Indian restaurant Lakshmi

On 21st March, hubby and I went for lunch at an Indian restaurant. We tried a new place named Lakshmi located in Akita city. The restaurant was about 50 km away from our home and it took us one hour to reach there by our car.

Indian restaurant Lakshmi

The restaurant was very clean and had eight table seats. The restaurant serves authentic Indian food cooked by an Indian chef and his assistants. There was a semi-open cooking area and we could watch the chef make hot naan breads. There were several choices for lunch and it was challenging for us to decide what to order off the menu as everything sounded good. Finally, hubby ordered a set menu named ‘Lakshmi tandoori lunch set’. I ordered a set menu named ‘A-lunch set’ having chicken curry and saffron rice. We also ordered masala chai. Hubby and I shared our food so that we could taste both the lunch sets.

Lunch menu

Both the lunch sets had salad of shredded cabbage. Chicken curry of ‘A-lunch set’ was delicious and it was fun to eat spicy hot curry. The combination of saffron rice and chicken curry was perfect. I relished eating the food very much. Hubby also tasted it and liked the spiciness of the curry.

Shredded cabbage salad

Chicken curry

Chicken curry and saffron rice set

Hubby tasting chicken curry

The dishes of ‘Lakshmi tandoori lunch set’ were served in small bowls on a round steel main tray. On the main tray there was naan bread, rice, and a piece of tandoori chicken. Palak-paneer (spinach-cheese) and daal (a pulse preparation) curries along with yoghurt were served in smaller bowls. The taste of the curries was balanced with the right consistency and went fairly well with both rice and naan. Naan was soft, chewy, and flavorful. Tandoori chicken and palak-paneer were delicious. Although I am not sure the type of pulse used for making daal curry, a special feature of this daal recipe was that it had asafetida as one of the spice ingredients. Asafetida has a distinctive pungent aroma, which may be unpleasant to some people. It was the first time that hubby had daal curry with asafetida in it and he was rather shocked by the aroma as he is not used to very strong spicy aromatic flavors. So it was very amusing to see his shocked facial expression when he tasted daal curry. Later I ate his entire bowl of daal curry, and found it to be very flavorful and delicious. We finished the meal with a bowl of plain yoghurt topped with mango sauce. Yoghurt is considered to aid in digestion of hot and spicy Indian food.

Lakshmi tandoori lunch set

Hubby about to eat a piece of naan bread

Hubby busy eating

After the meal, hubby and I had a cup of masala chai. It was sweet milky tea with lot of spices, and a great after-lunch treat.

Masala chai

Hubby enjoying masala chai

Hubby and I enjoyed eating hot and spicy lunch at Indian restaurant Lakshmi. The quality of food at this restaurant was very high. Aroma of various spices and warm rich flavorful Indian food usually lifts my spirit up.

Indian restaurant Nalanda

On June 6th, hubby and I went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant. We tried a new place named Nalanda in Sakata city of Yamagata prefecture. The restaurant was about 70 km away from our home and it took us 1.5 hours to reach there by our car. The road we used ran parallel to Japan Sea and we got a superb view of the Sea many times during our car ride. It was a sunny warm day and we enjoyed the car ride immensely.

Indian restaurant Nalanda

The restaurant was very clean with twelve counter seats and eight table seats. There was an open cooking area behind the counter seats where the chef made all the curries. In addition, there was a specifically built windowed ‘naan room’ for us to watch as the chef made hot naan breads. There were too many choices on the menu and so it was challenging for us to decide what to order off the menu as everything sounded good. Finally, hubby ordered a set menu named ‘Maharaja curry’ with saffron rice. I ordered a set menu named ‘teen curry’ with naan bread. We also ordered Indian drinks lassi and mango juice.

Maharaja curry was basically a chicken korma curry with lots of crushed onion paste. It was delicious but rather oily. Hubby liked the spiciness and hotness of the curry, which was just perfect for his palate. But when I tasted it I started sweating, my mouth was on fire, and my stomach was in pain. It was extremely hot!! I mean the curry was not that spicy but had a lot of chili pepper powder. However after tasting it once, I wanted to eat it again! It was delicious though very hot. Lassi was very effective drink in neutralizing the taste buds gone wild due to the hot curry.

Maharaja curry and saffron rice set

Hubby tasting Maharaja curry

Hubby eating Maharaja curry and saffron rice

‘Teen curry’ means three kinds of curry and not curry meant for teenagers! ‘Teen’ is the Hindi word for three. The three kinds of curry were Maharaja curry, vegetable curry, and mutton curry. Vegetable and mutton curries were milder than Maharaja curry. All the three curries were very delicious and it was fun to eat various curries with different levels of hotness and spiciness. Naan bread was very soft, chewy, and flavorful. This set menu had chicken soup and vegetable salad also. I relished eating the food very much. However, teen curry set had a very large portion of food and I could eat only half of it. Hubby enjoyed eating the rest of it.

Teen curry set

Naan bread of teen curry set

Chicken soup and vegetable salad of teen curry set

Our dinner

Hubby tasting naan bread

After dinner when we came out of the restaurant, I noticed that the restaurant advertisement banner had an image of an elephant as a motif! Nalanda is the name of a place in India and does not mean elephant. In fact, I have noticed and often wondered why the advertisement banners for most of the Indian restaurants in Japan usually features an image of an elephant. It is not a national animal of India. May be it is the effect of the movie ‘Indiana Jones’! Ha ha ha…In fact I have never seen an elephant in my entire life time in India, except once in a zoo and another time in a sightseeing place in Delhi.

Advertisement banner of Nalanda restaurant with an image of elepahant head

Image of an elephant head at the restaurant front (top) and an elephant toy inside the restaurant (bottom)


Spices and fragrance, the essence of Indian food, usually lifts my spirit up. The quality of food in Nalanda restaurant was very high. Hubby and I relished eating the hot and spicy food, which was a fingerlicious experience. We were really full, and I dozed off in the car while returning back home.