Two years ago, on our last trip to NYC, we were down in The Village area looking for a good Indian place to have dinner. I asked a guy who appeared to be a well informed local if he knew of a place and he directed us to 6th St between 1st and 2d Ave. He said we couldn’t go wrong with any restaurant there. We liked the appearance of a place called Mitali, so we went on in. They had a special called Balti, which is your choice of meat cooked up with tomatos and onions and sauce and served in a brass bucket (a balti). It was delicious. Ever since, we’ve been waiting for a chance to go back there. Well, tonight was our chance.

When we got to the restaurant, there were considerably more patrons than last time. Still, we got a nice table near the front. The first thing we noticed when we scanned the menu was the Balti was missing. Then we remembered it was a special. We were disappointed, but decided to try something else. When the waiter came, I mentioned that we were had really been looking forward to the Balti. He grabbed a special menu from a neighboring table (ours had none) and showed us that Balti was available again tonight. So needless to say, that was one of our entree orders. We also ordered Murgha Tikka Musalam, which is “boneless chicken marinated in herbs & spices, barbecued over charcoal cooked with cream and almonds.” Or to be more succinct, heaven on a plate. We got our usual naan and raita to go along with the meal. I also got a Kingfisher beer (of course). It was one of the large bottles, too. No complaints there.

Our meal was nothing short of spectacular. The Balti was every bit as good as we remembered and the Murgha Tikka Musalam was creamy and rich. The chicken used in both meals was large chunks of white meat; not a speck of bone, fat, or gristle. Even the naan and raita were perfect. I finished up with a gulab jamun, and that, like everything else, was incredibly good. An added treat, delivered with our bill, were two half-shots of a sweet anisette-based liqueur, like Sambuca or Ouzo, with a few coffee beans tossed in. It was an unexpected, yet perfect end to our meal. As I told the head waiter on the way out, it was the best Indian meal we’d had since the last time were were there. I hope we don’t have to wait two more years for the next visit.