The four-plus mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Westword contributor Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week.
Previous stops:
Next up: Chutney Indian Cuisine.
The all-you-can-eat buffet is perhaps the most democratic of dining options, and few cuisines have mastered the buffet experience like the Indian restaurant.
The Indian buffet reportedly developed from the traditional langar communal meal served at Sikh temples, designed to encourage integration between races, religions, genders, and classes in India’s highly structured caste society. Today’s Indian buffets have a similar effect but additionally serve to lower a new set of barriers— that of the unfamiliar.
The analysis paralysis that can occur when forced to choose just one item from an entire menu (particularly an unfamiliar one) is replaced by the relative freedom that comes with curated selection of options offering a sampling of the establishment’s fare. There’s no cost consideration or portion concerns that get in the way of trying something new — whether it’s a new dish, or a new restaurant.
At Chutney Indian Cuisine on Havana Street, the lunchtime buffet is a natural entry point. Tucked among the many options in the Bicycle Village Shopping Center along with Old Town Hot Pot and Leezakaya, Chutney's buffet — offered Friday though Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $20 — is how most diners first experience the restaurant, according to staff. Despite boasting an extensive a la carte menu, when the buffet is open, nobody orders off the menu.
Because why would you? For $20 you can select from over a dozen different “entrees” representing the majority of the kitchen’s output. While the options change by the day, you can typically expect three to four different curries (either butter chicken or chicken tikka marsala is always available), a spicy rice-based biryani, one or two tandooris, paneer, lamb, chicken and several vegetable based options.
Ordering any of these individually a la carte would run between $16 to $23 a plate, and you’re limited to whatever that order is.
Aside from being a traditional part of Indian restaurants in the U.S., the buffet also serves as a bridge between Chutney’s original concept and its new-ish iteration. When Chutney first opened in 2017, it advertised “food, snacks, sweets, and chaats” (the latter = street food), served on plastic and styrofoam plates and cheap trays. But it has since reinvented itself as more fine dining, or at least fine dining adjacent.
Today, each of the seven four-tops and four booths feature a fresh rose, delicately folded napkins and woven placemats. Large stemmed wine goblets double for water glasses. Not-so-faint strands of sitar music echo off the tiled floor between bright red walls.
The menu is both expansive and varied. Chutney bills itself as focusing on northern Indian cuisine, which by and large is the type of Indian food most are familiar with in the U.S. Think samosas, curries, cauliflower and potato dishes (ie: aloo gobi), and yes… plenty of naan.
In fact, the hardest part is to not fill up on the naan. Unlike some buffets, the naan at Chutney is not laid out under a heat lamp with the rest of the buffet. It’s prepared to order (either garlic or plain butter) and served in a basket in generously sized portions.
But there’s also a nod to southern Indian fare, like lentil-based daals, biryani and whole page on the menu dedicated to what it calls “Indo-Chinese” options, which includes a series of chow mein and fried rice dishes. And of course…french fries.
Without the buffet, the only reasonable way to sample a menu this broad is to visit with a group. But with a buffet, you can easily take bites of everything by yourself, if you want to.
That’s why the smart move is to hold off on the more recognizable options on your first visit to the buffet, and instead pick a small piece of something you’ve never tried before. Sample a little bit of everything that strikes your fancy, and be sure to see how they pair together into a cohesive meal rather than just loading up with everything all at once.
This is particularly important to consider at Chutney because the buffet features several additional add-ons, including three soups (typically chicken, mushroom or lentil-based daal), desserts (rice pudding, ice cream and the sweetened semolina “suji halwa”), salads, and, of course, a full range of chutneys and riatas.
The chutney and riata choices can really elevate the buffet experience. The cool, tangy bite of the yogurt-based riata, for instance, balances out the heat of the biryani. The sweet mint chutney is the perfect accompaniment to tandoori chicken.
The trick, if you need it, is to use the first round at the buffet to sample the options that interest you and test. See what works. Then form your plan and go back better informed. A little discipline goes a long way.
After all, if the Indian buffet originated to break down barriers and promote understanding back when it was a communal temple meal, why can’t it have the same impact in today’s modern world? It’s far more than just a cynical attempt to cut back on labor costs. It's a do-it-yourself tasting menu. And like any other dining experience, you get out of it what you put in.
Chutney is located at 2740 South Havana Street in Aurora and is open every day from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with the all-you-can-eat buffet offered Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. For more information, visit chutneyindiancuisine.com.
