New Restaurant Indian Xpress Opens Downtown

In his “54 years on this earth,” Bob Furness had never eaten Indian food. A fan of Chinese, Italian and Mexican cuisine, he’d always thought Indian food would be “too spicy.”

He changed his mind last week after ordering chicken tikka masala from a new Indian restaurant downtown.

Indian Express opened last week at 465 Main St.  Furness, a delivery man who often passes through the downtown, said restaurant owner Parmjit Singh steered him to the dish made with chicken pieces cooked in rice with fresh cilantro, tomato and cream sauce.  Now, Furness said, he’s hooked on Indian cuisine.

The restaurant makes authentic dishes from northern India, Singh told Woburn Patch Saturday. That means using certain spices, he said, like cilantro, and even a special way of cooking some of them:  a tandoor, a clay oven.

All the food, particularly what’s cooked in the tandoor, is pretty healthful, he said.

In the kitchen, cook Harjinder Singh, soon to become the restaurant manager and chef Balwinder Singh bring 15 years of experience cooking Indian dishes at New Mother India restaurant in Waltham, owner Singh said. Cooking Indian foods isn’t easy, Singh said, with its balance of ingredients and spices.

The menu features 116 items, ranging from “light food” like vegetable samosa, a veggie turnover stuffed with potatoes, peas, fresh cilantro and chickpeas to seafood and meat – chicken, beef, lamb and goat – to a Punjab lassi, like a smoothie, with yogurt, Singh explained, to fresh desserts made there.

Why start a new business – a restaurant, no less -- in this economy? To try to “push up” the local economy, said Singh, who lives within walking distance of the new eatery.

Indian Xpress is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The phone number is 781-935-1899. Orders cook quickly, in five to seven minutes. Most are taken out; the restaurant has a few tables and seats. Parking is available, Singh said, behind the restaurant.

Arvind Patel said he likes the food because it’s fresh.

Furness said the prices are reasonable. A vegetable samosa is $1.10; a number of special breads, just under $4 each; a number of meat entrees, served with rice and chutney, $7.95; and a mixed platter for two of tandoori chicken, chicken curry, vegetable curry, a nan  -- bread baked in a tandoor; a samosa, a pakora – a fritter -- and rice is $16.95.

Owner Singh will help customers new to this cuisine choose their order. He steered Bob Furness to the chicken tikka masala.

“I’d have it again in a heartbeat,” Furness told Woburn Patch Saturday.  On the other hand, he said, “I’ve got a lot more (menu items) to try.”