Kashmir

Since I just went to Kashmir's this weekend for my birthday I thought I would start with a review of this restaurant. I had initially chosen Vinny T's, an excellent Italian restaurant on Boylston, as the location of my party, however the weekend before my birthday I happened to go to Kashmir and I thought it would be nice to have a change of pace.

Kashmir is an upscale Indian restaurant located at 279 Newbury Street. The first time I went to Kashmir with my friends I was actually looking for a place to smoke hookah and my friend mentioned that she knew of an Indian restaurant where they allowed you to smoke. If I may interrupt myself for a moment, since this blog is open to the public I feel that I must add that hookah is completely legal and it is possible to smoke it without becoming addicted. I'm not suggesting that hookah is healthy since it is not because the smoker inhales flavored tobacco through a large water pipe. For anyone who is unfamiliar with hookah here is a website that will explain the process: http://mideastfood.about.com/od/middleeasternfood101/a/hookah.htm

When we arrived at the restaurant we were seated outside in a little patio area because smoking is not allowed inside. Kashmir offered a lot of hookah flavors to choose from but we eventually decided on the more traditional strawberry flavoring. We also ordered some tea and vegetable samosas as appetizers. A samosa is a triangular shaped fried bread stuffed with potatoes and peas covered in spices. The resturant had reasonable prices considering its location on Newbury Street. The average meal cost about $15. The food was delicious and it was at that point that I decided that I wanted to celebrate my birthday at Kashmir.

The first night I went to the restaurant I sat with two other people outside and for my birthday I had a group of about twelve people and we sat inside. After these two experiences I would recommend going to the restaurant with a small group because it is more enjoyable. Although the food and hookah is of high quality and the atmosphere of the restaurant is nice whether you are sitting inside or outside the service is definitely under par. You have to constantly call the waiters over if you want anything because once they have served you the food their part is pretty much done. During my birthday they didn't even come around to refill our water glasses or check to see if we needed anything. The huge tip was included in the bill so it didn't give the waiters much incentive to provide quality service.

Overall, if you enjoy Indian food and don't mind poor service I would recommend Kashmir as a nice restaurant to kick back and relax with a couple of friends on a Friday night. Here is a link to the restaurant so you can check it out for yourself. http://www.kashmirrestaurant.com/.