Eat The Menu: Clay Oven – Beyond (Way Beyond!) Chicken Tikka

At last! The sound you hear is a sigh of relief—and gratitude—that the quest is over. The metro now hosts an Indian restaurant that goes beyond (way-way beyond!) the routine staples of tandoor, curry and biryani dishes that emanate (or so I believe) from one vast underground and over-rated kitchen.

Clay Oven recently debuted in the Mill District, occupying a Spartan-chic setting of blond bricks and bright window wall harboring a row of comfy booths and aisle of tables. It’s launched by the proprietor of Uptown’s India Palace (among his other cafes) but far more expansive in its fare.  The take-out menu, indeed, is printed in type almost too tiny for the naked eye in order to fit all the kitchen’s options on a tri-fold.

A warning: this is not for the faint of decision-making. Even by narrowing our choices, for the two of us dining tonight, down to five dishes, we almost needed a U-Haul to head home with our doggie bags.

Bypassing the more-standard appetizer offerings you’ll recognize, we turned straight to the Street Foods listing of a dozen nibbles ($10-16, meant for sharing) of snacks I’d previously only savored in India itself—if ever. Take the gol gappe, for instance, billed as the “most popular” of these bites. It’s edible entertainment, almost like a party game. The serving tray presents diners with a line-up of lacy, crunchy, deep-fried shells of golf-ball size spun of semolina threads; each contains tiny morsels of chickpeas and potato, to be sprinkled with a pair of sauces—one, herbal green, the other, a slightly sweet-sour mahogany. Next, insert soup-spoonfuls from an accompanying glass of (mildly) “spicy water,” then pop it in your eager mouth all at once, and smile.

Another Street Foods app caught our fancy: Amritsari chole kulche—a meal in itself built upon a steaming round of kulcha bread enriched with warmly-spiced onions, potato and chunks of paneer (similar to firm cottage cheese). It’s accompanied by a generous scoop of addictively delicious chana masala (garbanzo beans) stewed with onion, tomatoes, ginger and garlic: sounds good; tastes even better. A side of tart, mustard-y pickled veggies is yours to play with, too.

South Indian specialties I’d enjoyed as breakfast fare in India (but rarely-to-never to be found in our metro) make their appearance, too, including paper dosa (crispy lentil crepes) and idly (bland, steamed rice cakes), both meant to be livened with sides of sambar (akin to tamarind-scented vegetable soup) and coconut chutney.

The list of entrees is extravagant, ranging from the usual clay (tandoor) oven fare like chicken tikka to a wider list of chicken dishes ($14-16). From these, we chose chicken josh, harboring tender fingers of white meat in a creamy, salmon-pink yogurt sauce infused with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and ginger in balanced amounts that caress but don’t overpower the palate when spooned over the accompanying basmati rice. (Or summon another protein of your choice as its building block.)

Next, the familiar basmati-based biryani, but this time, we took advantage of the option to choose goat as our protein (and bone-in chunks, at that), which is harder to come by in the usual Palace-type kitchens: rich, tender and delicious, especially when crowned with a drizzle of the accompanying raita (tart and runny yogurt  infused with cooling cucumber) ready to refresh your palate. You don’t fancy goat (tender, dark meat of mellow flavor)? Five other biryani choices await.

But who even needs meat at Clay Oven? The list of vegetarian dishes ($12-15) seems endless. From it we chose (not my usual go-to, spinach-based palak paneer: next time)—the kitchen’s baingan bhartha: eggplant, roasted to unlock savory depths of flavor, then mashed and blended with tomatoes, peas and onions, wafting come-hither waves of cardamom and cloves.

Because we were still harboring hunks of our earlier order of kulcha bread, we bypassed the many naans and rotis on offer. Nor did we attempt the tandoor fare, because—for once—we left room for dessert. In India, I’ve found these creations to range from very sweet to even sweeter, so we played it safe with an order of kesar kulfi, the Indian version of ice cream ($6). Haagan Dazs it’s not, of course: far less rich, less creamy, almost chalky in its layered texture—ours, flavored with saffron and pistachios (and a very sweet sauce I’d recommend skipping).

Clay Oven’s liquor license had not yet come through, but by the time you read this, you can hoist a Kingfisher (or another beer of your choice, or whatever). Service is swift, sweet and helpful. I’ll be back soon and often. Dare I say that this is the best Indian restaurant in the metro?

1027 S. Washington Ave.
(612) 887-1075
www.mnclayoven.com