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Best Bargain Restaurants: Aarathi

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Aarathi
Vienna

Jaded by biryani and vindaloo, curry and tandoori? The South Indian Delight at Aarathi will bring back the thrill. Sibling to Georgetown's Aditi, Aarathi offers a vegetarian-friendly menu and a vegetarian buffet at lunch.

South Indian Delight is a two-part extravaganza starting with vada, donut-shaped lentil-flour dumplings with a chili-spiked dipping sauce of yogurt, garlic, and cilantro. Next comes a gorgeous lentil- and rice-flour half-moon "crepe," masala dosa, stuffed with curried potatoes and onions. Alongside are two flying-saucer-shaped rice-flour cakes, idlis, which you dip in a split-pea "gravy" and then into a dish of black sesame seeds and crushed dried chilies. The dosa and idli, both staples of Madras, in southern India, can be ordered as starters.

Also worthwhile are the vegetarian thalis of Punjab in the northwest and Kerala in the southwest, small dishes of several items served on a round tray. More traditional dishes are also well done at this appealing restaurant. Chicken Makhanwala, basted with tomato, butter, and spices, is richness itself. Malabar fish curry delivers heat via a spicy tamarind sauce, and tandoori preparations from chicken tikka to prawns to the zesty kofta kebab (minced meatballs) are moist and smoky. A starter of bhajia may sound too much like a vegetable samosa to tempt, but these fritters of chopped vegetables in a carapace of flour paste are light as air.

Aarathi , 409 Maple Avenue East, Vienna; 703/938-0100. Open Sunday through Thursday 11:30 am to 2:30 pm and 5:30 to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30 am to 2:30 pm and 5:30 to 10:30 pm. AE, D, DC, MC, V. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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