Las Vegas Valley sees growing number of Indian restaurants

When Jitu Patel opened his India Oven restaurant in 1999 (moving to his current location in 2005), his was only the fourth or fifth Indian restaurant in town, he says.

“Now there’s almost 20 — either opened or will open within a month,” Patel says.

And “it’s not even the past few years,” says Nigam, who operates the VegasDesi.com Web site, the only local Indian publication. “It’s the last two years.”

The reason for such a steep growth spike? Part of it is the steep growth — until recently — in the valley’s population.

Patel estimates his customer mix is 50-50 Indian to non-Indian, and about the same ratio of tourists to residents. Raja Majid, owner of Origin India restaurant, says his mix runs 50-50 tourists to residents, and about 80 percent non-Indian.

“South Asians are a growing community,” Patel says. “According to that, everything else is growing.”

Nigam, who says there were about 50 Indian families in the valley when he moved here in 1986, estimates the current total at about 25,000, including children. Majid says he has heard estimates of 30,000 to 40,000 when natives of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal are taken into account.

There has been a recent influx of Indian professionals, Nigam says, especially physicians and those in the field of information technology.

The 28 states of India are, Patel notes, famous for not exactly getting along with each other. It should be no surprise, then, that their cuisines can be vastly different. The differences often are complex and finely nuanced, but a simplified formula can be drawn.

More meat is eaten in northern India; the tandoori style of cooking, Majid notes, stemmed from a Middle Eastern influence. Southern Indians tend to be vegetarian and eat a lot of rice, Majid says. Near Hyderabad, which is in central India and was home to royalty, the dishes tend to be heavier and richer, he says. And Rajastan, in the northwest, gave birth to lots of sauces, “sort of like curries.”

For all of that, Patel says, most Las Vegas restaurants tend to serve north Indian-style food, whether that’s the home state of the owner or chef or not. North Indian food, Patel says, “is the most popular in the Western world” and characterized by tandoori-style dishes, tikka masala, naan. The meat-oriented dishes are more at home in the West’s meat-eating countries, he says.

And there’s a practical consideration. Patel, who was born in Uganda and educated in India, says his family originally is from south India, where most of the food is vegetarian.

“What I eat at home — I can’t charge enough” in the restaurant, Patel says. “Usually you serve something where you can make money.”

Majid says he recently hired a new chef whose training included a stint at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai. While he concedes that north Indian food is most popular in this part of the world, Majid says his chef is trying to introduce dishes from every state, adapting them for American tastes.

Majid sees himself as somewhat of an ambassador for India, educating guests about food and culture. Some of it’s sort of lighthearted, such as his annual Valentine’s Day menu of aphrodisiacs.

Majid says he first came to Las Vegas to visit his wife’s parents, and noticed a dearth of quality Indian restaurants.

“I asked, ‘Where are some good restaurants here?’ ” he says. “A lot of them didn’t know about producing good Indian food. People used to ask if it was greasy or oily. People didn’t know what Indian food was. I wish I was here 10 to 15 years ago.” Origin India opened in 2006.

“My dream is to take Indian food …” he says, and pauses.

He recounted the story of a customer who e-mailed to say he plans to spend every special occasion at Origin India. That’s something, Majid notes, that has mostly been reserved for “French, Italian restaurants …

“Now Indian as well.”

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.