Marivent - Darbar Tandoori Indian Restaurant

Darbar Tandoori sits on Carrer de Bartomeu Fons in Cala Major, a few steps above the bay and across from the Marivent grounds. That same Marivent turns up in the name the house is filed under on mapping services — it refers to the location, not to the business. The name guests, delivery portals and review sites all use is simply Darbar. What sets this house apart from the island's many curry houses is not a line in a self-description but the way its menu is built. It is laid out as a grid: eleven sauce families on one axis, six main ingredients on the other, every combination with its own number. And one of those six ingredients is venison. Ciervo: venison right across the menu Ciervo means venison, and at Darbar it is not a curiosity parked at the edge of the card but an ingredient like chicken or lamb. It runs through the entire grid: Ciervo Bhuna, Ciervo Madras, Ciervo Dopiaza, Ciervo Masala, Ciervo Dansak, Ciervo Vindaloo, Ciervo Pasanda, Ciervo Jalfrezi, Ciervo Kashmiri, Ciervo Korma, Ciervo Rogan Josh. It also comes in the balti pan, with spinach as well, as Ciervo Biryani and among the house specials — as Ciervo Makhan, as Ciervo Karhai and as Ciervo Darbar Especial. Game is rare on Indian menus, and where it does turn up it is usually a single dish. Here it carries the same range as the chicken. The grid at Darbar: eleven sauces, six ingredients The sauce axis runs from mild to hot. Korma and Pasanda sit at the creamy, nutty end, Kashmiri turns fruity, Dopiaza works with plenty of onion, Bhuna cooks down thick, Dansak brings lentils, Rogan Josh and Masala sit in the middle, Jalfrezi gets sharper with peppers and chilli, Madras and Vindaloo mark the hot end. On the other axis: chicken, lamb, beef, prawns, fish and venison. That the fish, too, gets every one of the eleven sauces is not a given either. Beside it stands a block of house dishes: Agra Especial and Darbar Khas, Chingri Darbar Masala with prawns, Palak Chuza with spinach, Cordero Rara, Pollo Akbari, Punjabi Korma, and chicken with mango, with lemon or with fenugreek. A further block belongs to the balti: chicken, lamb, beef, prawns and venison each on their own, with potato, chickpeas, spinach or vegetables as you prefer. Tandoor, vegetables and a long bread list To start there are poppadom, keema and vegetable samosa, pakora, cebolla bhaji, alu tikki, paneer tikka and gambas puri, plus two soups. Out of the clay oven come chicken on and off the bone, malai tikka and achari tikka, shaslik, resmi kebab and lamb sheek kebab, along with gambón tandoori, fish tikka and a mixed grill. The vegetarian side is broad: dal tarka and dal makhni, palak paneer, karahi paneer and paneer tikka masala, malai kofta, gobi korma, vegetables in the Kashmiri and in the Pasanda sauce. A separately marked vegan balti block brings rajmah, chana masala, okra bhindi, berenjenas bhartha, bombay aloo, aloo gobi, saag aloo and mushroom bhaji. The bread list is unusually long: naan plain, with garlic, with cheese, with butter, mixed, as keema naan with minced meat and as sweet peshwari naan, along with chapati and tandoori chapati, aloo paratha, butter paratha, poori and bhatura. The rice goes just as far: basmati plain or as pilau, with egg, mushrooms, garlic, lemon or mango, as keema rice and as Kashmiri basmati with coconut. Raita, boondi raita and dahi stand beside them, and at the end gajrela made from carrots and gulab jamun, with mango lassi, beer and a wine list sorted into red, white, rosé and sparkling. Cala Major, opposite Marivent Carrer de Bartomeu Fons branches off Avinguda de Joan Miró, the coast road that runs west out of Palma. It lies a little off the main road, and that shapes the evening: you do not end up here in passing, you come here on purpose. Families are looked after — there is a children's menu with mild curry, chicken breast, nuggets and fish fingers, and set menus for one to four people that bundle starter, curry, rice and bread. And the menu travels: the kitchen packs it to take away.