Palace at the Ben Philadelphia Review
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Address: Palace at the Ben 834 Chestnut St (corner of 9th St) Philadelphia, PA 19107 Closed Other Philadelphia Indian Restaurants |
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Palace at the Ben - Royal Indian Treat in Philadelphia
Indian restaurants in the U.S. are like Bollywood movies - they look good from the outside with some fancy names like Maharaja, Bombay Palace or Taj Mahal but once you're inside they're such sadistic purveyors of misery that you can't wait to get out.
Even the so-called prestigious Indian restaurants in the U.S. that we've dined in like Bombay Palace, Utsav and Jewel of India in New York City, Bombay Palace in Beverly Hills (Los Angeles) or Tamba in Las Vegas are hopeless impostors distinguished only by lousy food and poor service.
After several years of eating sub-mediocre food at Indian restaurants in the U.S., we've conditioned ourselves not to expect much from our desi restaurants.
So when we entered Palace at the Ben on Chestnut St in Philadelphia on a hot Saturday afternoon recently, it was with low expectations.
The place was deserted. As we entered the spacious restaurant, we saw three or four waiters, all dressed in black, seated at a table in quiet conversation.
No sooner had we stepped in, then they quickly jumped up and one of them promptly ushered us to a table and got us the menu.
After we quickly ordered a Vegetarian Thali, a Non-Vegetarian Thali and a Mysore Masala Dosa, our waiter Punam gently told us that it would be too much and recommended we skip the Dosa.
Although we heeded our waiter Punam's advice with some reluctance, in retrospect we were grateful for his suggestion.
Our food arrived pretty fast.
There was little to complain about the food, even from querulous folks like us.
Vegetarian or non-vegetarian, they were prepared well for the most part and spiced just right for battle-hardened Indian palates like ours and we fell upon our food with mucho gusto.
Vegetarian Thali
On the vegetarian side, we tried Beans and Potato, Navarattan Korma, Spinach Curry and Samosa.Set in a thick gravy, the Navratan Korma was divinely calibrated with consistency and spices tailored to please even the most demanding diners.
Spinach curry is usually an inedible monstrosity in most Indian restaurants with a raw taste but at Palace at the Ben, it was a work of art prepared with care by a chef familiar with his way around Indian spices.
With the Naan bread or plain White Rice, the vegetarian curries, particularly the Navratan Korma, were sheer nirvana.
Even the plain Dal, which again is treated shabbily at most Indian restaurants, was a tasteful delight with rice at this restaurant.
Did we say we liked the plain Naan too? Yes sire, we sure did as well as the Raita.
Non-Vegetarian Thali
Our Non-Vegetarian food was proof that Palace at the Ben's kitchen was equally adept at both meat and vegetables.Chicken Cashmere (chunks of chicken cooked in a mild cream sauce with cashew nuts and golden raisins) and the spicier Lamb Roganjosh were delicious and amply compensated for the more pedestrian Tandoori Chicken.