81°Good afternoon

In an ongoing search for the new, the ethnic and the authentic, I end up at 5 Star Indian Cuisine (also called 5 Star Tattukada) in New Hyde Park. The diminutive place, which moved from Floral Park in Queens to New Hyde Park in November, turns out some flavorful South Indian cuisine from the state of Kerala.

But there are glitches. Four of us get a single menu (three separate laminated pages) and two paper takeout menus from the original Queens address, a somewhat confusing array. So I make what turns out to be an error by asking the waiter to suggest a few Kerala-style dishes.

He says he will bring us two dosas to start. OK,  I say, and we'd also like an order of "periperi" shrimp. We end up with no shrimp and two dosas —  very good if lukewarm lentil and rice flour crepes stuffed with spiced potatoes.

He also suggests a vindaloo dish (actually from Goa) but ignores a request to make it extra spicy; the chicken vindaloo we get is super bland. Back it goes for a revision and, to the credit of the kitchen, the new edition turns out to be a real zinger.

He orchestrates the rest of the meal: chicken tikka masala (probably the most commonly ordered dish at every Long Island Indian restaurant), beef curry, along with a mild vegetable mélange and a spicy, if dry, dish I'm told is “shrimp masala.”  

The food, overall, is good. But I think that if I’d gone in the company of a friend from India, I'd have ended up with a different — and much more exciting — meal.

5 Star Indian Cuisine is at 247 Jericho Tpk., New Hyde Park, 516-488-1230

AP Photo/ Kerala Dance Theater, 1997
 

 

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