The Pongal, Billerica, MA

The Pongal
786 Boston Rd., Billerica, MA

Ah, the excitement of South Indian cuisine! South Indian food strays from the usual curry/naan deal, and incorporates some drier, more solid dishes, as well as a favorite of mine, rice lentil crepes which they call dosa. The food here tasted very similar to a Lowell Indian buffet that I may or may not post on here very soon. Alright, let's see what they had to offer on this random Tuesday...

The Offerings:

Chutneys:

-tamarind: I loved it, moreso than our last review, and maybe one of the top three in my dining experiences. Oh, I forgot to tell you I'm biased towards a tangy-ass tamarind chutney. So what? I'll also note that it was chunky, which didn't add to or detract from my chutney-ing experience.
-mint: Yup, this place had it. I want to make a point to survey this chutney more deeply. As the this and the last post, I've yet to sample the mint chutney.
-coconut: It was of a watery consistancy, and the tast was watered down as well. What I could taste, and have tasted in this flavor chutney before was both nutty and coconutty.
-tomato: What strikes me about this chutney is that every time I encounter it, it looks like somone dyed the coconut chutney tomato red. It was tangy and spicy. It reminded me, slightly, of tikka masala sauce, but that probably has to do with them both being tomato-based sauces.

Salad:-

left to right: fruit salad, papri chaat, lettuce, 'green salad', kheer, raita, and tomato chutney.

-fruit salad? Fuck yeah. If you need or want fresh fruit, it's there. Assorted melon and grapes? Why the hell not? This marks the first time I've ever found fruit salad at an Indian buffet and even though I didn't partake in any, I was pleasantly surprised.
-raitha: I forgot to mention this item in the last post. I need to pay stronger attention to this item. I suppose I'm not too picky when it comes to this tangy yogurt sauce/dip. I'll add that I like it on salad.
-lettuce: 'Twas nothing but shredded iceberg lettuce. I suppose this can be convenient for those who like to use lettuce as an accesory to everything they eat. Then again, I'm not even sure if those types actually exist.
-green salad: From what I saw, it appeared to be an array of the sliced Indian buffet salad vegetable usuals: red onion, lemon, tomato, cucumber, and carrot. I think there was some lettuce beneath all of the veggies. if not, that must have been what that bowl of shredded lettuce was about...
-papri chaat: As of yet, I'm not sure if this was labled correctly. The Wikipedia article for papri chaat describes it as something entirely different. Whatever this was it was delicious. It came in the form of a chickpea salad with cilantro, onion, and a savory green sauce.

Bread:

(left pic) top to bottom: naan, dosa, and tamarind chutney. (right pic): papadum

-naan: It was served to your table in baskets, cut into four wedges. I'm usually wary of this system because, in the past, it has proved to leave me naanless as I would finish off the basket and have to wait 5-10 minutes for a fresh one. This time I thought ahead and asked for extra naan as I was being seated. The server brought me 2 baskets! Big points for the service for that one. I, however, proved to be the asshole in the end when I found that I couldn't finish all of the bread. Be careful what you wish for. The quality of the naan was dry and soft. I tend to like oilier, crispier naan. It's a preference thing, I suppose.
-papadum: Two words: giant Muncho. Remember Muncho potato chips? They had a nice texture and flavor, but not something for which I found myself craving seconds.

-dosa: This gem is a staple of South Indian cuisine; essentially a large lentil crepe curled delicately around a spiced mixture of potato and vegetable. I love dosa. They served me two! Usually buffets only serve one dosa per customer, although, I have been to a buffet that has a dosa bar where endless dosas are made to order, but that's another story. These dosas were rather small in size, could have been crispier, and could have used more filling. The taste was still right on. You can bet I slathered them in Pongal's delicious tamarind chutney

Soups:

-sambar: This spicy soup is another staple of South Indian cuisine. The soup contains a mixture of veggies, the broth usually tastes of lentil, and is quite spicy Their sambar was no exception.
-rasam: I like to think of this soup, which is also South Indian as the darker, spicier, tangier, wilder sibling of Sambar. I didn't try it, but I think, in general, I prefer this soup to sambar.

