Author: GCS

Shaan Indian 
3434 Fruitvale Ave @MacArthur, Oakland
www.shaanindiancuisine.com
Review date:  August 2009

This small Indian restaurant opened up in the Dimond district, right next to the Laurel. We ordered some of our usual Indian favorites to see how Shaan compares. 

Surprisingly, Shaan offers a Mulligatawny soup. This old British Empire classic is hardly ever seen any longer, although it was still popular when I was a kid – Campbell’s even offered a canned version! This one was tasty, exactly like the retro but reliable Chinese/Japanese curry stand-by, S&W Golden Curry cubes. Carlos enjoyed it very much.

We ordered the Tandoori mixed grill, Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potatoes in a dry curry) and Chicken Vindaloo (hot spicy curry with potatoes; tomato-based). We also added raita (yoghurt with diced veggies), onion kulcha (onion stuffed bread), and a couple of cups of hot chai.

Unfortunately, although Shaan’s spicing is good, they uniformly overcook all the meats. The Vindaloo wasn’t spicy at all, but surprisingly enough, the onion kulcha was stuffed with a good sprinkling of hot chilis with those onions! We didn’t order rice, but they brought us some automatically. 

The raita was a little tart, but Carlos was okay with it (he hates yoghurt in any other form), and I liked that there was a lot of onion, cucumber and tomatoes all finely chopped up in it. 

Considering that opening an Indian restaurant in the Dimond/Laurel area is a little risky as a financial proposition, I was actually surprised the food was as good as it was. On the downside however, House of Curries, which has a location we haven’t tried near the Oakland Airport (we reviewed the Solano Ave. branch on April 2009), is cheaper and their lamb tandoori is much, much better. Their curries aren’t quite as memorable, but HoC is almost exactly half as expensive as Shaan.

And Indus Village on San Pablo in Berkeley, which we reviewed in June 2009 (and revisited in early August), is the same price but much more distinctive in their spicing, with better overall cooking. Shaan is okay, but not close enough to IV’s level.

One soup, one side, three entrees, three cups of chai, with tip came to $52.