Suran Thapa, chef at Situl Indian Restaurant, places marinated chicken quarters into the tandoor for an order of Tandoori Chicken.

SITUL INDIAN RESTAURANT , Location: 540 Brandywine Road behind Park Road Shopping Center Phone:704-523-0037 Fax:704-523-3155 Details: Take out, catering available, reservations accepted, 15 percent gratuity added for parties larger than six. The bar offers Indian, domestic and imported beers and a small but fine selection of wines by the bottle and glass. Prices: $2.99-$14.95; $6.99 buffet at lunch. Hours: Lunch: Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon-3 p.m. Dinner: Sunday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5-10:30 p.m.

Curry, cumin, coriander, saffron, mint and tamarind all make for the flavors and aromas of the cuisine of India. Charlotte is fortunate to have several good Indian restaurants, the newest among them, Situl.

Open five months, Situl Indian Restaurant, specializing in predominantly Northern Indian cuisine, is situated in a hard-to-find location at the back of Park Road Shopping Center. It's a flavorful find and slowly, but surely, the word is getting out.

Once you are seated at Situl, an order of traditional cracker or pampadam is served with onion chutney and a tamarind sauce. The chutney, made with onions and green chilies, is hot. The slightly thick, brown tamarind sauce is both spicy and sweet, good on a variety of appetizers as well as with the pampadams.

Start with Gobhi Pakoras, fresh cauliflower dipped in a chickpea flour batter and then deep fried, or meat or vegetable Samosas, pastries filled with either ground lamb and peas or peas and potatoes with a combination of traditional spices. We have found these to be among our favorite appetizers at Situl. For a great taste of several things, order the combination platter, a mix of meat and vegetable appetizers, or the vegetarian platter, an all-vegetable combination of starters, and select your favorites from the group.

Breads at Situl are not to be missed. While you'll want an order with dinner, they're an excellent way to start the meal, as well. Situl lists 15 breads on the menu, including several varieties of Nan, unleavened bread fresh-baked to order. You can order Nan plain or stuffed with potatoes for Aloo Nan, or stuffed with your choice of garlic, onions or spinach. A heartier version, Keema Nan is stuffed with spices and minced lamb. Roti is traditional bread baked much like Nan; it is just a bit crustier. Chapati is soft tortilla-like bread made from whole wheat and cooked on a griddle. Paratha is also griddle-cooked but with more butter than the chapati.

Order your choice of bread with a condiment tray offering fresh-made mango chutney, Indian pickle, mint chutney, the tamarind sauce and Raita, a yogurtbased sauce flavored with shredded cucumber and fresh mint. The flavors here are fabulous.

A well-known method of cooking Indian food is in the tandoor, a charcoal-fired oven made from clay. The tandoor is a traditional old-fashioned style of cooking. The clay oven heats to very high temperatures. Nan and Roti are both baked in the tandoor, as are a variety of lamb, fish and chicken dishes. Meats and seafood are marinated first and then roasted on skewers. Cooking times are quick because the oven is hot, and the result is healthy and light. There's no fat to speak of but lots of flavor. Most of the tandoori specialties are served dry without a sauce. Tandoori Chicken is perhaps the most popular offering, and at Situl your order comes to the table on a sizzling platter dressed with lightly sautéed onions, peppers and several wedges of lemon.

While the Tandoori Chicken was OK, another well-known Indian dish, Chicken Tikka Masala was much better. In this full-flavored dish, boneless roasted chicken is bathed in a tomato cream sauce and cooked with fresh herbs, ground nuts and traditional spices. The chicken is so tender it melts in your mouth, and the sauce so good that I could have eaten it alone, with a piece or two of Nan for dipping.

The Chicken Tikka Masala and Nan aside, some of our favorite dishes on the Situl menu are the vegetarian specialties.

RATING SCALE Excellent, a must try. Above average, worth consideration. Average, but nothing spectacular. Just okay. Poor, not recommended.

Outstanding offerings include Baingan Bhartha in which whole eggplant is roasted over an open flame, then peeled, mashed and sautéed with onions, garlic, ginger and spices. The Dal Makhni has also become a fast favorite. Dal is the Hindi word for lentils, and here black lentils are cooked with fresh herbs and spices, sautéed in butter and garnished with a sprinkling of fresh coriander leaves, better known in this country as cilantro.

Many of India's vegetarian dishes are served with a homemade cheese called paneer. The flavor and texture of paneer is quite plain, much like that of a mild feta. Try the paneer at Situl, made fresh, inhouse each week, mixed with fresh cooked spinach in Saag Paneer or with fresh cooked peas in Mutter Paneer. Served over a side of buttered basmati rice, both are quite satisfying.

Situl is a family-run operation, owned by Tulfi Bhandari and his wife. Bhandari came to this country from Nepal, India, and has lived in Charlotte since 1995 when he opened Diamond India, a restaurant on Monroe Road. After it closed in 2001, Bhandari decided to return to Nepal for a couple of years. After returning to Charlotte, Bhandari owned and operated Mukti Indian grocery in Matthews, which has closed now that he's concentrating his efforts on Situl.

One of the only downsides to dining at Situl is that the restaurant is small and the dining room tends to be a bit warm. Some of this is due to the building, and some to the heat of the tandoor in the kitchen. Regardless, there are ceiling fans in the dining room and the waitstaff is more than happy to adjust them to suit your preferences.

If Indian cuisine is a new culinary adventure for you, a good, reasonably priced way to try a lot of things is at Situl's luncheon buffet. The buffet is available every day during lunchtime for $6.99.

Tulfi Bhandari is the owner of Situl Indian Restaurant, located at the back of Park Road Shopping Center.

Well-known Charlotte restaurant critic, food writer, cooking instructor and connoisseur of food and wine, Heidi Edidin writes "South Charlotte Weekly: Culinary Corner," a restaurant review or food feature that appears weekly. Contact Heidi with questions and restaurant, food or story ideas by email at heidi@southcharlotteweekly.com.

SCW photos by Melissa Cherry.

This article first appeared in "South Charlotte Weekly" on June 4, 2004. "South Charlotte Weekly" is a free, locally owned, independent newspaper that's "About the Community, For the Community," available every Thursday in South Charlotte and Uptown.

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