[EllenH]

How's about Indique (Connecticut Ave., Cleveland Park metro)? Didn't find a thread for it on this board.

Spent a really fun HH there last Friday. A couple of lovely cocktails that went down WAY too easy (sparkling wine w/ lychee juice; tamarind "martini") They have a page of Indian small plates that are reasonably priced and tasty, and the people-watching from the bar tables at the large window is quite entertaining.

[KeithA]

I think Indique is great. I've been there several times and the only complaints from me or any of my dining companions was a dish or two was too spicy (but those comments came from those who can't handle the heat). Of the dishes I tried, my recs are samosa chaat, chicken maakhani, and chicken biryani. They also have a great lunch special with reduced priced entrees, soup or salad and dessert.

There website is great too with lots of info on the dishes as well as pictures of many dishes.

www.indique.com

[DC in DC]

Last night we were at the bar at Buck's and one of my dining companions thought she recognized the person next to us as the chef at Indique. Lo and behold it was him. He said they are opening a second location at Friendship Heights above the metro station (probably in the old Restaurant Terraza space?). Holy batman! We are so excited as there is a serious dearth of dining options up here.

[JLK]

Will the new location be called Indique or something else?

A friend and I dined at the existing Indique a few nights ago (Wednesday). It didn't break any new ground, but everything was (to me) as tasty as ever. And man, they still pack in the crowds.

[jdl]

Dined here once, and I liked the food well enough -- but not so much that I'd return without a guarantee that it wouldn't take 45 minutes between the time we placed our order and our food actually arrived. That part was not so much fun.

[smokey]

DC in DC, on Nov 6 2005, 12:50 PM, said:

Last night we were at the bar at Buck's and one of my dining companions thought she recognized the person next to us as the chef at Indique.  Lo and behold it was him.  He said they are opening a second location at Friendship Heights above the metro station (probably in the old Restaurant Terraza space?).  Holy batman!  We are so excited as there is a serious dearth of dining options up here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is exciting! Thanks for the word, DC.

[giant shrimp]

DC in DC, on Nov 6 2005, 12:50 PM, said:

Last night we were at the bar at Buck's and one of my dining companions thought she recognized the person next to us as the chef at Indique.  Lo and behold it was him.  He said they are opening a second location at Friendship Heights above the metro station (probably in the old Restaurant Terraza space?).  Holy batman!  We are so excited as there is a serious dearth of dining options up here.

you probably don't remember when that space was tila's, emanating from houston. we saw the robbs on the escalator heading up once. anyway, i wish tila's was coming back, although maybe my taste buds have grown up in the many years since then.

[JLK]

It has been awhile since I have dined at Indique. No particular reason other than the fact that we tend to get takeout from there rather often. Like last night.

Our spread included a lot of the frequently ordered dishes:

* Samosa
* Paneer Kadai (or Kadai Paneer - whatever!!)
* Chicken tikka makhani
* Lamb rogan josh
* Daal
* Garlic naan

Everything was really darn good. I love paneer prepared pretty much any way, and in this iteration, I loved the various flavors involved: chiles, peppers, onions, tomatoes.

We tend to order the lamb vindaloo periodically, but the +1 complains that it's too spicy for him (wimp!!). Last night, I mixed things up by ordering the tender and delicious lamb rogan josh. It was a hit, but he still hogs the daal. I rarely end up with leftovers of that side dish.

[Meaghan]

I need to go to Indique again. Thanks for the reminder!

[MeMc]

I think there's something wrong with me, but I'm not yet sold on Indique. I need more spice, more daring. I'm looking for british hot, not DC hot. I've gone between five and six times, but it's too conservative for me. Not sure how to frame that to my server, though.

This post has been edited by MeMc: 30 January 2006 - 09:59 PM

[scj32]

Anyone have any word on the "Indique Heights" to be opening by Friendship Heights metro? I saw a banner this weekend.

[qwertyy]

I had a terrific meal at Indique last night. It was late, so we ran through it pretty fast, but there were several stand-out dishes (sorry I don't remember most of the names): The quail appetizer was amazing--who knew such an itty-bitty bird could be so flavorful? The crab cake-like appetizer somehow managed to taste fully of crab and spices, while having a creamy texture; it was delicious. Of the entrees, the fish Tamilnad was a winner--very tomatoey and nicely spiced--as was the fish wrapped in banana leaf, which has a surprisingly pleasant, subtle earthy flavor. The lamb vindaloo was spectacular. I'm kind of a medium-salsa girl, so this stuff nearly made me hallucinate from the heat, but it also managed to have lots of flavorful layers and a depth that's often lost in heavy spice. And the lamb itself was very nearly the consistency of butter. Homina homina.

Terrific food. I'm very much looking forward to eating my leftovers for lunch and getting back for more soon!

