Mein bukha hun.

With an explo­sion of eth­nic restau­rants in the Cincinnati area, we here at HighStreet can’t resist try­ing them all. But what we really like is authen­tic­ity. It’s kinda like when we travel some­where, we like to lay low and avoid the tourists areas. We stay in neigh­bor­hoods and try to live like the locals do. Authenticity is truly some­thing we like and try to live by.

So when we read in Cincinnati Magazine that there is an area in the north­ern sub­urbs that is called “Little Bombay” we got excited. We con­jured up images of an authen­tic Indian neigh­bor­hood with stores and peo­ple walk­ing the streets in sarongs. Well real­ity turned out to be some­thing quite dif­fer­ent. We should have known that some­thing that “rad­i­cal” would not be hap­pen­ing in Sharonville, OH. Quite frankly “Little Bombay” is a the occa­sional Indian restau­rant or gro­cery inter­spersed at half mile inter­vals along the Reading Road cor­ri­dor. But alas from this hodge­podge of enclaves we found two gems of what we gather is authen­tic Indian food.

The first restau­rant that we absolutely love is just north of the down­town area of Sharonville called Brij Mohan that is actu­ally more of an Indian bak­ery that also serves a lim­ited Indian veg­e­tar­ian menu of entrees. Since this is purely a veg­e­tar­ian place, make sure you get an entree with chick peas in it for your pro­tein fix. There are many excel­lent dishes here, but we warn you the dishes can get spicy. But the main draw here are the sweet deserts. Our fave is the ras malai, pis­ta­chio fla­vored paneer cheese in sweet milk. We usu­ally get sev­eral orders of this for carry out and it lasts for sev­eral days. Make nice with the owner who is always behind the cash reg­is­ter and she will steer you with suggestions.

Our newest dis­cov­ery is on US 42 just north of I-275 in a small strip mall hid­den behind a White Castle. Sankalp is a rather new restau­rant next to an Indian grovery. Upon entry it is quickly evi­dent that this is a cool place. The decor is mod­ern but still sparse. And more impor­tantly, like Brij Mohan, roughly 80 — 90% of the clien­tele are Indian fam­i­lies. This tells us that these places are about as authen­tic as it gets around here. Sankalp boasts an exten­sive menu. One thing we found inter­est­ing is the fact that a merg­ing of Chinese and Indian food is com­mon in India, much like Mexican cui­sine is ever present in the US. It makes sense to us, and Sankalp offers a few dishes which it dubs Indo-Chinese fea­tur­ing rice noo­dles or fried rice. We have seen sev­eral list­ings for Sankalp that say it is also only a veg­e­tar­ian restau­rant but the last time we were there we had a chicken curry on the buf­fet bar. There has always been a buf­fet bar that has been open every time we go there, but we can’t say for cer­tain that the buf­fet is always there. And every once in awhile we catch glimpses of an Indian chef in full chef uni­form come out of the kitchen and this makes us appre­ci­ate this place all the more. The next time we are there we are reach­ing for a salted lime soda, and baigan ka bharta (roasted egg­plant with toma­toes and fresh herbs). It doesn’t get any bet­ter than that.

And what is all the more promis­ing is that we have spot­ted two more Indian restau­rants in the Sharonville area that we have yet to hit. So if you love curry and exotic spices, per­haps you should check out this area of town and dis­cover your new favorite places. These Indian restau­rants and the fab­u­lous dim sum at nearby Uncle Yip’s will make this area a fre­quent stop for us for a long time.

And by the way, the title of this post means, “I am hun­gry” in Hindi, ’nuff said.

HighStreet. Cincinnati