Business & Tech
Ekta Offers Unity and Deliciousness in Bryn Mawr
This week food writer Clara Park reviews the Bryn Mawr outpost of the beloved Fishtown Indian restaurant Ekta.
Ekta means unity in Sanskrit, which is ironic because the chef/owner Raju Bhattarai is formerly of Tiffin Kitchen. He broke off from that group and started his own Indian eatery in Fishtown. Just like the Jeffersons moved on up to the East Side when things were going well, we know business is booming for Bhattarai with his additional location on the Main Line in Bryn Mawr.
I love Indian food and BYOBs, so the fact that this is an Indian BYOB is great. The menu is extensive, but I found a willing dining companion in my cousin, a devoted mother of two children who hate Indian food. While other couples have date nights at fancy French restaurants or a night out at the theatre, my cousin and her husband go to Indian restaurants.
We dug into the basket of pappadams and chutneys as we pored over the menu. We began with the aloo aur papri chaat. It was brimming with chickpeas, yogurt, potatoes, chutneys and tiny crunchy bits of starchy confetti. Other restaurants layer this dish with lentil wafers, but I couldn't be too sure what these were made of. It's a cool and refreshing dish that has many different textural layers and varied flavors. It's always a surprise for first timers, but I have not met anyone who didn't like it.
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For our main courses, we ordered the lamb vindaloo, chicken biryani and onion naan as an accompaniment. We were warned about how spicy the vindaloo is, but we assured our server that we could handle it. The tender chunks of lamb were delicious and paired well with the deep brick-colored spicy sauce. I love Indian food because there are so many flavors involved in each dish. The sauce was hot but multi-faceted--it wasn't just an explosion of chilis. This dish begged to be enjoyed with a cool mango lassi.
The chicken biryani arrived overflowing with caramel-colored rice, cashews, dried fruit and big cubes of chicken. I'm not usually a fan of biryani, but this rendition was completely different from the sad, tasteless versions I had tried before. The chicken biryani here was delicious. There was no need to add the yogurt sauce that came on the side because it was tasty enough by itself. The rice was moist, and each bite was a satisfying combination of savory, sweet and starchy.
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The onion naan was a good way to go in light of the other choices. For those of you that enjoy naan and have never tried onion naan, I highly recommend it. It's just a better version of the original.
The rice was well cooked, fluffy and a perfect counterpart to the lamb vindaloo. The portions may not look that large, but we were stuffed by the time dinner was over and had a mountain of leftovers for the next day. The food here is not subtle, nor is it the type of food that you eat carelessly without realizing how much you are ingesting. We savored every bite and took stock of exactly what we were eating. The young, easy drinking and affordable French red wine that I brought went well with our food. We finished the whole bottle over conversation and our mini Indian feast.
I was impressed with not only the availability of Indian desserts but that there were three choices of ice cream. We opted to keep it authentic and ordered the gulab jamun and ras malai. The gulab jamun consisted of two perfect spheres of fried dough saturated in a sweet syrup that is served warm. It was finished immediately. The ras malai was a couple of thick disks of semi-dry cheese (reminiscent of dried out cottage cheese) in a rich and creamy, milky sauce with a healthy dose of freshly grated green cardamom. I loved this sweet and subtle dish, but my cousin did not. It is definitely off the beaten path when compared to traditional European-style desserts, but I valued the uniqueness and the aggressive cardamom flavor that contrasted against the cheese.
The service was exceptional, and our water glasses were never less than half full. Our questions were answered efficiently and immediately, and everyone was smiling. When every other table in the restaurant was vacant, we were never pressured to leave as the doors remain open until 10 p.m.
The decor is marked by warm earthy and golden colors, and it is indeed an inviting dining space. Our table was steps away from the register, but it didn't detract from our conversation or experience there. I will definitely be back in the future. Ekta is a shining example of Indian cuisine in a relaxed setting. Do not lump it in with the others. It rises above the rest.