**FYI, just noticed that Washington Post has a new Indique listing: Indique Heights: From the owners of Cleveland Park's Indique, this upscale Indian restaurant opens Wednesday, April 5. Address and phone number are listed in the City Guide.

[Monica Bhide]

Indique Heights is opening tonite so we are headed there for dinner. Anyone else going tonite? Stop by and say hello if you will be there!!

[Audrey2025]

They serve really good bellinis at the CP Indique. I mean, not that I know. Because surely I only had ONE, if that. I think I remember the food being good, too.

Hic!

[JLK]

Eve's take on Indique Heights.

Like Eve, I really enjoyed the lamb shanks bhuna and chicken chettinad.

[Kanishka]

I tried to go to Indique with a group of five this Saturday at seven PM, and I have never had such impolite service. We never ended up seated -- the host informed us that a table for five would be impossible without a reservation, unless we wanted to sit outside. With the ominous clouds, we declined. But we left a restaurant that was about half full -- seats everywhere!!

I acknowledge the fact that five or six tops without reservations are annoying. But the way the host reacted to us (dismissive, impolite, almost as if we were not worthy of eating at the restaurant) made me very angry. Particularly unfortunate because I really like Indique and when these last minute plans came together, I picked that restaurant right away.

We ended up having mediocre pan-Asian food at Spices, after trying Dino and being told it would be difficult to be seated. The difference -- the good folks at Dino were polite and kind when telling us that it would be hard to be seated, and Dino was packed. No hard feelings with them, I understand.

Indique? That's another matter. Here's a hint: when saying "no, I'm sorry, that's not possible" ... don't be a dick.


K

[Pool Boy]

Went last night and thought it was good but nothing to rave about. Mussels were very good, the samosa very nice. Even the chicken chettinad was very good (thought the formed shapes of rice seemed odd). But it was nothing that made me swoon or to get overly excited about. Service was good, too. While I would not go out of my way to dine here again, if I was in the mood and in the area, it would not be a bad choice at all.

[KeithA]

Last night got some chicken biryani and paratha bread for carryout from the original Indique. The biryani was great, a huge portion of not overly spiced rice and big chunks of flavorful chicken that clearly benefited from cooking on the bone (the meat is served deboned). This is the second time in recent months I've had the biryani to go. Last time was the lamb version which was also good, maybe even better (but that could be because I LOVE lamb). The disappointment was the paratha which was rather tasteless and very greasy. However it came with Indique always good mint, tamarind, and spicy/sour lemon chutneys. Next time, I'll stick with the naan which is usually pretty good. Although based on lots of trips to Indique in the past the bread are not their strong point. Also since no one else seems to write about Indique much, I will say they have a great dal makhani, which comes with most of the entrees when you eat in the restaurant.

[dcandohio]

KeithA, on Apr 28 2008, 01:43 PM, said:

I will say they have a great dal makhani, which comes with most of the entrees when you eat in the restaurant.

I second the recommendation on the dal. It is delicious. In general, I think Indique can deliver a nice hit of heat when requested in the curries, too. I often pass this place and say "I should go there more often."

[Marks]

I have a reservation tonight, is it worth going. They still have Rest. Week special.

[chickenlover]

Marks, on Aug 29 2008, 08:01 AM, said:

I have a reservation tonight, is it worth going. They still have Rest. Week special.

Indique is not bad, but their normal prices are low enough that I'd hardly consider restaurant week a deal.

[chickenlover]

Heather, on Dec 15 2008, 12:27 PM, said:

Any recent reports?

I live down the street from Indique and get take out once or twice a month. I also dine in occasionally. They do a better job with meat than vegetables. Their curries are decent. Their bread is sub par. Overall, it's not a place that I would go out of my way for.

[synaesthesia]

I stopped by last night and had the lamb vindaloo. It was spicy though not heathead spicy. It did however cause my stomach a small bit of bubbly burny anguish. I enjoyed it a lot though, and it satisfied my jones for Indian. But then we tried the vegetarian dosa for an app. It was a severe disappointment - the dosa itself was not crisp and awesome the way it is at Woodlands, and the chutneys were a bit lacking. And damn it, now I want to go to Woodlands. This was the CP location, btw.

[loveeverythingfree]

Heather, on Dec 15 2008, 11:27 AM, said:

Any recent reports?

I went about a month ago to Indique Heights. The portions are huge, and very tasty. However their water is disgusting. Undrinkable. I had wine, but needed water to wash down the spicy vindalo, and when I asked for a fresh glass, the water still tasted very bad. I'm never picky about DC tap water, and I think Friendship Heights is considered Maryland, so I'm not sure what the story was.

