Have You Heard This One?

What do you get when you put three Duke educated guys working in the computer consulting industry together? Answer: Tava Indian Kitchen.

Don’t get it? This will help. Jason and Vijay were college buddies. Years later, purely by coincidence, Vijay ran into Jason on a flight. The two friends chatted while en route about how fortunate they each felt for the success they’d achieved since graduating from college. But both boys relayed that they didn’t feel like they were giving anything of value back to society and wanted to change that.

With mutual friend, Hasnain, on board, they brainstormed. Then it hit them. What better way to express gratitude than to share their mutual love of Indian culture with others through food?

And Tava Indian Kitchen was born. They set about to bring a new take on Indian food that is fresh and healthy. All of the dishes are from family recipes and special chef’s creations and they even grind and roast all of the spices in-house. Does it smell wonderful when you walk in!

Diners create their custom meal from an assembly line that begins with selecting either a burroti, more like the Indian version of a tortilla, or the far less messy bowl option. Next are the fillings, such as grilled chicken marinated in Tandoori spices, lamb that is slow roasted to perfection or paneer, a homemade Indian farmers’ cheese seasoned and tossed with garbanzo beans. Starting to sound good? Now it’s time to get saucy. Add to that tikka, a light tomato cream sauce simmered with Indian spices or the daal, savory lentils finished with a zesty sauce of tadka-excellent with the paneer. Can’t decide? You won’t be the first to ask for half & half so you can try both. Finally, you add to that your favorite veggies like lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and more to complete your masterpiece. Doesn’t it make you hungry just reading about it?

Well lucky for you they’ve recently extended their hours so you can dine-in or grab dinner to go until 10pm seven days a week, or opt for catering like former 49’er Steve Young does. Tava Indian Kitchen opened back in February and has been packing them in for lunch and dinner. Once you try it, you’ll know why.