Magicians use “misdirection” to direct an audience’s attention toward one thing while distracting their attention from something else. Misdirection in a magic trick evokes this reaction: Wow, that’s amazing! How’d they do that?
Misdirection in a restaurant? Similar reaction.
Wow, that’s amazing, our bill’s so big! How’d they do that?
Let me say first, the restaurant meetup and I had a great time at Chutney Masala Indian Bistro. The atmosphere’s warm and rustic, there’s plenty of parking, a river view’s only 50 yards away, the service is friendly and attentive, and the food is excellent — dynamic, expertly prepared and impeccably presented. It’s a fun place for a group; I didn’t even mind sitting on a chair with no back.
For my entree, I chose the Maharani Thali combination platter without knowing what everything was — and not realizing it was vegetarian. I knew there would be saag paneer, but I thought “hara bhara kebab” meant some kind of meat (kebab=meat, right?). Oops.
For a moment I was bummed not to have meat — fortunately, everything on the platter was so good that it didn’t matter. There was cauliflower with potatoes, some sort of creamy lentil stew, and in the upper left you can see the hara bhara kebab, a fried mash of potatoes, peas and spinach. It was phenomenal — crispy like a potato latke and full of spices. I didn’t miss the meat at all.
But let me backtrack and talk about where things got a little weird. My side of the table had ordered a basket of naan as an appetizer; the other side of the table had ordered an appetizer sampler. Their sampler arrived, and suddenly, two more samplers showed up on our side.
We all pounced; it looked great — and it tasted great. There was some of everything: shrimp, fish, chicken, sausage, cheese, okra, those hara khara kebabs again, and two giant samosas.
But I was confused.
“Did we even order this?” I asked the table.
No one seemed sure. We’d all been too busy talking to notice. Maura thought maybe the servers mentioned bringing extra platters for the table and someone had nodded, but it was unclear. Hmm… strange. I was feeling suspicious but didn’t say anything. And anyway, we’d already tucked into the platters.
Chutney Masala’s owner/chef came over and told us he was serving the table a tamarind and tomato soup “on the house.” Cool, free soup!
Mmm — zesty and seriously spicy (we collectively sniffled and blew our noses). But I wondered, was the soup an act of generosity or a form of misdirection?
During dinner a server set a big bowl of daal on the table. Had we ordered this? Did it come with the meal? Everyone shrugged. We had so much food already that none of us even touched it.
The bill came, and there it was: 4 appetizer samplers and daal tacked on, along with one other item I wasn’t sure about.
I left the restaurant and couldn’t shake the feeling that something slightly shady had occurred. Maybe someone had nodded when the servers “offered” to bring dishes over, but we definitely hadn’t ordered them outright, and besides, when a big group gets together, there’s noise, distraction and a certain level of confusion. It’s tough to keep track of who’s ordering what, especially when dishes are being shared.
Just something to keep in mind if you eat at Chutney Masala… although those appetizer samplers were as Will Ferrell doing James Lipton would say, “a deliiight”, so in the end I’m glad we had them.
Plus, we got free soup.
GRADE: B+
Chutney Masala Indian Bistro
4 West Main St.
Irvington, NY 10533
914-591-5500