Mint opened only a month ago on Route 7 (296 Ethan Allen Hwy) and is already serving excellent Indian cuisine to happy diners for lunch and dinner every night of the week. They also offer takeout of their entire menu.
Anticipating that it might get crowded later, we went about 6:15pm last Saturday, and there were already 3-4 tables occupied, and they continued to fill up all the time we were there. The menu offers appetizers, breads, tandoori grilled kebabs, salads, soups, and lamb, chicken, seafood, vegetarian and Indian Chinese items, as well as a few desserts. There is also a Kid’s Menu. Their drinks menu consists of wines and beers.
Even though you might think this is a small restaurant from the façade, it opens into quite a nice sized dining area with simple, but elegant décor. When we were seated, we were immediately given a basket of light, crunchy Indian breads and three sauces for them: chutney, sweet soy and a mildly spicy green dipping sauce. All were very good.
We decided to throw caution to the winds and order one appetizer and three entrees so we could try out more of their cuisine. This turned out to be an excellent idea, because everything we tried was excellent. All if their dishes come in serving bowls with ladles, to facilitate sharing, which we definitely did.
Our appetizer was Shrimp Manchurian ($9): crispy shrimp with hot cilantro garlic sauce. If you are concerned about being overwhelmed with hot Indian spices, just ask for “medium” which is only mildly spicy. And, don’t worry if you don’t want the cilantro, it was only in the sprinkled leaves and easily avoided. The shrimp were indeed crispy, sweet and hot and a truly delightful appetizer.
One of our entrees was Lamp Rogan Josh ($20), a north Indian spicy lamb stew, although it was pretty mild as delivered to us. The lamb was extraordinarily tender and the stew smooth and elegant. Usually recipes for this delightful stew include garam masala (blend), ginger, turmeric, cardamom and garlic, and we detected hints of all those in this delicious stew. Note that they provided rice, “decorated” with a few pieces of crunchy carrots and some peas.
We’ve made Butter Chicken ourselves, but theirs ($17) is way better: smooth and silky with butter, cream, tomatoes, and the usual garam masala among the excellent blend of flavors in this dish. They suggested that this dish is easy to take home leftovers from, and that you could even make sandwiches from it.
Finally, their Shrimp Moilee ($22) was an exceptional dish, made with curry leaf, ginger, onion, blended into a smooth coconut milk sauce. It is surprising dishes like this that make you want to come back and try the rest of the items on the menu (and there are many).
Mint is an excellent new restaurant just up the road, in the complex with the Day’s Inn. The food and service are outstanding, and we expect to return often.
Mint’s online menu emphasizes their ability to provide nearly all of their menu for take out, and this might be great for surprise guests as well as a last minute dinner. But we really liked the atmosphere in their elegant restaurant and suggest you give it a try. It is really quite impressive!
Food Science Institute 