An Indian aroma arrives
By Seth Brown, Special to the Eagle
Thursday, March 17, 2011
PITTSFIELD - Aroma Bar & Grill is simply a good-
looking restaurant. Diners not expecting much out
of Allendale Plaza will be pleasantly surprised by the
beautiful decor, which -- between the fishtank, the
wallpaper, and the generally tasteful but understated
layout -- lends a pleasant atmosphere to the whole
place. The Indian music, like the walls, provides
ambiance without overpowering.
This is not the first restaurant for owners Dalip
Kapur and Parmjin Singh Chahal. They opened the
previous Aroma restaurant in Great Barrington in
2005. Kapur, originally from India, owned a
vacuuming business in Lanesborough in 2003
when he was invited to get into the restaurant
business.
"A friend of mine, my partner, invited me to join him
at House of India in Pittsfield," Kapur recalled.
Chahal and Kapur enjoyed working together as
chefs and eventually decided to open their own
restaurant. They wanted to include food from all
regions of India -- not just their native North, but
from the South, East, and West of India as well.
Having made plenty of Indian food in the past, they
were quick to assemble their menu.
"My friend Chahal in Great Barrington has these
traditional recipes that we have taken from India,"
Kapur explained. "The technique we don't get from
anyone: It's just traditional, so we keep on changing
it. The food we get the majority of locally; the rest
we get from Worcester, imported from India."
After half a decade operating the original Aroma in
Great Barrington, they decided to open a second
location. Aroma's Pittsfield location opened in January
and offers lunch buffets on the weekends. | "We were doing very well in Great Barrington," said
Kapur, "and thought to move back into Pittsfield
because it was a bigger town with more small towns
nearby. It was a good opportunity, so we decided to
move on here."
Kapur alternates trips to India with Chahal, but when
he is at the restaurant he does everything.
"I work all parts of the restaurant," he said,
"depending on where they need me."
The menu is very large, with more than 150 items
that range from Indian lamb, chicken and goat, to
New York strip steaks. Lunch on the weekends offers
a buffet, but as it was a Thursday I decided to try the
lunch specials ($11), which come with a main
course on a sectioned dish with rice, raita, pakora
and a choice of breads.
The Kashmiri Rogan Josh offered cubes of lamb
cooked with butter, onions and spices. The result
was a rich and creamy sauce that both
complemented the lamb and went nicely over the
rice. The other main dish, Keema Matar, was ground
lamb in a collection of herbs and spices that tasted
as though it included a prodigious amount of
cilantro and a dash of heat.
My favorite part of the meal was not the main
courses. While the Roti (healthy whole wheat bread)
may not have been overly flavorful, the Poori (a
large puffed piece of fried bread) had a delicate
texture and was nicely satisfying. After whetting my
appetite for deep-fried goodness, I was delighted by
the pakoras. These vegetables deep-fried in
chickpea batter were the kind of flavorful comfort
food that I feel I could eat an infinity of -- which
makes me want to come back for the buffet. | In the meantime, since I had only consumed a finite
amount of lunch, I decided to order dessert.
A few classic Indian dessert options were on the
menu, but I ordered my longtime favorite, Gulab
Jamun ($4). Two warm, perfectly textured balls of
cream dumpling, floating in syrup and rose water,
sprinkled with pistachios, were rich, tasty and
exactly what I was craving.
Kapur, always busy, is already talking about his
upcoming dry cleaning business in Great
Barrington. But in the meantime, he's got a new
restaurant that serves up some food worth trying.
If you go...
What: Aroma Bar & Grill
Where: 5 Cheshire Road (Allendale Plaza) Pittsfield
Hours: Lunch served 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday
to Sunday -- buffet Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Dinner served 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Accessibility: Accessible
Credit Cards: Major
Price Range: $8 to $24
Information: (413) 499-6500
Rating: 3.5 Chef's hats
An explanation of the ranking system
1: Avoid
2: Some decent food, but some problems
3: Good food, worth giving a try
4: Deserves repeat visits
5: Take visiting friends here to impress them |
