Agra Tandoori Indian Restaurant

Agra Tandoori Indian Restaurant sits on the Paseo Marítimo in Palma, on the ground floor of Avinguda de Gabriel Roca, with the harbour basins directly opposite. That is an unusual address for a curry house. Most of the island's Indian kitchens stand in the coastal resorts; this one stands on the capital's broad seafront road, a few doors from the Auditòrium and immediately below the hillside quarters of Santa Catalina and Es Jonquet. The house describes its cooking as Indian and Pakistani, and the menu makes that claim easy to follow: more than a hundred and fifty dishes, arranged by starters, fish, tandoor, curries, vegetarian sections, biryanis, breads and side dishes. If you like to read for a while before you order, this is the right place. The Agra Tandoori menu: a kit rather than a list The core of the menu is not a catalogue of finished dishes but a kit. You pick the base first — chicken, lamb, prawns, king prawns or beef — and then the preparation. On offer are masala, pasanda, korma, methi, bhuna, dopiaza, dansak, balti, rogan josh, jalfrezi, madras, karahi, vindaloo and a spinach curry with ginger and garlic, plus the kashmiri version, which turns fruity with pineapple, banana and lychee. Every preparation carries a heat marking on the menu. Korma and pasanda sit at the mild end, both with cream and almonds, the korma also with coconut and raisins; madras and vindaloo sit at the other. That beef appears on an Indian menu at all is not a given on this island, and it fits the Pakistani strand the house claims for itself. As its best-known dishes the house itself names the korma, the chicken tikka masala from the skewer in the clay oven, and the chicken tandoori, a piece of chicken marinated in yoghurt and spices. The tandoor also turns out chicken on the bone, shaslik with onions, mushrooms and peppers, a mixed grill and chilli paneer. The bread section is substantial enough to mention on its own: naan in several fillings up to the peshwari with coconut and raisins, tandoori roti from wholemeal flour, paratha stuffed with potato, plus poori and bhatoora. Eating vegetarian on the Paseo Marítimo The vegetarian side is no footnote here; it runs across three sections of its own. Among the starters are pakora made from vegetables and from house cheese, samosa with peas and potato, alu tikki and papadam. The vegetarian main courses run from gobi korma, cauliflower in a sauce of almonds, yoghurt, cream and coconut, through karahi vegetables with ginger and coriander and vegetable pasanda to two dals — tarka from yellow lentils, makani from black ones. On top of that comes a whole section built around the house-made fresh cheese: palak paneer with spinach, paneer bhurji, mutter paneer with peas, shahi paneer, chilli paneer, paneer tikka masala and malai kofta. Among the side dishes it pays to look at the bottom of the menu — Bombay potatoes, chickpeas in a dry sauce, aubergines in masala, mushrooms, potatoes with spinach. The rice page carries kashmiri rice with coconut and lemon rice alongside the pilau. Anyone with a question about ingredients or intolerances can raise it with the staff; the house says so explicitly. Two rooms, a terrace and the rest of the house Inside, the restaurant spreads across two separate rooms on two floors — a layout the house itself highlights, because it lets larger parties be seated without taking over the rest. At the front there is a small terrace facing the promenade. For celebrations Agra Tandoori takes groups and keeps its own set menus ready for them; anyone who would rather not come in can collect or have food delivered. There is a small selection for children on the menu. A good measure of the ambition is the biryani section. Alongside the usual versions with chicken, lamb, prawns, minced meat, beef or vegetables there is a house biryani in which chicken, lamb and prawns lie in the basmati rice together with cashews, almonds, raisins and pistachio. That is no longer a side dish but the centre of a plate.