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Sweets and Spices

For Indian food, Tandoor-E-Taj is the place By Paul Adams Go to Tandoor-E-Taj, the fairly new Indian restaurant on South Van Ness at 15th. Really. The food is of a higher caliber than any other Indian restaurant in San Francisco, so be prepared to wait while your meal is lovingly prepared from scratch. The menu has two pages of vegetarian entrees and two pages of meat ones, but the friendly, chatty host/proprietor/waiter promises that meat will be phased out as Tandoor-E-Taj gains in popularity. The meal opens with a cup of delicious sour soup which serves as a benchmark against which to specify how hotly spiced you want the rest of your food. Everything is good. The bread is oil-dripping fresh and excellent. The vegetable korma is astonishing. A recently visiting New Yorker said the "special" spicy tea was unquestionably the best he had ever tasted. Don't eat here if you want something light as air or unmemorable: your Tandoor-E-Taj meal will linger on your palate and in your belly for the rest of the day. Do eat here if you like to eat heartily and well; if you haven't yet found good Indian food in San Francisco, this is what you've been looking for. Tandoor-E-Taj, 381 S. Van Ness Ave; dinner only; closed Sunday; 415/864-4116. [ San Francisco | MetroActive Central | Archives ]