Nirvana Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Town of Woodstock

Club-like trance music was playing when we sat down at Nirvana, Woodstock’s long-awaited new Indian Restaurant. Painted on otherwise white walls, very green-canopied palm trees, even if India has over 100 species of them, felt weird. Like I should be in Palm Springs or a Miami Beach retirement home. I immediately wanted to leave.

But resolve, patience, openness.

The sister to Rhinebeck’s yummy and tasteful Cinnamon, my girlfriend and I were looking forward to Mountain Gate’s replacement, the go-to Indian restaurant at the same location on Deming Street for over two decades. After our kind and witty server changed, at my request, the jarring and incongruous melodies to something quieter and more germane, we picked two entrées from the menu. Heavy-weighted, golden-tinted utensils (neither brass nor bronze) that had been wrapped in our cloth napkins sparked a flash of surprise, a glimmer of originality.

Some confusion ensued when the food arrived. Both meals were served in ceramic dishes; only tiny white plates, ostensibly for holding breads and garnishes, were also on the table. We resorted to using these to share our food, though they became tabletop messy and impractical. Later, the gracious owner came by to explain that this dish issue was due to the small kitchen size. Larger ‘dinner plates’ for two were too large for the tiny kitchen and broke when stacked. Storage space, she explained, was so limited that they had to rent a house nearby, and trundle supplies over during the morning.

A benchmark we use when checking out any new to us Indian restaurant, we found the lamb korma muted, bland. While copious, the tiny pieces of meat were tough, not tender. Returned from the kitchen to make it richer, which it became, the owner herself later explained that unlike the Rhinebeck establishment and most other Indian restaurants, ghee, the final ingredient, wasn’t much used—a key binding element. I had to request a second portion of rice since only one rather small one first arrived. A lack of cohesion, or binding, constituted the whole of our dining experience.

Our other entrée, Malabar meen curry, called a fish stew, was spicy but tasted much like tangy tomato, which we learned from our server was due to tamarind flavoring. Overpowering sensations rather than integration of complements were the dilemma. The four lumps of fish in the low-lying red sauce we smushed around to make it more palatable. After this second dish was rapidly enhanced when it, too, was returned to the kitchen, we deceived ourselves as best as we could that it worked.

That made two out of two dishes back to the kitchen. Roundabout-ness was another theme of the night.

Deflated, arriving at the table cut in two, even the garlic naan, a simple enough but important staple, was lackluster.

There were two highlights to the evening. Watching who turned out to be Neil Gaiman repeatedly fail to parallel park his sensible hybrid vehicle in a huge space just outside our table at the window, crunching the curb at 45° in old man slo-mo, even with a large interior camera screen a-glow, was amusing. Totally in keeping with the whole evening. Before he entered the restaurant with female company, and prior to our identifying him, I’d said to my girlfriend, “You can tell that driver doesn’t come from the city,” where half an inch on both the front and back end of your vehicle is still considered plenty to do the job swiftly. The other was our lovely server. He was charming but not unctuous, and we wish this gentleman well. Otherwise, Nirvana, with its highfalutin name, highly suggestive of an otherworldly experience, remains rather untouchable.

Total...

The food at Nirvana was good but we had a shocking service experience that soured the evening. We ordered a bottle of wine - on the menu listed as a 2018 chateauneuf du pape , prices at over $100, but when the waiter came with the bottle it was a 2022 chateaunuef du pape. We asked about the discrepancy and were met with absolute confusion. The waiter indicated that this was the only bottle they had, so since we wanted the more aged version, we asked to instead have a bottle of the 2019 cote du Rhône listed on the menu. We didn’t make a fuss, the bottle wasn’t opened and just didn’t want the younger wine. The waiter then sent over the sommelier who proceeded to reprimand us for caring about the vintage of the wine. He explained that “because of the pandemic” (it’s 2024) the restaurant had no control over the vintages of wine it received. We explained that with wine vintage matters, but he had no recognition of this view. We then asked if the 2022 chateauneuf du pape was a different price that the 2018 vintage listed on the menu and he angrily said “I can’t do anything on the price!” We said ok and asked for the 2019 cote du Rhône instead. After all of that, they brought over a 2022 cote du Rhône and made no mention of the swapped out vintage from that indicated on the menu and charged us for the price indicates for the 2019. I understand the challenges of supply and maintaining the wines indicated on a wine list (btw, their wine list had about 5 bottles), but to a) not mention the different vintage and b) reprimand us for caring about the swap was all a bit too much. For these reasons, I...

Actual rating would be like a 3.5 / 5 stars

We could smell this place from the street but didn't see it until our second night in Woodstock. They need a better sign on the main street, lol. Food was beautiful. Lots of traditional favorites you see in Indian restaurants in America, but with a few unique twists (truffle naan, yum). Service was super attentive and kind as well. Get a reservation or arrive early on Saturdays, because those who know about this place really show up.

I took a stars off because I found some of the portions quite small for the price. Duck Tandoori is $30 and included 5 pieces of meat and a small cup of veggies. Okay, well duck is always a little costly... However, Chicken Madras Curry was $22 and also was about a 1 cup portion with about 5 pieces of meat. I don't want to sound like a "super sized American", but chicken is fairly cheap so I was expecting more. Also, to have more spice the waiter suggested their house hot sauce, which is good but also is $4. We found ourselves filling up on rice drizzled with hot sauce. Strange when our total dinner with appetizer and drinks was $120.

I did see the Tandoori Chicken go by and from where I was seated, it appeared to be nearly a half chicken (for the same $22 price tag as the curry with 5 pieces)

Again, I don't want to seem greedy and I appreciate "fine dining portions", but I also don't want anyone to feel...