[DonRocks]

loveeverythingfree, on Feb 26 2009, 07:49 PM, said:

I went about a month ago to Indique Heights. The portions are huge, and very tasty. However their water is disgusting. Undrinkable. I had wine, but needed water to wash down the spicy vindalo, and when I asked for a fresh glass, the water still tasted very bad. I'm never picky about DC tap water, and I think Friendship Heights is considered Maryland, so I'm not sure what the story was.

You made the same mistake I did trying to wash down a Vindaloo with water ... click.

--

Separate topic, which has kept me up at night: Are Indique and Indique Heights separate restaurants (i.e., do they each get their own thread), or do they constitute a chain?

Before you lash into me, I've honestly thought about this (and other related examples) for many, many tortured hours, and I haven't come up with a good answer.

[aaronsinger]

DonRocks, on Feb 26 2009, 08:45 PM, said:

You made the same mistake I did trying to wash down a Vindaloo with water ... click.

--

Separate topic, which has kept me up at night: Are Indique and Indique Heights separate restaurants (i.e., do they each get their own thread), or do they constitute a chain?

Before you lash into me, I've honestly thought about this (and other related examples) for many, many tortured hours, and I haven't come up with a good answer.

Their menus are slightly different, no? My sister used to live in DC and has always preferred Indique Heights. I've been to each of them a couple times, both are equally good to me.

And Indique Heights is, just barely, in Maryland. Western Avenue is the dividing line, it's on the north side of the street.

[DonRocks]

As much as I raved about my recent banquet at Passage To India, if I had one Indian dish to have a second time this week, I'd take the magnificent platter of Chicken Chettinad ($17.00) I had last night at Indique. This is one of Chef Vinod's specialties (this may, in fact, be his signature dish), and was one of the greatest entrees I've had at any restaurant in recent memory. This spicy dish needs (repeat ten times - needs) an order of Indique's outstanding Raita ($4.00), and was made into a perfect meal with an order of Pudina Paratha ($3.00). Everything on the platter was excellent, including the vegetables and various grains, and shame on me for not having been to this (currently) underrated restaurant in so long. Do yourself a favor and replicate this exact same meal at Indique - you'll thank me for it, I promise.

Cheers,
Rocks.

[jayandstacey]

DonRocks, on 08 July 2009 - 05:48 PM, said:

As much as I raved about my recent banquet at Passage To India, if I had one Indian dish to have a second time this week, I'd take the magnificent platter of Chicken Chettinad ($17.00) I had last night at Indique. This is one of Chef Vinod's specialties (this may, in fact, be his signature dish), and was one of the greatest entrees I've had at any restaurant in recent memory. This spicy dish needs (repeat ten times - needs) an order of Indique's outstanding Raita ($4.00), and was made into a perfect meal with an order of Pudina Paratha ($3.00). Everything on the platter was excellent, including the vegetables and various grains, and shame on me for not having been to this (currently) underrated restaurant in so long. Do yourself a favor and replicate this exact same meal at Indique - you'll thank me for it, I promise.

Cheers,
Rocks.

Sir Rocks,

Thank you for the sugestion - took it and very much enjoyed it!

Oddly, I've never thought of myself as liking spicy dishes - but this may be the result of being tricked too many times in college and thus associating "spicy" with tears, pain and repercussions. In this case, I figured that I didn't know Indian cuisine, so why not try it? If I'm going to enjoy Indian food, I can't hide from spice, so I dove it.

Loved it. The spice is hot, but more from the sum of the spice than from pure heat. It reminded me of eating heavily JO spiced MD crabs - have some beer ready and your mouth 'dances' for an hour or two following the last crab. Same here - that nice 'dancing' of my taste buds still enjoying the dish.

We split a mini-dosa for an appetizer, it was really nice - a chicken filling with a bit of spice, acting as a nice base to a selection of dips (chutneys?) set around the plate, 5 or 6 very different ways of highlighting the dosa. They included a coconut based paste and a spicy hot cranberry choice. Very nice and quite a little adventure.

I ordered the Chicked Chettinad with Raita and Naan bread. It was as Don described above, the chicken was perfectly cooked, tender yet firm enough to stand out (in texture) against the two grains when eaten together. My wife got the Shrimp in coconut milk - the presentation was very similar, with two grains and other sides. My two kids (8 and 5) split chicken biryani that the kitchen despiced, but sadly they weren't convinced. They stuck with Naan and pined for mac and cheese. (The biryani seemed good to me - we've jest been gastro-coddling them too much)

As mentioned, I don't know Indian cooking; this is only the second time I've ordered it and the last time was 6 years ago. So for me, this is the start of an exploration that will continue. And while you might say "well, if you go right to one of the best dishes, any later experiences will be disappointing", I disagree. This meal makes me look forward to learning and exploring more Indian dishes. Some might be not be as good but that won't discourage me - as I've had the pleasure of an excellent meal at Indique Heights to set me on a good path.

