05.13.08
Review of Copper Chimney, Thursday April 2008
126 E.28th St. & Lexington/Park Ave., 212-213-5742
Great for: upscale Indian, lunch buffet, leisurely meals
Next to Tamarind, this is probably my favorite Indian place in New York. The $9.95 lunch buffet is good and dinner is even better (and much less expensive than Tamarind). Plus it’s pretty, they play club music softly, and it has an intimate nook upstairs for dates. I can see why it’s Michelin guide-recommended.
The chicken 65 appetizer is made of small, succulent, red-gold delights. The pieces of chicken are all juicy and spicy. The Boyfriend took a phone call when they arrived, and I must confess I took advantage of his distraction to steal a few more than my share. The Jhinga kurkure garlic shrimp had an interesting texture and were yummy, salty and tender.
For the main course, we shared medium-spicy chicken tikka masala and saffron shrimp in mild cream sauce with black pepper. I know tikka masala isn’t traditional Indian fare, but it’s so scrumptious. They make it here with nice big chunks of chicken and sauce that’s nicely balanced between cream and tomato. I thought the shrimp was pretty good too despite my dislike of saffron. Oddly, it was spicier than the tikka masala. The garlic naan was delicious; I wish we’d had more than four quarters of it. (Yes, I actually ate bread!) The more I ate the sauces, the more I liked them.
The Boyfriend enjoyed his beer, while I tried two house specialty cocktails. The Madras rose was good and a bit sour. The candied ginger Collins was lemony goodness. Our service was glacially slow and sometimes inattentive, but friendly. I wonder if it’s just one of the waiters who’s incompetent – this time and last time we were here I noticed at least two other tables that sat down after us who moved through their meal much more quickly, so it didn’t seem a restaurant-wide issue. In any case, I like their cooking a lot and sometimes it’s nice to slow down and enjoy my food.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $86 (2 cocktails and 2 beers) + 14 for slowness
Noise level: kind of quiet
Chance of walking in: medium, seems to get busy later.
