A brand new Indian eatery is ready to open this week on Fifth Avenue in Fifth By Northwest/Grandview, appropriately referred to as Taj on Fifth! We have been excited to see the opening, as one of many companions in it’s Ajay Kumar, whose household was lengthy historical past with eating places in Columbus. His father began Taj Mahal, one in every of Columbus’ first Indian eating places, in Outdated North in 1984. (It was within the previous dwelling the place Cazuela’s now sits.)
We visited many, many instances over time, having fun with the dinners and their weekend buffets. Ajay was at all times splendidly welcoming to our household. When Taj closed in 2013, it was offered to kin and briefly grew to become Mughal Darbar, whereas AJ ran AJ’s Cafe downtown the place 4th and State is now. However he’s been out of the restaurant enterprise for some time, till he partnered with people (together with the house owners of Everest Delicacies in Worthington) to open Taj on Fifth.
Taj on Fifth occupies the western nook of The View on Fifth, a comparatively new improvement on Fifth Avenue. (Within the parking zone behind it’s the wonderful Moonbird Espresso Co. trailer.) The house has cycled via a pair completely different ideas already. It contains a full bar and eating room, plus a entrance lined patio.
The bar contains a vary of beers (together with some Indian beers), wines, a collection of scotches, and a signature cocktail checklist. That is the mango piña colada with Jamaican rum, coconut milk, and mango chutney.
I loved a style of Brew Kettle’s White Rajah IPA.
We began with a blended pakora platter, which includes calmly fried cauliflower, onion, potato, kale, paneer – served with a pair of cilantro mint and tamarind chutneys.
We additionally tasted a particular starter of fried salmon sticks. Each have been properly seasoned and crispy with out being too heavy.
After which we rolled out a quartet of entrees. They’re all served with sides of jasmine rice.
First up, and our clear favourite of the meal, was the dal makhani. The dish consists of black lentils and kidney beans which were gradual simmered with a mixture of spices, butter, and cream. It’s splendidly wealthy and even a contact smoky. It reminded us of the black dal we’ve had at Dishoom in Edinburgh and in London.
The Mughali beef korma was one other hit. It’s slow-cooked with cashews in a cream sauce, and served with half a tough boiled egg.
We loved the saag paneer, too. Cubes of gentle saag cheese are cooked in a spinach sauce.
And we are able to’t go to any Indian restaurant with out ordering their model of rooster tikka masala. We loved this tackle it, though the sauce was a contact grainy.
And naturally we ordered up a pair baskets of garlic naan to scoop all of it up!
It was nice to see Ajay and crew return to type! We anticipate many extra visits, and we hope Taj on Fifth continues the traditions of nice Indian meals in Columbus.
Taj on Fifth
1021 W. Fifth Ave.
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 696-4844
Internet: tajonfifth.com
FB: Taj on Fifth
IG: @tajonfifth
