David C.
Yelp
Chef's table
We walked into Chef's Table in Edison on a Saturday evening in October 2022 at 7PM with no dinner reservations. Frankly, with the profusion of excellent Indian cuisine in north Edison, NJ, my expectations were set fairly low. Also, based on the online reviews, I was prepared for spotty service and uneven food, given the normal Saturday night rush.
However, my personal takeaway: Everything was excellent and we'll definitely be going back hoping for a similar experience! Here are the details:
The restaurant was busy but we were seated promptly. Interior atmosphere was warm and inviting, although there was a definite draft from the door every time it was opened (perhaps the vestibule needs to be heated?). (No trace remained of the brick-oven pizzeria that used to occupy this building.)
For appetizers, we ordered Cauliflower in sweet chili sauce (Chilli Garlic Gobhi Dry), Tandoori chicken thighs (Nawabi Tandoori Murgh), and Samosas. Both the chicken and cauliflower came out quickly, but the samosas required a bit of a wait.
The cauliflower was coated in a delightfully crispy coating in a sticky sweet sauce with really good flavor all around. Good balance of acid and sweet, with a hint of chili. They could have used a pinch of additional salt and heat, but that might just be personal preference.
The tandoori chicken was a double portion of the chicken thigh and the first wing section (drumettes) both on the bone. They were cooked well, and the traditional yogurt coating was flavorful. Meat was falling off the bone but still had a good resilience to it.
Despite the wait for the three samosas, we were really happy with what we eventually received. The Samosa pastry and filling were definitely house-made, not frozen. Filling was finely ground, with fresh herbs and peas mixed into the potato mash, and the pastry was light and tender.
As this was our first time, Mrs. Heat and I ordered four entreés, with full intent to take quite a bit home and share with the Embers.
Vegetable Manchurian - good texture and flavor, generous portion. Really liked the texture of the "veggie balls", and the sauce was really deep and intense.
Butter chicken - very tender meat with a mild sauce, could have used a bit more protein. Chicken is the least expensive protein commercially available today - there's no excuse to skimp on this. Other than that, a good dish overall. Would order again, especially with more chicken!
Stuffed paneer (Khumani Bhare Kofte) - exactly as described and very tasty. This was a new dish for us, and we were surprised that there was literally dried fruits and plums stuffed inside the paneer. No idea how they did that, but it made for an extremely flavorful bite. A winner indeed!
Lamb (Gosht Rismisa) - falling apart boneless meat. Good gravy - one of the dishes you want to soak up in naan or rice well after the protein was gone. And the protein in this dish was plentiful, in contrast to the scant butter chicken protein (and inexplicable, given their relative wholesale prices!)
The Rasmalai had a delicious strong flavor, and was both creamy and tasty. I literally licked the bowl - hopefully when no one was looking.
The Kulfi Falooda (served with noodles), although somewhat bland, was served in a unique ceramic vessel with smoking dry ice (see photo/video). Worth the experience, once.
The service was - while not exceptional - fairly typical of Indian restaurants not in Manhattan, and really quite good for post-COVID staffing challenges. Obviously, they're suffering from the same foodservice shortages that we're seeing industry-wide, but Chef's Table is handling it gracefully. Our server was cordial and helpful throughout, and responded from across the floor to eye contact and a smile. We saw additional servers and bussers as necessary, mostly to deliver food and take away dirties. Timing could have been tighter, but again, at primetime on a Saturday night, I was happy with how well they kept up with the rush. I would suggest at least one more main server and one more busser for the Friday/Saturday night 5-9 shift.
My summary here was that this was a very good experience for an Indian/PanAsian restaurant, and a standout even in North Edison, NJ. Several dishes were surprising, and all were at least "very good" in my opinion. My few tweaks could easily be incorporated by an attentive manager and head chef; I hope they take them to heart.
I'm excited to visit again, and may add Chef's Table into our regular Indian food rotation. Incidentally, almost none of the food made it home to the little Heatlings. We returned home with two small takeaway containers and very full belles. Next time, they'll have to come along.
Remember to check out my HiHeat blog on Tumblr for more Restaurant Reviews and home recipes.
Thanks for reading and Happy Eating!