India Mahal, you sneaky thing

I was in the market for an impromptu lunch today. There was about 20 minutes of driving about aimlessly. I didn't know what I wanted. At first, I thought: cheese curds. A&W. Western Boulevard. Mmmmmm. So I headed in that direction, only to find that the former A&W/KFC had become KFC only. That was a bit of a bummer: I don't know where there's another A&W, and on the rare occasions I crave root beer and/or cheese curds, it's the only scratch for that itch.

So then I considered Pizza Hut. I used to frequent the one on Hillsborough by N.C. State. I'd head over after an evening class on nights I was too restless to study. I would pop in, place my order for the student special (soda, breadsticks and a personal pan pizza for something ridiculous like $4), meander over to Reader's Corner to browse the outside books, and 10 minutes later I'd have a piping hot piece of greasy heaven in my hands. Ahh, nostalgia. Thy name is food.

Finally, I decided I wanted to sit somewhere. Somewhere quiet, where I could read a book and get out of my skin for a while instead of pacing my apartment like a restless zoo animal. So I decided to go to India Mahal.

I discovered India Mahal in 2003, on one of my first visits to Raleigh. I lived in a city lacking an Indian restaurant, and I had fallen in love with Indian post-college in a small Minnesota city with only one Indian restaurant. Leaving it behind meant only one thing: I thought about Indian constantly. I loved the smells, the decor, the Indian pop and folk music wafting from the tiny speakers. I loved the delicately scented chai and the mango lassi, the naan. I loved the service, thorough but hands-off. My greatest weakness, however ordinary, was lamb curry.

So I arrived in Raleigh in 2003 with high hopes. And -- I was kind of disappointed. India Mahal wasn't *bad*. It just didn't satisfy my whole-experience craving the way I had hoped. There was something kind of flat about the experience. The building was small and shambly, the service was indifferent, the food bordering on boring.

I returned a few times simply out of convenience. It's tough to turn down an Indian lunch buffet when it's the only one in an 8-10 mile radius and you're too lazy to drive any further. And it was laziness that brought me back today.

For once, I wasn't disappointed.

The buffet, ordinarily lukewarm and picked-over, was fresh, hot and inviting. The naan was warm and subtly sweet (a strange observation, I know, but it wasn't unpleasant). The vegetarian items were pleasantly spicy, and the several meat items were homey and comforting: two kinds of saag, a generic chicken curry and tandoori chicken -- which, though a bit dry, was still reasonably flavorful.

After a busy weekend, it was just what I needed. Surprise! India Mahal doesn't suck full-time.