Taj of India

Taj of India at 2809 M Street NW is an Indian restaurant in the lower M Street commercial block, in the section of M Street that runs between the Key Bridge approach and the lower Georgetown dining cluster. The Indian restaurant at this M Street address serves the Georgetown dining market with the tandoor preparations, curry sauces, and bread traditions that the Indian restaurant in the American context has established as the most recognized expressions of the subcontinental culinary tradition.

The tandoor clay oven, which cooks at temperatures between 700 and 900 degrees Fahrenheit and provides the specific dry heat that creates the charred exterior and the moist interior of the tandoori preparations, is the piece of equipment that most distinguishes the Indian restaurant kitchen from any other. The tandoori chicken, marinated in yogurt and the spice mix that gives the preparation its orange-red color, is the dish that has become the global ambassador for Indian cooking: the high-heat clay oven preparation produces a result that cannot be replicated in a conventional oven or on a grill, which is why the tandoori format is specific to the Indian restaurant.

The curry sauces that accompany the tandoori preparations and form the basis of the Indian restaurant’s entree menu are themselves complex preparations: the makhani sauce, the tomato and butter-based sauce that the butter chicken and the dal makhani share, is the most recognized in the American market; the spinach sauce of the palak paneer is the most popular vegetarian preparation; and the rogan josh, the Kashmiri lamb preparation with the dark red sauce, is the dish that most directly represents the Mughal cooking tradition that the Indian restaurant’s food history draws from.

Hours run from 11:30am most days and noon Sunday. The lower M Street position at 2809 gives Taj of India access to the Georgetown dining customer who enters the commercial district from the Key Bridge direction, which includes the Rosslyn and Arlington residents who walk or bike across the bridge into Georgetown. For this customer, the lower M Street restaurants are the first dining addresses encountered, and the Indian restaurant at this position serves the customer who decides on Indian before reaching the main commercial cluster. The Indian restaurant’s spice cooking requires the mise en place discipline that any restaurant kitchen with a complex menu needs: the tempered whole spices that begin each preparation, the ground spice mixtures that go into each sauce, and the finishing spices that are added at the end of the cooking process all require the preparation and organization that a well-run Indian kitchen maintains. The customer who orders the lamb rogan josh or the chicken tikka masala is receiving the product of this preparation, and the quality of the dish depends on the consistency of the kitchen’s spice management. The lunch buffet that many Georgetown Indian restaurants offer provides the most efficient way to experience the range of the Indian kitchen: the dal, the vegetable preparations, the protein dishes, and the bread are all accessible in a single visit. Hours run from 11:30am most days and noon Sunday.