Restaurant Review: Maharaja

I've been to Maharaja, an Indian restaurant on Milwaukee's eastside a few times now. I'd say it's one of the best Indian restaurants in Milwaukee. The food is always good and fresh, and there's so much to choose from. And you get hot washcloths at the end of your meal!

Last Friday, we were looking for a place to go with our friends Amanda and Jon before seeing a play at the Milwaukee Rep. I had a http://www.restaurant.com/ gift certificate for Maharaja ($25 off!) and they had never been, so we headed there.

As we munched on papadum, we opted to make an easy decision as far as our meal went--we ordered two combination dinners: the "non-vegetable meal for two" and the "vegetable meal for two." Both combinations came with tons of great food:

Non-vegetable meal:

• Chicken pakora.
• Chicken and mushrooms.
• Lamb masala.
• Dal makhni.
• Basmati rice.
• Naan.
• Choice of dessert (more on that later!).

Vegetable meal:

• Four samosas.
• Saag paneer.
• Vegetable korma.
• Karhi pakora.
• Basmati rice.
• Naan.
• Choice of dessert.

Everything was really, really tasty--and filling! I think my favorites were the dal, saag paneer and vegetable korma. I usually order vegetarian main dishes in Indian restaurants, and I think I really prefer the vegetarian ones. Just a personal preference. And next time I eat there, I'll ask for the meals to be spicy--we asked for medium heat, and there was no spice to it at all.

These two combinations were definitely enough for four people--plus, we each took leftovers home, giving us an additional meal.

For dessert, we each got to choose a dessert, so we opted for four different things and tried them all. We had mango ice cream, kheer, gulab jamun and kulfi. Everything was really tasty and very different from desserts you normally order (be sure to click on the descriptions to see just what I'm talking about).

Overall, our meal was great, but I have to say the service was very slow--the restaurant wasn't too crowded, and our meal took about 1.5 hours. Normally, it wouldn't have been too big of a deal, but we had to get to the theater!