We know better than to judge an Indian restaurant based on bad lighting and quilted fake leather dining chairs, but in the case of this upper Silom fishbowl, appearances don’t deceive. You know from the moment you taste the mint chutney at Indian Delight that things aren’t quite going to live up to that name. It’s not that the food is particularly dreadful, but there’s a flavor punch missing that puts it just short of this city’s Indian gold standard.

 

In the mutton rogan josh (B340), what should be a rich, decadent gravy has the uniform texture of a can of tomato soup, in which the tough meat swims like a hastily added afterthought. There’s a similar lack of depth to the chicken do pyaza (B260), whose chunks of onion don’t speak of a curry which has spent due time at a low, flavor-amalgamating simmer. The taste is there, kind of, but you don’t want to lick the bowl clean. The tandoor paneer tikka, stained yellow from a yogurt marinade that failed to permeate the plump, rubbery cheese with any depth of flavor, does at least come in an ambitiously hearty portion—which it should at B325.

 

OK, so you might question the sagacity of looking for good Indian food—good any food—in such touristy stretches of Bangkok. But this is the same territory where Indian Hut plies its deliciously well-simmered trade, and not far from where nearly-namesake BBQ Delight deals out a formidable range of Indian-spiced, charcoal-grilled meat sticks. Look through the window of Indian Delight on any night and you’ll see Bangkok’s Indian community eating alongside the out-of-towners, while the restaurant also seems to do roaring catering trade for Indian events (if the pics on its Facebook page are anything to go by).

 

Maybe they know something on the menu which we don’t, because even when you venture away from butter chicken and vindaloo into the more unusual Agra specialties, things don’t raise above a B-. In the sev puri (bite-size, crisp puri bread topped with spiced potato, B140), for example, the flavor of the well-spiced masala potato gets completely lost once the viciously sweet chutney hits your palate. While servers stand attentively yet unobtrusively by, and food flows from the kitchen in one perfectly-timed reveal, no amount of polish could ever make these dishes run with Silom’s Indian big league. Corkage B300

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This review took place in November 2015 and is based on a visit to the restaurant without the restaurant's knowledge. For more on BK's review policy, click here.