Passage to India

I thought Passage to India, an Indian restaurant in West Fargo, would be somewhat like fast food or a Chinese restaurant buffet. It was not.

We went to Passage to India on a Saturday during lunchtime. It was pretty quiet inside, except for the Indian music videos playing fairly quietly from a big screen television. There were not that many patrons. The restaurant was fairly dim. There were tables and booths, authentic artwork and decor. I asked the owner (I think?) if it was okay to have our infant in the restaurant, because the place looked so fancy I almost wasn't sure if it was okay that we were wearing jeans.

The owner spent some time at our table with us, talking about our baby. Then we went to the buffet.

I tried various things. The goat curry was delicious. I have never had goat before. The baby liked the naan bread, pictured at the top of my plate (and she also liked the cantaloupe). I tried a cold dip that was made of potatoes and chickpeas (at about 11 o'clock in the photo). There were some very yummy (and not spicy) veggie appetizers. Those were very good, almost like egg rolls. Of course, the desserts were my favorite part. There was a custardy mango cake. And then these little honey pastry balls called gulab jamoon. Mmmm.

So, this restaurant is quite a bit different. First, the only table service is water refills. And there were a LOT of water refills. They also took our plates the second we showed signs of being done. At the end of the meal, we went up to the register and they had our ticket waiting for us with our table number on it. By this point, there were plenty of customers, several of whom used high chairs to sit next to the table. So I would say the environment is certainly family friendly.

The only negatives I would mention about this place are that 1) they do not label the ingredients for all of the foods (some they do, some they don't), so if a food has an Indian name, it is a gamble; 2) their website keeps resizing my browser, which I find very annoying; and 3) they are not open on Mondays (we stopped by on a Monday and were quite disappointed).

If you have never tasted Indian food before, I definitely recommend Passage to India. Buffet style ($8.95 for lunch) is the perfect way to sample different foods (alternatively, you can order off the menu). The staff are extremely friendly, and they even do special holiday foods for various Indian holidays. It is quite the experience.