The New York Times, Connecticut. Thali, Feast of all Sunday Feasts, Patricia Brooks

The New York Times / Connecticut
Feast of All Sunday Feasts, Indian Style
By PATRICIA BROOKS
Published August 1, 2004

THE last time I looked, the Indian restaurant at the Ridgefield Motor Inn on Route 7 had a different name (Kismet) and ownership. Now the name is Thali, a cousin to the restaurant of the same name in New Canaan.

Thali is decorated in a quasi-high-tech style (as is the one in New Canaan). While fretted wood screens and other traditional accents aren't essential to enjoying an Indian meal, I do find the loud pop music and shiny aluminum surfaces at Thali a bit off-putting at first.

Once the aromatic food began to arrive, the décor problems faded fast. The menu, subtitled ''Regional Cuisine of India,'' lives up to its claim, with dishes from various parts of the sub-continent. While the food at Thali is ''Very Good'' over all, the Sunday brunch buffet is ''Excellent.'' It may be the best of its kind in the state. I would urge you to plan your visit to Thali around this Sunday feast.Not only is the quality high, but the brunch offers exceptional value: $13.95 for ''all you can eat'' of 20 dishes plus several hot breads and three or four desserts. The dishes are not warmed over from weekday leftovers; they are fresh-tasting, imaginative and delicious.

The buffet room exudes fragrant aromas, emanating from huge copper serving pots. The brunch menu is mostly South Indian, with many well-seasoned vegetable dishes, beginning with snacks like paper-thin dosas and uthapam. When I visited the Indian cities of Madras and Cochin, I breakfasted daily on delicate rice crêpe dosas; the happy memory of
them was revived at Thali.Two of the tastiest dishes are the spicy tandoori chicken wings (browned, moist and deeply seasoned) and goungara mamsam (translated: ''pickled lamb''). This dish is a medley of sour sorrel-like greens, chilis and subtly spiced lamb chunks so tender they almost dissolve in the mouth.

The Indian vegetable dishes were so flavorsome they could easily convert me to vegetarianism. The ones on the Thali buffet tables are especially tangy, dishes like gobi matter (spicy cauliflower and peas), sunehari bindi (crisp, tangy okra) and hara tikki (spinach-lentil patties). The tamarind rice with cumin and mustard seeds also has a bit of zing.

While the Sunday buffet is so spectacular, I don't mean to downplay other Thali meals. Dinner is a delight, with such treats as the signature lamb chops seasoned with nutmeg, cardamom, caraway and mace and baigan dahiwala (small whole eggplants in a tempered yogurt sauce). Bagar dal (lentils and chick peas in a garlic-cumin sauce) had more character than dal often does. Ghost banjara, a Hyderbad dish (goat on the bone) had a richly spiced sauce, but there was more bone than meat.

The lunch menu differs from dinner and is also compelling. One day I enjoyed an appetizer of tawa crab: chopped crab with tomatoes and chili in a creamy ginger-turmeric sauce so rewarding it should be bottled and available for sale. It would taste wonderful with any number of dishes. Hara maatch, an entree, consisted of salmon perfectly steamed in a banana leaf, served with an intense cilantro sauce. Accompanied by a zesty bagare baigan (whole baby eggplants in a silky tamarind-sesame sauce) and piping hot garlic nan bread, it was a perfect lunch.While I often enjoy beer with Indian food, Thali's extensive wine list, which begins at $18, has some lovely choices that go well with Indian food, especially the sweet, assertive German and Alsatian Rieslings. At brunch we enjoyed a Dr. Fischer 2002 Ockfener Bockstein Spätlese at $22.

Satisfying as lunch and dinner are, the big star at Thali is still the Sunday brunch buffet. As the guidebooks might say, this is worth a detour.

Thali
296 Ethan Allen Highway,
Ridgefield
(203) 894-1080