THE LUNCH buffet is the bread and butter of Silicon Valley Indian restaurants. Restaurants load up steam tables with chicken tikka masala, tandoori lamb, dal, spinach paneer and other standard dishes and then let customers have at it. Trouble is, while it's often an all-you-can eat bargain, it doesn't make for very interesting eating.
But San Jose's 5-month-old Mynt restaurant offers a different experience. Ten dollars buys you plate after plate of food you're unlikely to come across elsewhere. It's one of the most diverse and delicious buffets I've come across. What's more, the lineup of dishes changes from one day to the next, so you'll never get bored.
In opening the Mynt, co-owner Ram Ramgiri wanted to improve on what he says is the poor service and same old food that characterize many Silicon Valley Indian restaurants. Rather than telling his cooks what to make, he developed the menu after talking with them about their specialties and interests. Some of the chefs come from the tiny coastal state of Goa, a tropical region known for its spicy, Portuguese-influenced cuisine, and they have worked in several excellent dishes from this part of India.
Ramgiri and his staff solicit input from diners and he regularly changes the menu based on customer feedback. Indeed, during one of my visits, my server asked what I thought of the food. I suggested paring down the number of choices. The menu verges on being too large and can make ordering daunting.
The menu roams up and down India and also incorporates a few Western ingredients like sea bass, asparagus and Dungeness crab. At the popular lunch buffet, look for nearly a dozen meat-based and vegetarian entrees as well as salads, soup and a few desserts.
I knew the Mynt was different when I spotted the brightly colored lal beetroot masala. The cubed red beets and glistening green chile peppers looked dramatic, but they didn't prepare me for the taste: spicy, smoky and rich. Goan food is known for its smoky flavors, and in this case the smokiness came from chipotles, an ingredient typically found in Mexican and Southwest cooking.
The aloo mushroom xacuti was another treat. Fat slices of portobello mushrooms and potato chunks were simmered in a spicy, coconut milk-based curry. I tried two excellent chicken dishes. Reshmi chicken kebabs are made of ground chicken that's skewered and grilled in the tandoori oven. The exterior is wonderfully crisp and tangy and inside the meat is light and aromatic. The hariyali chicken is rubbed with cilantro and mint and other spices and roasted in a tandoori oven. It's another light, brightly flavored dish.
The Mynt's buffet also offers more familiar dishes, like the rich and delicious butter chicken and Punjabi chole paneer (garbanzo beans and spongy cheese in a spicy curry sauce). On one visit I had a good sweet potato and spinach soup, but on another it was a mediocre and oddly Campbell's-like cream of asparagus.
It's hard to save room for dessert when you're given free license to return to the buffet line again and again, but if it's available look for the refreshing mango phirni, a light rice-and-milk-based dessert soup. Less appealing are the kitchen's more Western creations like the heavy and pasty pumpkin halwa strudel.
What surprised me is that I preferred the buffet menu. The dinner menu is large, and, to be fair, one visit isn't enough to really put a dent in it. Because some of the dishes are less familiar, there are bound to be some hit and misses, and with the buffet you can inspect a dish before spooning it onto your plate.
That said, there are several dinner items to recommend. Kolhapuri chaat ($5), a star-shaped potato cake filled with spinach, is a winner. The tandoori rack of lamb "sizzler" ($18) arrives juicy and wonderfully seasoned. If you like your food spicy, the Mynt will not disappoint. Kali mirch ka murgh ($12) is described as chicken cooked in a black pepper and green chile marinade, but it's really a rich and piquant curry. For tamer stuff, try the aloo gobi (tender potato and cauliflower; $10). Avoid the doughy and gummy crab cakes ($7) and the heavy dumpokht aloo kebab ($7), slices of potato filled with cashews and cottage cheese.
The Mynt aspires to high-end, white tablecloth dining, an emerging restaurant category that has been dominated by Amber in San Jose and Mountain View. Although the Christmas music was turned up too loud, the boxy restaurant is comfortable and inviting and more appealing than it looks from outside. The tie-wearing waiters are professional and efficient, though sometimes their accents make it hard to understand them. But with so many unusual and delicious dishes, the Mynt's food does most of the talking.
