Karaikudi Restaurant, web site, 13949 Metrotech Dr., Chantilly, VA, 703-817-7755, off of Rt. 50 just before Rt. 28 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Don Rockwell | Yelp]
CLOSED – See Bawarchi
Top-notch Tamil Nadu/ Chettinad Indian food, clearly the spiciest place around. The best Indian mushrooms around. Great Chettinad chicken and quail. Fine Tamarind rice. Chicken gizzard soup. Fish fry. They have dosas too, but this is true Indian regional cuisine. They also have a type of cooking known as “Aachi Samayal,” which seems to be related to the idea of aromas. Right now this is one of the best places to visit, so go, go, go.
I love this place, too. You have to try their kottu porotta, it’s what they are well known for. This is shredded white flour flat bread tossed on a griddle with seasonings, vegetables, and optionally a protein of your choice (mutton/chicken/egg).
There is another good Indian restaurant inside Lottes Plaza next door. It’s Punjabi by Nature. They have standard N. Indian-Punjabi favorites as well as a chaat menu, but the to-die-for items there are the selection of parathas (Punjabi style made with Indian stone ground whole wheat flour, not at all like the Tamilian porotta, but yes, they are related). The bestest of the best of the parathas is the egg paratha. It is stuffed with a scrambled egg. You slather the already rich and oil laden paratha in butter, then eat it with their black-salt laced veg. raita and spicy pickle (pickle may be in-house, I am not too sure). It’s a meal meant to sustain a Punjabi farmer for a full day in the fields, and you’re gonna feel like you’ve eaten a brick afterwords, but boyyy is that stuff good. The meal comes with two huge parathas, so it’s good to share.
Went tonight… Very yummy, spicy, and different. We ordered the vegetable kothu parotta, the ennai kathrikai (eggplant), and the eral masala (shrimp). All was great. Staff friendly and attentive. We had a small problem initially in that our eggplant wasn’t cooked through. This was immediately corrected. We had lots left over which we joyfully brought home.
Our understanding is that they will have their liquor license next week. They also do a breakfast on sat and sun mornings that looked interesting. So many other things to explore. Looking forward to a return visit.
We met the manager who said if we needed things less spicy they could tone it down. We said NO PLEASE DON’T… We like things spicy!
This Chicken Kebab recipe is different in that the marinated chicken are fried instead of being grilled and it tastes heavenly.