Tandoori Chaska

A table at Tandoori Chaska rarely orders the same way twice. One diner can build an entire meal from the vegetarian board — soya chaap grilled tandoori-style, paneer in butter masala, a plate of chaat — while another works down the curries toward Korma Lamb or Chicken Vindaloo, a third treats the menu as an Indo-Chinese counter and lands on chilli chicken with Manchurian-gravy noodles, and a fourth just wants the value of a thali. This London Road kitchen in Sarnia is built to take all of those orders off a single line.

The vegetarian side is where the kitchen has the most to say, and it runs well past the usual paneer-and-lentils. Soya chaap alone appears several ways: grilled as a tandoori starter, sharpened with pickle-style achar in the Achari Chaap, and simmered into a creamy, mildly spiced malai gravy. Paneer gets the same range — butter masala rich with cashew and tomato, karahi paneer cooked down with peppers and onions, methi malai paneer threaded with fresh fenugreek. The snacks carry real weight too: Chaat Paapdi layered with chickpeas, potato, yogurt, tamarind, and coriander chutney; aloo tikki set over chickpea masala; samosas paired with chana. It even closes itself out — a Royal Falludah thick with vermicelli and basil seeds, a frothy Delhi-style cold coffee — without reaching for a single meat dish.

The meat cooking holds its own column. Korma Lamb arrives Afghan-style, lamb shoulder in a brothy, deeply spiced stew; Methi Murg Malai folds chicken and fresh fenugreek into a rich Mughlai cream; Chicken Vindaloo leans on vinegar, coconut, chillies, and a long roster of warm spices that runs from ginger and garlic to lentils and chickpeas. The tandoor pulls its share — chicken tikka, paneer tikka, tandoori momos. Beside all of it runs a crisp Indo-Chinese streak, the cooking Indian cities absorbed generations ago: Chilli Chicken in a sweet-and-sour soy-chilli glaze with bell peppers and garlic, the South Indian heat of Chicken 65, and vegetable or chicken noodles plated with Manchurian gravy. Chicken 65 reads as an appetizer; a Chinese combo orders like a full plate.

Tying the board together is the Combo Specials column, where the kitchen does its plainest thinking about value. Veggie and Non-Veg Thalis spread several small dishes across rice, bread, and sweets; Chana Bhatura sets a spicy chickpea curry against puffy deep-fried bhatura; Kulcha Chana pairs tandoor-leavened flatbread with cumin-and-coriander chickpea masala. Rice bowls come with vegetarian or meat gravies, and the naan-gravy combos stuff the bread itself — paneer, or minced chicken — before sending it out under butter masala. These are formats built for everyday ordering rather than occasion. The practicality has a source: Tandoori Chaska opened on London Road in 2020 under Manish Kumar Sharma, who by the restaurant's own account came to it with a 2005 diploma in food production and a stated aim to cook Indian flavours for Canadian diners.

All of it adds up to an unusually flexible kitchen. A table that can't agree — one vegetarian, one set on lamb korma, one after chilli chicken and noodles — still eats off one menu, and the Combo Specials keep the bill in check while it does. A non-veg thali stacks several small meat dishes with rice, bread, and sweets; a Chinese combo turns fried rice or noodles into a full plate with Manchurian gravy alongside. Open seven days a week, and as ready for takeout and delivery as a sit-down meal, Tandoori Chaska runs on the weeknight dinner more than the occasion. The vegetarian who walked in bracing for a side dish leaves having ordered the centre of the meal.