[Pool Boy]

DonRocks, on 08 July 2009 - 05:48 PM, said:

As much as I raved about my recent banquet at Passage To India, if I had one Indian dish to have a second time this week, I'd take the magnificent platter of Chicken Chettinad ($17.00) I had last night at Indique. This is one of Chef Vinod's specialties (this may, in fact, be his signature dish), and was one of the greatest entrees I've had at any restaurant in recent memory. This spicy dish needs (repeat ten times - needs) an order of Indique's outstanding Raita ($4.00), and was made into a perfect meal with an order of Pudina Paratha ($3.00). Everything on the platter was excellent, including the vegetables and various grains, and shame on me for not having been to this (currently) underrated restaurant in so long. Do yourself a favor and replicate this exact same meal at Indique - you'll thank me for it, I promise.

Cheers,
Rocks.

My experiences at Indique have been....hmm, meh? Not bad, not great, just in the middle somewhere. Granted, I have only been there twice I think. But this gives me a reason to think about going back. Thanks for the tip.

[DannyNoonan]

Nice dinner with my wife at Indique on Sat. night. Maybe it was the three Manhattans I had at Bardeo before we went in but I thought the meal was fantastic. We didn't order anything fancy - started with aloo tikki, which was a nice slighly spicy was to start. My wife asked if they could make saag aloo, though it wasnt on the menu, and they gladly obliged. I ordered alu chole and we split some naan. Washed down with a Frog's Leap sauvignon blanc. Naan was perfect crisp/chewy combination, chickpeas spicy without blowing my head off, and the spinach in my wife's dish was actually quite flavorful instead of insipid, bland variety that often characterizes this dish at other places. Service was attentive and courteous. Overall, a fine meal. We'll be back.

[Waitman]

Had a strangely underwhelming experience experience at Indique Heights last night, in sharp contrast to the wonderful DR.com meal a few weeks ago, and it wasn't just not having banana leaves to eat off of and not being able to use your fingers. It felt as though the chef feels comfortable about pulling the trigger when official food lovers are around, but holds back on regular nights lest the white bread Upper Northwest crowd (I know, many people in Chevy Chase are quite as adventurous as I; I'm going to take the shot anyway) have their digestion marred by too much spice.

Here's a link to the menu so I don't have to that painful thing of describing each dish in detail.

On the Street Snacks menu I could live off the Papri Chat for days at a time. It's basically a yogurt treat, with crispy flour taco things broken up ("crispy flour" on the menu) thrown in for crunch and tamarind to make it perfect. Paneer Shashlick was, I am told, was fine, as well.

From the tanddor, the Tandoor King Shrimp -- a single big-ass shrimp -- was quite good and the kulcha and naan met mixed reviews. I loved them, but they were very crisp, which annoyed Mrs. B.

So far, so good.

And then...

It's claimed that the Calamari Ullarthiyathe has hot peppers, but you couldn't tell it by me. Not that I'm a heat junkie but I did need a little kiss of heat. And if the spicing was a little flabby, so might the texture of the little rings been as well.

The daal was meh. And my main course, the Chicken Vella Korma, missed. Not that I expected heat, but I was looking for warmth or depth or something -- the ingredients look great: anise, fennel seeds, curry leaves and so on -- but they never seemed to come together. It was like Indian Chicken 'n' gravy.

The Chicken Chetinaad was the star of the evening, some of you may recall it from the dinner. Appropriately, it went to the birthday girl who also had a fine bowl of Saag Makai, mostly taken home so it could be taken to school for lunch today.

As always, maybe it's me. But the experience on the whole fell flat. The understated dishes came off well, if not always exceptionally so. But the assertive dishes came out...understated.

[vinod]

Folks, Happy New Year !

Restaurant week 2010 is about to begin. (January 11 - 17 ) and the Menus are on our website - www.Indique.com and www.indiqueheights.com. To welcome the new year we have included a glass of wine in the price of $ 35.10 for a three course Menu.

WHEN - JAN 11- 17 , 2010

WHERE - INDIQUE AND INDIQUE HEIGHTS

PRICE - $ 35.10 - THREE COURSE MENU
WITH A GLASS OF WINE
( ON US)

[lindzjax]

Stopped by on Saturday night. Actually, took advantage of the lovely weather and walked from Dupont up to Cleveland Hts (burn some calories before indulging!). We were seated on the little second floor balcony which was super cute,though tiny. Service was spotty - either TOO much or missing in action. The food was v tasty - we mis-ordered on the app and what we got (Chaat Papri) was not what we expected but very much enjoyed it. Light and fresh. I had chicken biryani, balanced and not too spicy. It was a first trip and we'd definitely be inclined to stop back by.