This New Brunswick spot has an eclectic menu with an appeal that exceeds the considerable attractions of India’s broad range of cuisines.
By: Kate and Tom O’Neill
This Indian restaurant is a standout. Here you can discover a bread bar, a stylish ambience, and an eclectic menu with an appeal that exceeds the considerable attractions of India’s broad range of cuisines. Even those who are not usually partial to Indian food will be pleased by Piquant’s fusion of Indian with other cuisines, such as a tandoor-cooked pizza appetizer topped with cheddar cheese ($10) or portabella bread flavored with Monterey Jack cheese. New age adaptations, such as spiced potatoes with fenugreek leaves wrap ($10), are enticing and many items are vegetarian or vegan-friendly.
The atmosphere is serene and welcoming. Lustrous wood tables, plum-toned walls with sage highlights, and round, wide-spaced mirrors with elaborate Indian frames set the tone. They offer a visual link to the warm earthy spices diners often used in tandoor cooking.
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Piquant Bread Bar and Grill |
As the name implies, the menu features a wide assortment of Indian breads, all tandoor-baked. The bread sampler ($15) is a basket of four classic Indian breads: missi roti and haree roti (two whole wheat, herbed, seeded and spiced breads), paneer bread (paneer is similar to ricotta), and pappadum, a crisp, cracker-like flatbread. The breads came with a generous portion of spicy tomato dipping sauce. Those who order the à la carte bread bar ($13) choose one bread from the 12 on offer. It is served with lentils or chickpeas, vegetables and rice, along with a yogurt and bean salad and the chef’s pick of a seasonal vegetable. In addition to traditional Indian breads, the imaginative chef has created other choices, including rosemary and cheddar bread with crushed red bell peppers.
A complimentary basket of tasteless rice puffs were accompanied by a trio of chutneys: apple, tamarind and mint. We abandoned the puffs and enjoyed the chutney with our bread sampler. This arrived at the same time as our four appetizers, so the tabletop quickly became crowded with choices. Calculating the many permutations of that array of flavors would be challenging, but sampling the variety was intriguing and a source of lively conversation. For instance, we found that a delightful, Indian-accented mini-calzone resulted from applying the tomato sauce to the paneer bread.
More familiar was the baked samosa appetizer ($5), a healthy alternative to the familiar fried variety. It exuded the simple, natural flavors of pea-and-potato filling, enhanced by a mango-mint dressing. The crab cake ($9), garnished with avocado and tomato, was grilled to almost black and gained an Indian accent. Four brochettes of coconut shrimp ($14), grilled with pineapple chunks, encircled a ramekin of sweet and sour dipping sauce. Chilled mango soup ($5), seasoned with ginger and spiced rum, was somehow lost among our assertive, multi-textured appetizers. Comparable to a mango lassi ($5), but more interesting, it was ultra-smooth and refreshing, and might have been better enjoyed as a starter or even a dessert.
Piquant offers all dishes mildly spiced unless requested otherwise. We ordered our entrées at different levels: spicy, medium and mild. The server copied down these requests, but when the dishes arrived, the dish ordered "medium" was disappointingly "mild," and vice versa. Our server confirmed that he’d correctly recorded the orders, so the mix up must have occurred in the kitchen. While knowledgeable and helpful, he seemed uncertain and proved unschooled, when, for example, he touched each bread in the sampler as he identified it.
Echoing the satisfying comfort-food combination from the bread basket was paneer tikka ($22): nut-crusted tandoori cheese cubes mixed with tomato-onion sauce, accompanied both by missi roti (whole wheat bread with black lentils, leeks and pomegranate seeds) and basmati rice. The ingredients in Goan shrimp curry ($25) lime, assertive spices and fresh coconut milk sounded like an intriguing symphony of flavors, but somehow canceled each other out, leaving a muddled taste. The merely medium shrimp were accompanied by potatoes in curry sauce with basmati rice on the side. A side order of raita ($5) was cool and good for dipping bread and other tidbits. These included morsels of the tandoori lamb chops ($27), charred on the outside and cooked medium rare as ordered. The traditional yogurt and lemon marinade gave the chops added flavor and made them extremely light and tender.
All of the entrées would easily have satisfied two diners, even without the side dishes we ordered to go with them. The earthy blend of tandoor spices on the lamb paired well with spicy dal mahini ($6), puréed black lentils with kidney beans simmered with tomatoes. Indian side dishes are inexpensive, varied and lend themselves well to group dining the larger the group, the better. A mere trio, we had to forego some we would have enjoyed: malai kofta (vegetable dumplings), Punjabi karhee (vegetable fritters), paalak paneer (spinach with paneer cubes), chicken tikki masala, chicken vindaloo and piquant shrimp curry.
The imagination of the menu extends to the desserts. Rice pudding ($7) was sweet, smooth and topped, surprisingly, by a twist of soft, edible silver: true eye candy! Picture-perfect malai kulfi ($7) was the ultimate Indian sundae, served on a square, orange glass plate a pyramid of dulce de leche ice cream, bathed in sticky-sweet caramel and acidic-sweet tamarind sauce.

