Pari Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Chester Township

Excellent food and customer service. My wife and I have eaten here before, but it has been several years. We learned from the owner/chef, Mohammed, that he is the new owner and he has been open for about one year. We have eaten at a number of Indian restaurants in the Cleveland/Columbus area over the years, as well as other Indian restaurants in different states. You expect for the dishes to be similar yet different and unique to each location and chef. Well everything Mohammed prepared, from the Chai tea, to our appetizers and entrees were definitely a creation of flavors that we have never experienced anywhere before. Everything was delicious!! We are creatures of habit and generally order the same type of appetizers, entrees, and naan bread. The same was true for our dinners tonight. We started off with the Pari Vegetarian appetizer plate consisting of Two Samosas, several Batata Wadas, and several Pakodas. We asked that everything be mildly spiced. The Samosas were a perfect light flaky shell, with a flavorful filling that was the perfect level of mild spice. The Wadas and Pakodas were perfectly spiced with intense flavor. Our entrees were Baingan Bartha (charbroiled eggplant) and Malai Kofta (paneer in a cashew sauce). Both were like none other that we have ever had before. The cashew sauce is generally a light red curry type of sauce. Not so with this one. This sauce was a thicker medium dark brown sauce with spices you could see. The most noticeable difference between Pari and other Indian restaurants we have eaten, is that Pari's blend of spices are such that you can see, smell, and taste the difference between Pari's entrees and entrees from other Indian restaurants. Pari takes Indian cuisine to a much higher level. Even the Naan was not typical of what we have been used to. We got the plain naan and didn't even have butter added on top. It was obvious, that like our other dishes, the naan was made from scratch as well. We also tried the Roti bread, which is made from wheat. It was very good, but we prefer the naan. Mohammed is very personable and he checked (several times) that everything was made to our liking. He cares about the food he prepares and cares about...

My SO and I had a very interesting culinary adventure this evening. At the last minute we decided to run out for dinner. Indian sounded good, so we headed to PARI in Chesterland.

We walked in and realized this wasn’t the place we were expecting. The place was empty at 7:30. Half the restaurant was closed down. And to top it off, there was one guy playing cook, waiter, and busboy. We decided to stay, after all we both have a pretty good sense of humor. Then we opened the menu. It’s now less than half the size it used to be. Our options consisted of several chicken dishes, naan, and one or two vegetable dishes. We settled on the garlic naan, mango chicken, chicken tikka masala. I jokingly told Hillary to prepare for the best or the worst Indian food we ever had.

Well, it was the BEST! This was like having your friend’s grandmother cook her best dishes for you. Not only was the food great, but the owner/chef/waiter/busboy is a terrific guy with a great story. He took over the restaurant from friends after they just couldn’t make it work. He had been a waiter at numerous Indian restaurants around the country and when this opportunity presented itself he decided he would take the chance. He’s using family recipes, and they are truly worth trying.

The place is full of quirks. He wants everyone to know it’s best to come after 7PM. He serves your meal in plastic to go containers so if there’s any left he can just slap a top on it. The drinks come in paper cups. Oh, and the sound track is Oompah music with some 1960 Italian hits (no, I’m not kidding).

We spent about 10 minutes after dinner discussing business, cooking, and working in restaurants. I LOVE this guy.

The food is really good, it’s very plentiful (I’m a big eater and brought half home), and the owner makes it a fun, quirky, local gem. Go, you’ll have a great meal and make...

We thought we'd try this spot since we enjoy good Indian food and hadn't tried it. First, there were no lights on, so we thought it might be closed. We walked in, and there was a party of 3 seated. The resteraunt smelled great, topically fragrant spices you'd expect. No one greeted us, so we assumed the person serving was cooking, so we grabbed two menus and sat down. It was cold in this place, like no heat on cold. Luckily, it wasn't too cold outside but cold enough to keep our coats on. Unfortunately, there was a very small bug running along our table, and we noticed the place seemed a bit dingy and not terribly clean. I'm actually surprised we stayed, but we've traveled enough to know there are some hidden gems to find. I wouldn't categorize this as one of those. The waiter, who I presume was the owner and cook, came out to take our order. A very nice man. We ordered veg. Samosas, fried paneer, some garlic Naan and two of our go-to Indian test dishes: Malia Kafta and Curry Chicken. The owner warned us it would take about 20 minutes, so we waited. When the food came out, it was all hot and served together, which was great. The Samosas were unusually large but not filled very much, so those proportions were off a bit and a bit greasy. Both main dishes tasted very similar, which isn't normal. It was almost as if they had one base sauce they use and swap proteins and make slight adjustments to a spice or two, maybe. The rice was good, the mains were a bit oily. The Naan was good but a bit burnt. I don't believe we'll be back to work through their menu, unfortunately. Too many other Indian resteraunts within 20-30 minutes of this area are much better, turn their lights on, and run their heat as needed. I wish I had better news. We...