegetable curry. The Prawn curry came with Lemon Rice and Lamb curry came with Pulav. Pulav is a boiled rice with vegetables and onions cooked alongside with the rice and sometimes containing raisins and nuts. But it is different from Biryani in the sense that it does not contain any spices and is mostly vegetarian.

The breads were a revelation. They were one of the best Indian breads I have had in any restaurant in Philadelphia. The lentil bread though small was more like an appetizer than a bread. It should have been included in the appetizer section. It was tasty and so were the other breads. The curries were not typical Indian stuff that you expect at Indian restaurants. All the curries we ordered had some kind of yogurt base which is not what a typical Indian curry contains. Having said that, they were prepared with good care and appropriate spices(though very moderate to my taste).

The lamb curry though was a complete detour from what I am used to. The lamb curry had no spices, it had a huge lamb shank boiled really soft in different kinds of beans. It was something that I would have expected in a Mexican or a Middle eastern restaurant and not definitely at an Indian Restaurant. That aside the whole experience was wonderful.

As they say the climax of the movie comes at the end. All the good beginning we had was kind of tamed when the waiter said that they accepted only cash. Put together we had only about $40 cash and was not enough to meet the check payment. In their defense, their website cleared stated that they only accepted cash. There must have been a note at the entrance somewhere but was not prominent in the darkness and we did not look for any such signs. So one of us had to go out, after such a wonderful dinner, in search of an ATM machine(of course pay the 2+2 surcharge by the ATM bank and the Debit Card bank) and get the cash to pay of the dinner.

An average entree on the menu is about $22. The breads were $4 each and the appetizers about $8. All in all we had to dish out $84 for 4 including tips meaning each dinner was about $21. That to me is expensive unless it is hosted by someone else or if it is a special event.

My recommendation is stay away from this, but make sure you try it on some special occasion. Everyone deserves a good spoiling once in a while and the food at Bindi will surely delight your culinary senses.