Shanti

It’s a beautifully thought out space for Indian cuisine right in the heart of Cambridge at Kendall. It’s walking distance from the Kendall/MIT stop on the MBTA Red line. The place is usually open till 10 PM. We reached around 8-55 so had an hour almost. We instantly got a table and didn’t have to wait. Going for the dahi vada and samosa was an obvious choice and the samosa turned out to be much better than the former. We then ordered the Paneer tikka which came with a side of either rice or naan. The paneer tasted okay. We wrapped it up with Rasmalai which was nice. They serve complimentary papad and three chutneys - onion, mint and tamarind. They also stock Taj Mahal beer which is imported from India. Overall a very satisfying experience. P.S. - Last orders for food are to be given before 9-45 PM as that’s their cutoff time.

The tastes are pretty decent but the menu can be pretty misleading. I ordered a chicken do piaza and a peshawar naan. The do piaza was described to have an abundance of onions and bell peppers and have a sauce with a heavy flavor. I'm normally very sensitive to flavors and this dish did not have a heavy flavor at all. It was very light for an Indian dish, in fact. And there were hardly any vegetables in it. Instead, there were just giant chunks of chicken. The peshawar naan was described to be stuffed with coconut, almonds, pistachios and rasins. I didn't find or taste a single scrap of rasin in the entire order. Thanks to these two miscommunications, I didn’t enjoy the dinner as much as I could have, since I was expecting far more vegetables and flavor to balance with the rice. So if you're not familiar with Indian food like me, the menu descriptions might not be the most accurate refs for what to get.