Indique Heights

While in Boston with my sister a while back, the two of us enjoyed lunch at an Indian buffet.  I think that's why I felt like we should have Indian cuisine together on her recent visit!  Also, eating with actual family is like eating with M & F or J & J - SHARE CITY!!!!

We had never been to Indique Heights, but we did go to Indique in Cleveland Park...err maybe 4 years ago?

Enough background, on to the food.  The Street Snacks are where it's at--you can even see pictures online, although really, it doesn't do the taste justice.  Let's do a rundown:

Papri chaat: AMAZING!  My favorite dish.  it was a yogurty, chutney-y, creamy delicious happiness in a bowl, with some chickpeas, crisps, and potato pieces thrown in for interest.  I made sure to scrape the sides of the dish before I let anyone take this away.

Vegetable samosa chaat: Mmmm, yummy.  And pretty!  Sort of half-deconstructed samosa, easy to share.

Syrian lamb fry:  Super tender boneless lamb cooked with cardamom, cloves, fennel, cinnamon, and ginger.  A really great flavor combo, and the texture was yum.  And visually, there's nothing quite like a pile of meat!

Chicken mini-dosas: This crepe filled with a finely chopped chicken mixture was delicious--the chicken wasn't at all evenly distributed, so if you try to cut this up and divide it among the group some people will get an empty piece of pancake.  The chicken filling was a little spicy, super flavorful, and I could probably have two or three of these for dinner any night of the week.  Table shot!

Saffron malai kabab:  Superduper tender chicken breast chunks marinated in yogurt, cream cheese, and saffron.  Really yummy, the chicken definitely melted in your mouth, and most importantly, it came to the table piping hot.  I thought the saffron flavor was pretty light, but that may be best--the most expensive spice in the world is pretty potent!

Dal makhani:  Mmm, lentils in the tomato/garlic/ginger happiness, apparently simmers in the oven overnight.  A perfect complement to the paratha and chicken.

We had the perfect amount of food for the three of us--not a bite was leftover, and we were too full for dessert, but we didn't need any wheelbarrows or helpers to get us home.

The service was--well, I guess one word is attentive.  But maybe too attentive.  Our server re-filled water glasses after almost every sip we took.  He came back to our table two or three times to see if we were ready to order while we clearly had our menus open and were discussing our options (and we didn't do this for a longer-than-normal time).

And then there was the staring--I'm not a fan of staring, generally.  Servers who were not otherwise engaged stood at the stand with the computers (where they print the checks, etc) and chatted while staring at patrons.  If you're going to stand around and talk, do it somewhere else.  Or at least look at EACH OTHER.  People do not like being watched while they are eating!  REALLY.  WE DO NOT.

I guess if we weren't sitting in view of that waitstaff stand then we wouldn't have had this problem.  We were straight into the restaurant from the hostess stand and then on the right.  The place is huge, but it was mostly empty on a Friday night.  So when you visit (and you should), ask to be seated somewhere else!

My only other complaint is that the restaurant can be hard to find.  You have to take the escalator upstairs at the little bus pavillion by the Friendship Heights Metro, and there's a small sign advising you of that. But then you go into a building that looks like a bunch of doctors' offices, and you think hmmm where did we turn wrong?  Walk straight past the reception area for the office part of the building and the door to the restaurant is on the left. 

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Indique Heights
2 Wisconsin Circle
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
Metro:  Red Line to Friendship Heights