Appetizers:

left to right: mysore bondi and aloo tikki

-aloo tikki: These appear to be India's spicy take on tater tots, or tots are America's oily, salty take on Aloo Tikki. My favorite of the two apps being offered.
-mysore bonda: This appetizer struck me as the munchkin form of vada, the South Indian lentil donut appetizer.

Entrees:
(left pic) left to right: lamb khorma and chicken tikka masala. (right pic) clockwise on plate: naan, tandoori chicken, 'mushroom pepper salt', bindi do pyaza, veg. avial, beans poriyal, and rice in center.

-rava kichadi: It reminded me of curry-flavored cream of wheat. It was dry, mealy, and spicy. Not my cup of tea. If this dish were more moist, I think I would have enjoyed it more. Maybe it's supposed to be more moist. Maybe we'll encounter an instance of this in our future travels and will look back upon Pongal and scoff. Who knows? My judgment in regards to their quality of this dish is pending.
-beans poriyal: This was another non-saucy, drier, dish. The dish consisted of sauteed green beans. They were moist and flavorful. I could taste hints of coconut.
-bindi do pyaza: I don't recall having tried this dish before. It was almost like a curried version of roasted red pepper and onion that you would put on a steak and cheese or Italian sausage. I liked it, but not more than my favorite saucy dishes.
-dal makhani: I'm beginning to get the impression that this dish is supposed to be more on the bland side. Their dal makhani was thinner than the one I tasted in our last review. It also was spicier and contained kindey beans.
-'mushroom pepper salt': Perhaps what was written on the card below this entree was meant to divulge what, aside from chicken, this dish contained. Then again, I honsetly couldn't tell if there was even chicken in the dish, maybe it was more mushroom. This is the closest resemblance to this dish I could find. It reminded me of Chinese food, i.e. salt and pepper chix/veg/beef. Perhaps this was one of those Indo-Chinese fusion dishes.
-vegetable avial: In my eyes, this dish takes an assortment of chopped vegetables and simmers them in coconut chutney. That's a good thing in my book. I enjoy the sweet and savory experience of vegetables with coconut flavoring.
-chicken tikka masala: Their tikka masala was quite creamy in flavor and pale in color. The chicken pieces were tender and juicy. Really good, but not last good as India Palace.
-lamb khorma: I'm used to dishes that feature a creamy korma sauce having that sweet, creamy taste, almost reminding me of broccoli cheddar soup. This sauce, while still yellow in color, was more watery and all I could taste was the lamb. This gives a new meaning to the term 'weak sauce'. The good I can say about this dish is that the lamb chunks were boneless, juicy, and tender, all aspects of meat in Indian cuisine that I favor.

Dessert:

carrot halwa





















-carrot halwa: I enjoyed Pongal's carrot halwa. I always like carrot halwa. Perhaps this is because it usually tastes the same no matter where I go. The variables can be the addition of nuts (cashew and almond) and I've even seen golden raisins thrown in. Their halwa had a slight amount of cashew and was sweet, cardamomy, and buttery-tasting as usual.
-kheer: Compared to India Palace, I enjoyed this kheer more. It was thinner, I could taste more cardamom, and there were bits of pistachio thrown it. Who doesn't like pistachios? (some people, just not me).

Price: $11.66 on a weekday (including MA tax). A bit steep.

Final Score: 4.0/5

Maybe I would've given The Pongal a higher score if I had never been to an Indian buffet that has very similar offerings, but a lower price and a quality that caters more to my liking (that I may or may not be reviewing in the near future). Is this a bias? Maybe, but isn't context a large part of how we form opinions and rate things based on quality? Who knows. I did enjoy it, and did eat until I was inches away from bursting, so that had to be a good sign. The servers were attentive to my needs; also a good sign. They had more than the average number of offerings of any given Indian buffet. Still, I was not blown away by the food quality. It had its high points, but I'm not having dreams of The Pongal at night.

-Eric