THE DINING REPORT – EAST INDIA COMPANY GRILL AND BAR
Spicy Food, Lurid Talk, and Scary Painting
Although India is a truly fascinating, wonderfully distinctive country, it’s hard to imagine most Westerners enjoying a lenghty visit to a typical urban area there, too chaotic, too crowded, and completely too harsh. That being said, almost everyone here seems to love Indian food, it’s always some of the most requested in Restaurant Roulette, and Indian and Thai food always do a wonderful job of catering to the non-meat eaters in our group. The last time RR dined Indian it was in NW Portland, at Indish, but that was quite a long time ago, a few months shy of 2 years ago. I actually liked Indish, as I thought the food was quite good and I loved the Indian Small Plate servings, but sadly, Indish recently converted itself into a place called the Temple Bar, the same ownership, but now with an emphasis on liquor rather than food. The time before that our Indian excursion was also to the East India Company Grill and Bar, but this was an entirely different sort of gathering, as that was a nightmare where everyone canceled at the last second and there were only two of us, and this time we had a hearty table of 9, many really excited to try out the food there (especially our vegetarians, as they even have a vegan menu.) Joining us for the first time this evening was Andrea’s friend Rachel, who seemed to have a good time, perhaps because she sat next to the always magnetizing David.
I’ve never been to any of those famous Indian restaurants in the far west regions, as we all know I’m terrified of anything west of NW Portland (okay, there was that one dinner on Capitol Hwy.) but aside from those places, which I can’t comment on, having never seen them, it’s hard to imagine an Indian restaurant in these parts with classier atmosphere than the East India Company, even the bathroom is really high end (I love that beautiful sink.) That being said, Andrea found the large painting above the end of our table, a very modernist sort of statement in red, yellow, black and white, quite upsetting. Although it was not particularly to my taste either, I actually didn’t even notice it before she mentioned it, even though it was just to my right on the other side of Heidi. Maybe her motherly glow was blocking out the surroundings. The painting was a weird choice, however, with the rest of the decor. A more positive note about East India C though, it seems well run, and has a good sprinkling of Indian employees, management, and perhaps Indian owners. Also, as David mentioned, you can actually go there and see people of Indian ancestry eating, probably not a rarity in Beaverton or Hillsboro, but not that common at most of the Indian restaurants in downtown Portland, so that’s another good thing EIC has going for it, the food appeals to East Indians! (more…)