One of the best things about being a guide for the EatingRehoboth.com downtown Rehoboth restaurant tours is hearing peoples' reactions when we walk into certain restaurants. We try to keep the itinerary a surprise (part of the fun!), and I enjoy overhearing candid impressions when we make a sharp right or left into our next destination.
The EatingRehoboth tour lineup is a mix of fine-dining and upscale casual places, and one of the most consistent reactions I get in the casual category is when we walk into Indigo Indian Restaurant on Rehoboth Avenue. It's amazing what foods people will routinely dismiss as out-of-hand that don't resemble a hamburger, a slice of pizza or a cheesesteak (not that there's anything wrong with those things!). "Oh, we've walked by here a million times – but never went in!" Or, "Isn't this food really spicy?" Or worse yet, "I don't know anything about this food." That is, in a nutshell, why we created the EatingRehoboth tours.
After the restaurant visits, our guests flood Facebook, TripAdvisor and our website with their reactions, and those nervous people from the previous paragraph suddenly can't stop praising Suraj and Raghu Kumar's Indian delights, where the appetizers and entrees can be as mild – or as spicy – as you wish. All you have to do is tell your server. Silky sauces with overtones of curry and perhaps a bit of butter and garlic are ladled over mildly spiced vegetables and lean, aromatic meats roasted in the Tandoor oven.
Father & son team Suraj and Raghu make everything right there in the restaurant. As is typical with many ethnic foods, they perfected their style of cooking back in their homeland. So the warm and savory naan bread that graces most every table is baked fresh when you order it. And the deliciously bright samosas are totally vegetarian – though you'd never know it. The lamb used in the vindaloo and masala dishes is expertly butchered with no excess fat or the tough "silver" for which poorly prepared lamb is known. And so on and so on.
Our tour guests love Indigo's generous choice of wines when they visit. Paired with the warm naan (the onion kulcha is my favorite) and the deeply flavored pakoras (shrimp, chicken or veggies marinated in yogurt and spices then fried to a crispy finish), the 20 or so minutes we spend there forever alters the dining habits of many of our guests.
People who had previously strolled by without a second look are now returning that evening or couple of days later to enthusiastically dip Peshawari naan (with onions, raisins, coconut and mild spices) into cool & sweet mango chutney while washing it down with a frosty Kingfisher brew. Every week when the Indigo visit comes to an end, sixteen shiny, empty plates are all that remain as we depart for our next culinary adventure.
I'm not sure if I wrote this to encourage people to think – and eat – out of the box when planning their next meal, or to tout Suraj and Raghu's cooking at Indigo Indian Restaurant. But the result is the same: You're at the beach! Try something different.
Our restaurant tours often sell out about a month ahead, so check out the schedule at EatingRehoboth.com and join the fun. If you're lucky, Indigo might be one of the stops!
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The Rehoboth Foodie also writes The Business of Eating column every Friday in the Cape Gazette under the pseudonym “Bob Yesbek.” The two of them have never been seen in the same place at the same time. Just sayin’.
