South Indian food @ Ajanta, Tokyo

We'd actually planned to try out another south Indian restaurant recommended by one of Rob's collegues, but Ajanta happened to be conveniently located in the area we'd planned to be last Sunday. Apparently it was established in Tokyo more than 50 years ago, one of the first Indian restaurants to be set up in Tokyo. As a result, it is quite a well-known Indian restuarant which has received many good reviews for its dishes and long operating hours. I have noticed that there are many Indian restaurants specialising in northern Indian cuisine in and around Tokyo (our favourite neighbourhood Indian restaurant serves northern Indian cuisine), but South Indian restaurants are not as prolific (or perhaps I'm not as observant as I like to think I am!). Perhaps the most distinguishing difference between the cuisines of north and south India is that bread like naan, chapati and paratha dominates the table in North India, whereas rice is the staple in South India - although not in an exclusive sense since both bread and rice are common in both counterparts.

When we arrived at Ajanta for lunch, we were instructed to go upstairs for the dining area. The kitchen, bar and a small casual dining area is located downstairs while the slightly more formal dining room is upstairs. I suppose it makes sense to situate the kitchen downstairs to make it easy for takeaway orders, although I am a bit curious as to how the food was being transported between the two levels as the stairs were clearly not used for that purpose. It was a good sign that all of the kitchen and waitstaff were Indian, which lent a certain feel of authenticity. The menu was quite extensive with plenty of varieties of curry, tandoori, Indian bread and rice dishes to choose from. There was also an accompanying lunch set menu from which you can choose two types of dishes to have with either naan or rice for 1500yen. The mango lassi was the most expensive lassi we've ever had (700yen) but it was also one of the nicest and most flavourful lassi we've ever had.



One of the menu items I was particularly interested in was the dosa, a crêpe-like dish made from lentils and rice. There were two types of dosa on the menu, the Masala Dosa and the Ajanta Special Dosa. When I asked what the difference between the two was, I was told that the Masala one was the traditional type, whereas the other one was a house specialty. I ordered the Masala Dosa (~1600yen) since I'd never eaten dosa before and wanted to get an idea of what the usual one is like. It was huge, and came with an eggplant sambar (mild vegetable stew) and a coconut chutney. I really liked it! The crêpe was crispy, with a lovely curried filling of potatoes and onion, reminiscent of the much-loved Malaysian curry puff. The sambar and chutney were good and tasty, but the dosa was perfectly fine on its own without them.

Rob ordered the Lunch Set with Dhal, Mutton Saag and Naan. He was disappointed with the dhal, which he thought lacked flavour and spice, was too watery and hence made a poor accompaniment to the naan bread. I was a bit more lenient on the dhal, and since my dosa was more flavourful than the naan, we swapped one of my dishes for his dhal. The mutton saag was nice and spicy, but not as chilli spicy as Rob would have liked it. The mutton was beautifully tender, but I found the dish rather rich so I couldn't have too much of it.

Masala Dosa and the Lunch Set with Dhal and Mutton Saag:


I was quite satisfied with lunch, although I'm not too sure if Rob was as happy.