Tolerably Tantric – Boston

I was craving Tandoori Chicken. Really, truly, drooling-at-the-thought, had-to-restrain-myself-from-sprinting-to-the-nearest-Indian-restaurant CRAVING. Like if-you-smelled-like-Tandoor-or-chicken-I-would-have-taken-a-bite-out-of-you craving. And the chicken I had really hit the spot. I felt like the flavor could have been baked in more, but it’s hard to do that without drying the chicken out. Besides, it was exactly what I wanted.

As a teaser, we started with the Bhel Poori. It was good, it was fine, etc. They actually mixed it together before serving it so that each crunchy little rice puff was evenly coated with sweet-sour-slightly-spicy goodness, a welcome change from Bukhara’s arduous task of mixing it yourself. Perfect starter, but believe me, I was dying to get to my chicken.

The Punjabi Masala Chole was a surprisingly good entrée - the chickpeas had soaked up the flavor of the sauce, which is pretty hard to do. The gravy was thick but not over-starched. Unfortunately, it was a bit bland, IMO, not that I cared – I was too distracted by my chicken…

The Ras Malai was thick and cream-soaked, a rich but cooly refreshing repartee to the heavy Tandoori chicken and dense Chole. If I were to come back for anything it’d be this.

Sadly, ladies, this place got me neither as hot nor as bothered as the name (and parts of this review) dare to suggest.  My disclaimer is that although this review is written in a much more positive tone than that of Mantra, what I said about arbitrarily flipping a coin when choosing between Tantric and Mantra still stands. I would have been equally satisfied by Mantra’s Tandoori chicken had I been craving it at the time. So next time you’re downtown and your Indian craving hits, either pick one up at Gypsy or make like Two-Face and flip that coin!