5th Element Authentic Indian Restaurant

FOOD

Goat Rogan Josh and mango soft serve make an especially persuasive case for lunch at 5th Element. The soft serve is included in the weekday buffet, which is excellent news for anyone already planning dessert during the curry course. Around that pair, lunch ranges through vegetarian cooking, chicken, rice, and Indian sweets. Selections change; the broader rotation stretches from cabbage-and-onion pakoras to kheer, with plenty of savory ground between them.

Rogan Josh comes from the Kashmiri curry repertoire; at 5th Element, goat is the meat in the lunch version. There are bones to work around, so this is a dish for a little unhurried attention. Chicken curry and vegetable tikka masala also belong to the broader rotation, sharing the sauced side of the spread with the goat.

Chana, aloo, paneer, and bhindi masala make vegetarian lunch an inviting proposition in its own right. Chana puts chickpeas at the heart of the dish, aloo brings potatoes, and paneer is the fresh Indian cheese that holds its shape when cooked. Okra enthusiasts can look for bhindi masala in the rotation. That last one is a particularly welcome name on a buffet: okra gets to be the vegetable you came for, with no need to apologize for your loyalties.

Tandoori chicken brings roasting into a spread that also includes chicken curry and fried Chicken 65. The same bird gets three different treatments, which is a promising little chicken situation. Vegetable pakoras add cabbage and onion in fritter form, so the starters have some vegetable character of their own. Tamarind and mint chutneys join this part of the rotation, familiar Indian condiments alongside the fritters. Between those chutneys, the pakoras, and Chicken 65, the smaller dishes have plenty of reason to interrupt a curry fixation.

Sambar gives the soup selection a South Indian presence. The lentil-based dish belongs comfortably alongside a lunch that reaches beyond North Indian curries, even though the restaurant’s dosas have their own life on the separate menu. Corn soup has also joined the spread. Soup enthusiasts can look for either among the rotation, especially if they would happily start lunch with a bowl while someone else makes a beeline for the chicken.

Chicken biryani and chicken fried rice share the lunch rotation, putting an Indian rice specialty beside a dish that fits the restaurant’s Indo-Chinese interests. Butter naan is set out in cut pieces beneath its own label, next to rice.

Dessert has room for more than the freezer. Kheer, gulab jamun, mango pudding, and rava kesari are among the sweets in the broader rotation. Kheer is the rice-pudding choice; gulab jamun brings syrup-soaked milk-based sweets. Rava kesari belongs to the South Indian semolina-dessert family, and its golden tray makes a cheerful departure from another scoop of ice cream. Mango pudding keeps the restaurant’s fondness for mango going, too. Then again, this is mango soft serve. Dessert indecision seems entirely reasonable.