Want a dry martini with your butter chicken? Head to Amherst
Inchin’s Bamboo Garden, the “pan-Asian” restaurant in Amherst’s Williamsville Plaza with Black & Blue Steak & Crab, might win the area title for Most Cuisines Represented on Menu.
An abundance of choices always thrills me, but I am not your average bear. When I sit down, my primary hunger is for information. Greeted by a menu that takes time to digest – full-fledged downstate diners have some doozies – I rather enjoy settling in for a good read.
Normal diners sit down hungry for food, facing one hurdle: deciding what to eat. Having to choose between unknown dishes made of unfamiliar ingredients can cause stress, ranging from exasperation to low-level panic attacks.
At Inchin’s, I can help by offering high-percentage shots among the lengthy lineup of Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Korean, Malaysian and related dishes. I can’t vouch for everything on the menu, but here’s some of the dishes I found well worth discovering.
Momos ($8) are Tibetan-style dumplings, slightly bigger than your average potsticker or gyoza. At Inchin’s, they come in chicken, vegetable, and paneer fillings, and can be steamed or fried. For another dollar, you can order them “hot pot” style, and they’ll show up in a spicy chile soy.
Dumplings, too, present in three varieties. Indian lamb dumplings, steamed ($9) were the consensus favorite over Thai chicken and bok choy cabbage versions. Dipping sauces ($2) begin with the usual ginger soy and fish sauce, but the lineup includes creamy green chile and butter masala.
Baby corn, one of my favorite canned vegetables, gets chopped, tossed in spiced flour and fried to a crisp. Then it gets another wok ride with chiles and scallions, and arrives as crispy chile baby corn ($12), golden nuggets tingling with low-level spice.
Paneer, the mild Indian cheese, forms the foundation of Indian stir-fry and curry dishes without ever melting. In Paneer 65 ($13), dairy cubes wok-tossed in ginger-garlic-chile sauce and chiles offer a particularly entertaining way to get your calcium.
Saag paneer ($18) is pale cheese cubes bobbing in a soothing dark green ocean, a velvety mixture of gingered spinach, onions, and a touch of cream.
Shrimp pepper salt ($14) offers six chonky shrimp smoky with “breath of the wok” but not scary spicy, a little black pepper the most racy element of its ginger-and-scallion-augmented bouquet.
Roti canai ($16) is chicken curry with flaky griddled flatbread. This is a tear-and-dunk affair, though one might ladle out sauce and meat onto white rice. Fish curry ($18) turned up tender filets cooked in a mildly tangy curry sauce, another easy adventure.
Sambal lamb ($20) raised the temperature with pickled chile pointing up the musky lamb richness, and celery added astringent crunch. The dish menu listing bears a warning chile pepper, but I didn’t break a sweat, enjoying the soon-to-fade glow.
Vegans can opt for vegetable lo mein ($15) from the Chinese side of the menu, noodles stir-fried with matchsticked carrots, snow pea pods, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, and baby corn. Chana masala ($16), from the Indian selections, is chickpeas in spiced tomato sauce.
Dessert include galub jamun ($6), two doughnut holes made of milk and flour, soaked in cardamom syrup.
Chinese and Indian restaurants are not hard to find in town, but there aren’t any that can match its amenities: a full bar, and plenty of parking. If you’re willing to try something new, Inchin’s reassuringly modern surroundings might be your comfort zone.
If you’d like a dry martini with your kung pao chicken, the way Inchin’s Bamboo Garden can feed and water you could make it your oasis.
5415 Sheridan Drive, Amherst, facebook.com/ibgbuffalo, 716-580-3032
Hours: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 4 p.m.-9 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 4 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 4 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 4 p.m.-9 p.m.
Prices: dumplings and other starters $5-$13, entrees $13-$21
Parking: lot
Wheelchair accessible: yes
Gluten-free: butter chicken, Singapore rice noodles, saag paneer
Vegan: lo mein, vegetable dumplings, chana masala
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