Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Mint in Chapel Hill

My good friend Jack allowed me to post here at the Bull Pen his review of the restaurant "Mint" in Chapel Hill:
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MINT


We finally went to Mint, a new Indian restaurant that opened on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. We went for the lunch buffet today. We found the food to be very good. Fresh, medium spiced, and a nice variety of both meat and vegetable dishes.

The buffet today included Onion Bhajais, Aloo Gobi, Chicken Korma, Channa Saag, a black lentil dal (can't remember the name), tandoori chicken, another dish with cauliflower, peas, potatoes, and chick peas that was just the perfect blend of spicy and sweet, an egg curry dish, and of course basmati and a very light nan. The mango lassi was probably the best that I've had. Just very light and refreshing. None of the dishes were heavy at all. The decor was very nice. It was much lighter inside that the Sitar India Palace, which probably added to making the dishes feel lighter.

Since finding Sitar India Palace in Durham about 8 or 9 years ago, it's become our benchmark for local Indian food. I'm sure that I've been there about 40 times over the years and I've never left as much as a single grain of rice on my plate. Everything is just really good there. I have to say that Mint was every bit as good. If I could change one thing about our experience there today, it would be the music. While Sitar India Palace plays traditional Indian ragas and songs, the Mint had on something that I can only describe as new age.

The two desserts that were on the buffet were the traditional kheer (Indian rice pudding) and a sweet carrot dish which looked similar to a persimmon pudding. I had neither, as I was just stuffed from my first and second rounds at the buffet.

The lunch buffet runs $9 on weekdays, and higher on the weekends. Before we left, we asked to see a menu so we could see what else they had. And they had a lot. We want to go back for supper soon and order something a little spicier. I did see that they had goat curry (which I love) on the menu. I'll probably give theirs a try.

I definitely recommend it.

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Thanks Jack for the review and I can't wait to try this place out soon. -- DBP
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3 comments:

Tribe Bly said...

I think that you'll like it, DBP. And although I didn't see it first hand, I heard from my co-diner that the Women's bathroom has some interesting fixtures. I didn't check the Gent's.

Unknown said...

They have good live sitar music in the evenings on the weekend, I think mainly during the main dining hours.

So the music isn't always that way.

Anonymous said...

I went to Mint once and will NEVER go back again. I was there with a group of about 6 people on a night when the restaurant was packed. After we finished our food, paid, and the waiter had taken the tip, the server came back and asked us if we could leave because they have people waiting for tables. We all sat for a few seconds in shock since we had not spent an unusually long amount of time there. We ate rather quickly, paid pretty quickly, and then were asked to leave! We were all graduate students so it is not as if we were some boisterous group of people. There really was no excuse for their behavior and I will NEVER go back again.