Ghazal Indian Cuisine review – Jack London Sq. Oakland

Last night I had my monthly dinner with my friends Katrina & Parker (the rest couldn’t come), and we went to Ghazal Indian Cuisine in Oakland, California. As usual when I’m with the girls, we had great restaurant karma – not only did we find free parking very close to the restaurant, but we all enjoyed our meal.
Ghazal is a relatively new restaurant in the Jack London area. It’s front room is sort of generic, but its dining room is pretty nice – not in the least tacky. There is a wall with square recess shelves, decorated with nice ceramics. The room itself is too square and brightly lit for my taste – the light is too white. With a little more care it could have a very nice ambiance.
We were there on a Wednesday evening, and unfortunately (for them) the restaurant was almost empty – there was only one other party. I think the major reason is that the Jack London. Sq. area is a major dud, a complete failure of a project. It’s a nice place, but for some reason nobody seems to go there. If that was true during good economic times, it’ll be even truer with our current recession-depression.
In any case, Ghazal is a relatively nice place to go for dinner. It features a pretty much standard North Indian menu, thought there are more choices than at most similar restaurants. It’s also pricier than most Indian restaurants. That said, I still ordered what I always order: chicken pakora ($7), lamb korma ($12), kabuli naan (here it’s called kashmiri naan – $3) and two sweet lassis ($2.50 each).
The chicken pakora was quite nice, the chicken was quite moist, though the breading wasn’t very crispy. The portion was a good size. I also liked the lamb korma – the lamb was amazingly tender – but I thought the korma was lacking something. Perhaps some salt? The white rice that I ordered with it was yellow, but otherwise fine. Both dishes were pretty spicy, even though I’d ordered the lamb “mild”. The naan had a good amount of filling, and it was yummy and soft. The lassis, meanwhile, were delicious – perhaps a tad too sweet, but very refreshing and just nice.
Katrina and Parker shared several vegetarian dishes – I didn’t try them, but they said they were very good. In all, we were all happy to have dined there. As I said, we have good restaurant karma.
Ghazal Indian Cuisine
131 Broadway
Oakland, CA
510-268-9950