Restaurant Review: Gandhi

So Chris and I decided to get some Indian food one night, as we are wont to do. We went down to Indian Alley/Curry Lane/Hindi Heights, i.e. 6^th St., and surveyed the options. Everyone has their favorite, but I remembered liking Gandhi, which is larger, aboveground, and slightly cheaper than the other venues.We sat down and ordered beers, and I noticed that all the encouraging-looking Zagat’s rating cards and “Best of New York” certificates hanging in the window were more than a few years old. I figured critics are fickle and ordered some delicious-sounding dish I hadn’t seen at other Indian places. Gandhi has a diverse menu, featuring tastes of Indonesian cuisine and some fine combination plates.

As soon as we ordered, however, a large amount of screaming and cursing in foreign tongues began issuing from the downstairs kitchen. The only other diner in the restaurant exchanged quizzical looks with us, but we figured cooks are eccentric. Then suddenly the cook charged upstairs, trying to kill our waiter. The other kitchen workers tried to hold the cook back as he got to the top of the stairs, but the waiter screamed at him back (what I would’ve given for an interpreter), then went to the phone and started screaming at someone (the owner?) for a while. The kitchen guys took the cook downstairs, but then somebody forgot to watch him so he came charging back up again, descending on the startled waiter, who started screaming all over again.

This went on until Chris and I, still beerless and hungry, finally agreed with our fellow diner that we should probably just go. We slipped away and into Mitali East, where we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner. I’d like to go back to Gandhi and try some of that delicious-sounding Indonesian food one day, but I’m going to give them a while to make friends again.