Tandoori Nights - good Indian in Clarendon
A while back I had seen Tandoori Nights featured in the DC episode of Heat Seekers on the FoodNetwork (their spicy dish was chicken achari), and put it on my list to check out. Last night we finally stopped by after a weekend at the Eastern Shore, and came away impressed.
I couldn't find the dish on the menu and asked our server about it, and he mentioned that they had to take it off the menu because it was hard to consistently get the ingredients for it. Grrr... We settled on the kurkure pattey (sp?), lamb vindaloo and malai kofta and an order of garlic naan. The kurkure pattey (crispy spinach was yogurt) was very similar to Rasika's palaak chaat, and also very good (my gf liked it better, but I still think Rasika's is better). The lamb vindaloo (ordered "as spicy as you can make it") came out bright red, and was very good with a good level of spice (probably one of the rare times in DC where we ordered something very spicy and actually got spicy). The lamb was tender as well. The malai kofta (ordered medium) was also delicious and creamy (though the "balls" were kind of small), with a nice layering of spices and flavors.
We thoroughly enjoyed Tandoori Nights, and (granted, we've just been this once) would probably rank it as one of the best places for Indian in DC after Rasika (with Bombay Club and then Passage to India next). I thought the portions were good, and maybe it was because we didn't have any wine, but I also thought it was a much better value than the others.
