Last Thursday after getting our son’s hair cut at a nearby location, my wife and I stopped into Shaan Indian Cuisine for dinner, dragging our almost one year old son with us. We thought we could sneak in a quick dinner, but after sitting down it was quickly evident that the haircut alone had tested his patience and he didn’t want to sit in a high chair. We decided to put in a carry out order and enjoy it at home where he could run around freely.

The restaurant itself wasn’t too crowded, but it was past seven o’clock. The room is pretty small with booths lining the left and right walls along with a few bigger tables in the middle of the restaurant. At the back is an area for the lunch buffet, which I would like to try sometime, and a counter for paying the bill along with an entry to the kitchen. The staff were all very friendly and had no issue with us changing our order to carry out, which was ready in less than fifteen minutes.

Chicken Vindaloo

My choice for dinner, chicken vindaloo, should come as no surprise as it is one of my favorite Indian dishes. I love the spiciness of it and found Shaan’s heat level four of six to be right on! I could have probably ordered a five but I know that my wife wouldn’t have liked it to be that hot and we were sharing our dishes. The chicken and potato mix was good, though I could have used a few more potatoes in my serving.

Chicken Tikka Masala

My wife decided on the chicken tikka masala, another very popular dish. She ordered a two of six on the spice scale since we were going to feed some of it to our son too. The chicken in this dish appeared to have been cooked in a Tandoor oven as it had the trademark pink outside. The taste of this dish was excellent and the tomato, onion, and butter sauce was perfect. I might have liked this dish better than the vindaloo and I loved the vindaloo.

We also had a side of garlic nan ($2.99) that was easily large enough for the both of us and with extra to go with our leftovers the next day. The serving size of both meals we ordered was more than enough and the $10.99 price tag for each seemed fairly priced. Though I’ve yet to try another Indian restaurant in Cincinnati, it will be hard for them to compare to a wonderful experience at Shaan.