A very Happy Mom’s day (slightly belated) to all those wonderful loving mothers out there! How did you celebrate this Mother’s Day?
Sutra is the newest Indian restaurant in town owned by the now famous Indian born Dallas chef Vijay Sadhu. I write this with no bias and despite the fact that Chef Sadhu happens to be a good friend of ours and we have been following his restaurant stints ever since he moved to Dallas a few years ago. All I can say is that Vijay Sadhu continues to excel. We have visited Sutra about 3 times now as a family since it opened in February and I’ve been a couple of times from work for lunch, and that says a lot:) There is a dearth of good Indian restaurants in Dallas and Plano, specifically, where Sutra is located and I believe this one is here to stay.
So for Mother’s day, we decided to head to Sutra for their first Mother’s Day lunch/brunch. This was an occasion where Nikhil had two generations to celebrate with, so he and dad decided to take me and my mom out to lunch.
Sutra’s decor is minimalist yet modern, an open kitchen where you can see tandoor bread and kababs being made. You don’t hear the usual sitar or Bollywood music but a more techno vibe. So not your usual Indian ambience, quite fitting for the area it is located in within the Shops at Legacy. An impressive bar greets you as you enter and the cocktails feature a full array of interesting names – Bollywood Martini, Sutra, Jaipur, Tamarind Margarita.
Mother’s Day Lunch included a 3 course menu with champagne for $15.95. A very reasonable price point for all the items included, probably the best price in the area. Appetizer, Salad, Entree and dessert.
We started off with the Cauliflower Kathmandu, the appetizer which has become a staple already. This is the third time I’m trying this Cauliflower Manchurian inspired dish – cauliflower sauted with Asian inspired spices. The spice level was just right for us, and of course, Vijay does know that we love our food spicy:)
The salad came next – mixed greens with mango kachumber and cardamamom vinegerette. Interesting taste though I couldn’t quite taste the dressing. The combination of raw mango pieces with ripe ones added an interesting flavor though.
So far so good. We were already nodding in approval and the entree hadn’t arrived yet. There were a choice of 3 vegetarian entrees to choose from the lunch menu that day – Lauki Lazeez, Baby eggplant with gravy and Malai Kofta. Since we were five of us we ordered all three. Nikhil, being the “brat” he is, asked for Dal Makhni. Yeah, right, was my response…stick to the menu. To my and of course, his pleasant surprise, Chef Sadhu suggested he could get him a sampler of his dal, menu or not. I was impressed though I did mutter that he was spoiling my son. And I do want to add that I’m not mentioning this here to imply that you can go in to Sutra and expect to be catered to your whim every day, I’m sure there is a reason why they have a menu, but it exemplified the great service we got from the Chef.
We had tasted the Hyderebadi eggplant and the Malai Kofta before, and they were great, but the Lauki Lazeez and the Dal were the highlights. I mentioned to Chef Sadhu that I was going back to try the Dal again when it was a regular on his menu:). Flavorful and authentic would be the two words to describe the food thus far.
The best was yet to come. We had a choice of two desserts – kulfi with mango sauce and falooda noodles and a “bread pudding”.
I decided to be adventurous and try the bread pudding and I can safely say that this was the best adventurous decision I have made. In my humble opinion, this “double ka meetha” inspired dessert with saffron cream sauce and caramelized sugar topping was one of the best tasting Indian desserts I have had in a while. I had to take a picture of this as soon as it was garnished by the Chef himself.
Overall, a truly satisfying Mother’s Day lunch and a fitting way to celebrate. We would definitely go back to Sutra again.