Aurora Eats: Star of India

We love Indian food. It's more than love, it's really an obsession. Girlfriend and I used to go to a mediocre Indian restaurant in New Orleans because it was the only one in town, and we even learned how to make naan (the flatbread), saag (the creamy spinachy goodness), and paneer (the fresh cheese) at home. So when we moved to Aurora and saw the vast array of Indian restaurants, we were beyond excited.

But which one to go to? There's Taj, Taz, India's Cuisine, Star of India, Masalaa...and that's just in Aurora; if you included the rest of the Denver area you could probably go to a different one every night for a month. I realized we had to starts somewhere, so I looked at online reviews and picked Star of India. Now we might not try any others because it's SO GOOD and we have to go back for the buffet.

Paneer pakora = fried cheese = heaven. And don't forget the dipping sauces!

Like a Mexican restaurant starts you off with tortilla chips or a shitty American fast-casual chain starts you off with peanuts (I'm looking at you, Texas Roadhouse!), Star of India starts you off with a thin, crunchy cracker (I think it's called papadum) and two sauces.

I think one sauce is fresh ginger and cilantro and the other is the Divine Ambrosia of the Gods.

It was very hard to choose because everything on the menu looked amazing, but we went with Chicken Saag (the spinach dish on the left), and Bhartha Makhani (the mix of eggplant, peas, and other vegetables on the right). The chicken was tender, the saag was creamy and perfectly seasoned, and the eggplant stuff was just insanely good. The portions don't look huge, but after our crackers (which the helpful waiter brought a second basket of) and the fried cheese we barely could eat half and brought the rest home for leftovers.

Indian food makes the best leftovers ever.

You can get many different kinds of naan, so we decided to try Onion Kulcha, which is stuffed with onions and spices.

I don't know if it'll replace my favorite, Garlic Naan, but it's pretty delicious.

 Our waiter told us all about the lunch buffet and dinner buffet, and even brought us a complimentary dessert of rice pudding with mango custard.

Here it is mostly gone. It was that good.

Very important fact: the lunch buffet is $10.95. You'll be seeing me there.