Standing strong: Longtime Indian favorite Curry Leaf soldiers on

The would-be dining and entertainment hub at 6910 Montgomery Blvd. near Louisiana Boulevard has special meaning for me. It was the site of my first restaurant review for the Journal.

The year was 2018 and the place was the unfortunately named Tap That, a Vietnamese restaurant with an epic selection of beers available from self-service taps lined up along one wall. We sampled a beer or two, shared a burger and some tacos, and then finished the night with an ice cream at the Taiwanese-inspired Sweet Tooth Desserts next door.

Standing strong: Longtime Indian favorite Curry Leaf soldiers on

I remember how lively it was that night. There were lots of people, lots of cars in the parking lot. The sign indicating an Uber pickup and dropoff spot reflected the optimism that the address would become a destination for people throughout the city.

Unfortunately, the good vibes didn’t last. Not quite six years later, Tap That and Sweet Tooth are gone. Two other places — Raw and Sauce Ultralounge and Cantina Loca — opened and closed there in the relative blink of an eye. A recent Saturday night found broken glass littering the nearly empty parking lot in the back.

The dreary scene makes it all the more impressive that the Indian restaurant Curry Leaf is still chugging along right in the middle of this seemingly cursed spot. Longtime restaurateur Narendra Singh Kloty opened Curry Leaf in 2016 and it’s become one of the first places people mention in any discussion of the best Indian restaurants in the city.

Like other local Indian restaurants, Curry Leaf opens for lunch, closes for a couple of hours and then reopens for dinner. The buffet, served out of shimmering copper chafing pots, is only available at lunch.

Curry Leaf has ample parking in both the front and back of the building. The handsome façade features wood paneling and a slab covered with artificial grass that rises monolithically above the entrance.

Inside is clean and festive, with purple-painted walls, strings of colored lights crossing the ceiling and globe lights surrounded by sunbursts of white paper. The color palette is echoed in the white tablecloths with purple napkins.

Our group of three visited on a Saturday night, just after the place opened. Several parties were already seated in the dining room. Throughout dinner, a steady procession of people dressed in colorful Indian clothing filed into a room in the back for some event. A fan by the front door didn’t do much to cool a dining room that was a few degrees warmer than ideal.

The multipage menu, divided into Specialties like Chicken, Lamb/Goat, Seafood and Vegetables, offers a comprehensive overview of Indian cuisine. Dishes from the more inhospitable climes of North India feature wheat, dairy, dried fruit and nuts, while rice, lentils, seafood and coconut appear in dishes from the tropical south. Most entrees run between $13.99 and $18.99.

The 15 appetizers range in price from $4.99 to $10.99.

Lacking neither the time nor appetite to sample all of them, we opted for Idly Sambar ($6.99), a South Indian breakfast staple of steamed rice and lentil dumplings served with sambar, a stew of mixed vegetables flavored with a blend of spices. Shaped like tiny flying saucers, the three spongy white dumplings were the ideal texture to soak up the two chutneys — a cool coconut one and a blazing-hot chili garlic version — and the sambar that tasted like a tomato vegetable soup. A terrific starter.

Curry Leaf has an impressive selection of homemade breads, including roti and a variety of naan. Served in a paper-lined basket, the basic Naan ($2.99) arrived as a big disk cut up into four pieces with appetizing mottled brown surfaces. Warm, thin and soft, it was great for sopping up any remaining sauce from the entrees.

Tandoori Chicken ($16.99) leads off the portion of the menu devoted to specialties baked in the restaurant’s tandoor oven. The firecracker-red chicken was served over lemon and sliced onions in four pieces: a leg, a wing and two breast portions. The yogurt-based marinade tenderized the chicken while leaving a bit of caramelization on it. It was nicely done: subtly spiced, smoky and juicy.

Besides chicken, the tandoor output includes fish, lamb chops and kebobs. A dish of Lamb Tikka Kebobs ($17.99) was comprised of about 10 ruddy chunks of meat with charred edges that were served over sliced onions. Like the chicken, it was smoky and lightly spiced, but several pieces were tough.

Vegetarian specialties are a few dollars cheaper than the other entrees. A highlight of this part of the menu is the Malai Kofta ($14.99), a North Indian dish of potato and cheese balls cooked in a creamy sauce with cashews, almonds and raisins. Served in an oval metal dish, the four loosely packed balls of potato and paneer, the very mild flavored cheese often used as a protein source in vegetarian Indian dishes, rose out of a pale brown sauce that was sweet and a bit grainy with cashew paste. We shared it and agreed it was our favorite of the entrees.

Other specialties on the menu include a selection of Indian pancakes called Uttapum and Indo-Chinese offerings like fried rice and noodle dishes.

A selection of wines is available for between $5 and $10 a glass. The beer menu includes a couple of Indian beers and some local brews. On the nonalcoholic side, I’d recommend the tart and bracing Ginger Lemonade ($4.99) and a Mango Lassi ($4.99) that was smooth, sweet and a little sour.

The friendly, team-oriented waitstaff ensured that waters were filled and dishes delivered quickly from the kitchen. A doting presence in the dining room, Kloty was happy to answer any questions about the food. Vegan and gluten-free options are plentiful.

Curry Leaf has become one of the go-to options for Indian cuisine in Albuquerque. Its survival at what’s proven to be a difficult location for restaurants is a testament to its food, prices and service.