You know a restaurant has a winning formula when demand drives more locations. The first Coromandel opened in Darien, Connecticut, in 2000, and the second, in New Rochelle, came just one year later; since then, the owners have added four other locations, all in Connecticut. Hailing from Kerala, in Southern India on the Coromandel Coast, the owners decided to offer South Indian cuisine in addition to the North Indian mainstays found at most Indian restaurants.
That’s why the menu includes tandoori chicken, rogan josh, chicken tikka masala, lamb saag, biryani, and garlic naan, plus South Indian specialties like masala dosa (a rice crêpe stuffed with spiced potatoes and peas, served with sambhar and coconut chutney), Kerala fish curry, and tawa ruyyali (shrimp and crab meat with onion, tomato, and spices). Coromandel also offers its own signature dishes, like sham savera (cottage cheese and spinach dumplings with curried tomato-honey sauce) and calamari Coromandel (with onions, bell peppers, garlic, and curry leaves).
To match the vibrant cuisine, Coromandel sells 10 wines by the glass and 40 by the bottle, plus 12 cocktails. The carpeted, contemporary-style dining room, with white-tablecloth-covered tables, features royal blue and red walls, plus blue, red, green, and yellow hanging lights. The large restaurant, which prepares food for takeout and delivery (to New Rochelle, Pelham, and Larchmont), has a banquet hall that can accommodate 110 people.
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Jim Killoran of New Rochelle has been a customer for 14 years and visits almost every day. He loves the saag paneer, mango lassi, naan, and chicken tikka masala. Killoran says Coromandel manager and co-owner Joji Parappallil offers “the ultimate in customer service; you feel like a million bucks [when you go there]. Service is of the utmost importance and is always consistent.”
30 Division St
New Rochelle
(914) 235-8390
www.coromandelcuisine.com/new-rochelle.html
