If you walk past Shiva's Indian Restaurant and Bar, you might guess from the thumping music out front and decorator lighting/color scheme in the foyer that it's a nightclub. But once inside, you're welcomed by low-key, friendly staff, puffy clouds painted on the ceiling, and serene colors highlighted in the evening by candlelight, as if you've just stepped through the wardrobe.
Aside from its sleek bar at the rear, Shiva's doesn't feel clubby at all, with a relaxed ambience attracting a mix of families with children, young folk, and not-as-young folk enjoying an evening without grandchildren. In 2005 Shiva's was voted Best New Restaurant in the Mountain View Voice, one of the Weekly's sister papers. It's still doing well, drawing a brisk work crowd at lunch and plenty of patrons on weekend nights, especially.
Shiva's takes a risk with diners like me by limiting lunch offerings to a buffet (Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. for $11.95; Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. for $12.95), which offers a dozen or so hot entrees, appetizers, a small salad bar, rolls and desserts.
Buffets rightly have a reputation for wearing down foods, which can dry out, become soggy, grow leaden -- you name it. But Shiva's gives careful consideration to which foods survive buffets. While I didn't love every food in the line-up, none seemed to have suffered.
I did love Shiva's butter chicken, as does everyone else. So either jump in the buffet line early or make sorties to see if it's been replenished. This house specialty of Tandoor-grilled chicken is simmered to tenderness (not mush), in a creamy gravy the menu says is tomato-based with honey (but which I think secretly is just a stick of butter).
The other chicken curry in the buffet was a little dry, but the lunch buffet changes daily to keep things interesting.
One of the buffet food's ID tags described it as "cottage cheese" simmered with bell pepper and spices. The cheese is actually paneer, and the result is a powerful bell pepper taste with cubes that are a cross between tender chicken and tofu in texture.
Remember to ask for a basket of hot naan for the table. The people at Shiva's are too smart to leave naan withering on the buffet.
At night, the buffet area becomes another dining section, and you're given an actual menu. Shiva's sizeable menu is divided into appetizers, soups and salads, accompaniments, kebabs (vegetarian, chicken, lamb, seafood), curries (vegetarian, lamb, chicken, seafood), and desserts. Food is served family-style so everyone can poach from one another.
We started with aloo tikki chat, deep-fried potato patties topped with vegetables and chutneys of tamarind and mint ($4.95). It's a good, complex food with so many flavors going on it's hard to remember you're eating potatoes.
Goan chicken vindaloo ($14.95) is a smoldering dark red curry with chicken and potatoes, fired with peppers and spices. My dinner date said after tasting a flight of wines, perhaps a flight of beers might have been better with the blazing vindaloo. But the curries at Shiva's span the whole continuum of spiciness, from mild and creamy curries to wicked vindaloos.
Dal lakhnavi ($9.95) is near the cooler end of the scale, though with a heat that accumulates as you eat. A variety of lentils, simmered overnight in a highly seasoned garlic sauce, create a creamy, vegetarian dish with real depth and flavor.
You have to have bread, if only to save yourself from the curries you've ordered. But the house naan ($2.95) basted with olive oil and herbs is so soft and delicious, I could order just naan for dinner. There's an entire section of oven-fresh breads (stuffed and otherwise) on the menu. Someday I might tear myself away from Shiva's naan and try a different bread.
The cooling house raita ($3.95) is delicious with bread, on your fingers, between bites of spicy foods, or apparently straight, since I saw one small child practically drinking this whipped yogurt, mint, cumin, onion and cucumber. Into the mouths of babes.
Other drinks include coffee, milk (to salve smoking taste buds), a laudable wine list, and mixed drinks from the bar such as specialty cocktails. As I mentioned, there are also flights of wine (with tasting notes) to conduct your own private tasting, or if you're just indecisive. The Around the World ($11) flight includes an Indian wine.
My only suggestion for Shiva's has nothing to do with the food, but with the volume of the music out front, where people wait to meet with friends, or step outside to make calls. It's too loud to chat over easily, and a tad misleading about what dining is like there.
