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Orchids - CLOSED
4519 Centre Ave
North Oakland, 15213
412-688-8383
M-F: 11-2:30, 5-10; Sat-Sun: 11:30-3, 5-10 (buffet only at lunchtime)

Just when I thought we had a long road of sub-genius restaurants ahead of us, in Week 8 we found a surprise in the relatively brand new restaurant, Orchids. Orchids moved into the old location of India Palace (which moved Downtown), and offers a bizarre set of dishes. The menu is entirely vegetarian, with entrées from around the world. Though it has Mexican, Chinese, and Italian dishes, the focus is primarily Indian. You can tell because the burritos have rajmah inside, and the spaghetti is topped with nut balls (a la Malai Kofta). Such an international menu makes one worry about the overall quality of a restaurant (especially after last week’s dinner at Namaste India), but the food here was surprisingly nice, with some dishes from the test list rivaling the best we’ve had yet. They had an extensive Southern Indian menu, with fairly decent dosai (better than others we have had so far) and fantastic upma. Will it beat Udipi? We won’t know for a couple weeks yet, but Orchids is definitely worth going back to again and again. (more…)