If you’re a curious food lover who tries lots of different kinds of cuisines, you may have been introduced to Indian restaurants, thanks to the ubiquitous buffet. Or maybe you grabbed takeout one night and developed a love affair with curry. Or maybe you’ve had personal experiences with samosas and korma and tikka masala from families or friends—or perhaps even firsthand through travel. Yes, Aman’s offers a buffet, but don’t let that fool you. Buffet food often gets a bad rap, and he knows it.
You can rest assured that Aman’s fare at the lunch buffet is the same food you will receive from the dinner menu. “Some places put out sub-par food at lunch on the buffet, and save the best for the dinner menu,” Sukhjeet Bansal, who runs Aman’s Indian Bistro in Easton with his wife, Gangadeep, and sister Amandeep, says, shaking his head in disbelief. Such a move seems counterproductive for Aman’s—although you will notice a difference in the vibe during the day versus the evening. In the daytime it’s bright, and feels neutral, but crisp. In the evening, the tablecloths come out and a certain palpable warmth and glow emerges, one that matches the hospitality.
“We wanted to revamp the definition of Indian fine dining,” he says.
Still: What exactly is Indian fine dining? Do most Americans—especially those removed from large cities—have a working concept of what this means in terms of both service and food quality? As we dig into this a little more deeply, we both conclude: Probably not.
The majority of “ethnic” restaurants are eat and go. “We wanted to do something different,” he says. He describes the feel of Aman’s as “upscale but inviting to all people. It’s not so expensive that it naturally filters people out,” he explains.
The key to all business, of course, is customer service, which he describes as of the “utmost importance.” That starts the minute you walk through the door. The welcome is warm. The space itself is impeccably kept, so much so that it’s immediately noticed. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” he says. It also speaks to the discipline and cleanliness of the kitchen. “If it’s clean, the product is superb,” he says.
As a newbie to the restaurant biz (although extended family has offered insight and experience), running Aman’s, which opened in March 2016, has been an on-the-job training situation. His instincts and understanding of human behavior serve him and the team well. Bansal’s previous work involved Delta Airlines and Walmart—in customer service and as an asset protection agent, respectively. (Running a restaurant, or any business really, is an exercise in asset protection, right?)
One of the reasons Aman’s was named Favorite Indian in Style’s 2017 reader-voted Decadent Dish Restaurant Awards: the personal touch. Bansal circulates with folks who are dining and seeks to make a meaningful connection every time he talks. Taking the time to talk to people about their expectations and experiences means you know what they want, and they come back.
Developing personal relations with customers and learning about them creates return business (and good karma), but it all starts behind the scenes and in the back of the house, not just with those who pay for those meals. Anyone who’s spent time working in a restaurant knows that it can sometimes feel like a family. What’s unusual in talking with Bansal is that he refers to the people who work for him as “associates” not “employees.” “It feels derogatory to call them anything else; this puts us more on an equal plane,” he says. “Businesses exist on the shoulders of a good team.” To that end, if he notices that someone he works with doesn’t seem to be quite him or herself, he’ll often offer a ten-minute chitchat to help work it out.
“We put humanity first; we are all humans and we all have needs. We have families, or kids, or both.” It speaks to his religion—he’s Sikh, and he talks about the idea of sacha sauda: “If you do things with a clean heart, everything will flow. What you put out is what you get back,” he explains. (Anything left over in the restaurant at the end of the day is donated to local homeless shelters.)
This current runs through Aman’s when talking to Pritpal Singh, the 41-year-old chef. He moved up to the Lehigh Valley with his family from Mississippi, where he ran the only Indian restaurant within a 100-mile radius. (Think about that for a minute.) “I make everything from the bottom of my heart. I put my love in there. People come in happy and they leave happy,” says Singh.
He’d seen the restaurant grow exponentially from its previous iteration, both in terms of the menu offerings and amount of foot traffic, before the Bansals bought it. “We go through a huge, 21-gallon pot of one of our sauces in two and a half days. It doesn’t last long,” says Singh.
There’s a vibrancy to the flavors and the composition of the dishes that feels fresh and contemporary, but a respect for tradition in the presentation—all foods are served in double-insulated copper and stainless-steel vessels, which keep the food hot. “And aesthetically, it’s more in line with Indian culture and the way some meals are prepared and served on the subcontinent,” Bansal explains. Every dish can be customized to your preferred level of heat. Not all Indian food is hot and spicy—they’re happy to help dispel that myth. It is, however, very flavorful. That’s because it’s all scratch made. “We don’t buy any precooked foods from vendors—no frozen anything, no sauces. We trim our own meat and we know how to run a real kitchen.”
Aman’s presents a wide variety of dishes—he refers to their food as “artisan Indian cuisine,” which is to say that it’s fresh, homemade and authentic. Well, that’s another loaded term when it comes to food, as people often feel that what’s authentic is what their Italian, Chinese, Indian or fill-in-the-blank grandmother made. That may play into it on some level, but at Aman’s, it speaks to the approach. “Authentic, to us, means the discipline and love of the experience, and the flavors. Nothing is faked. People often say to us, ‘Is this for real?’ when they taste our food for the first time,” says Bansal.
Two tandoor ovens, with clay interiors and metal exteriors, are key to the preparation of the fare; one is used for breads and the other for roasting meats. You may know that Indian flatbread, or naan, is cooked in there (garlic, cheese, or stuffed with ground lamb, herbs and spices) along with other traditional flatbreads such as puri (deep-fried, whole-wheat puff bread) and alu paratha (whole-wheat bread stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes). Can’t decide? Order the bread basket for a trio sampler.
Aman’s offers many recognizable classics of Indian fare—curries, samosas, biryani, tandoori dishes. “The chicken tikka masala just skyrockets out of here,” he says. It’s a creamy tomato-based dish with tender pieces of chicken and a mild level of heat. The Madras chicken curry is a coconut milk-based dish with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Other popular dishes include the saag paneer, a classic vegetarian dish of spinach, cabbage and kale sautéed with Indian curd cheese. Indian food naturally prioritizes vegetarian and gluten-free fare—rice is served with meals—and Aman’s is also happy to cater to the needs of vegan diners, too. Bansal explains how the kitchen recently customized a vegan dessert upon request for someone who called ahead of time and asked if the restaurant would create something. (It was a mango vegan kulfi.)
Aman’s must be doing something right—not only is it earning raves via mostly word of mouth, but the folks who worked there have become attached to the spot, too. “The amazing thing is that when my associates leave and come back, they go out of their way to just stop in and say hi—they’ll get off 248 and come in and just say, ‘Hey, we were passing through,’” he says.
It all goes back to leading with your heart. “The concept is simple: being truthful with your words and actions. We want to make sure our food, ingredients and service bring out the best in us, so that our patrons get a great meal and great experience.”
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Aman’s Indian Bistro
3812 Easton-Nazareth Hwy., Easton | 484.298.0400 | amansbistroeaston.com
Hours
Mon., Wed., Thurs. & Sun.: 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; 5–9 p.m.; Fri. & Sat.: 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; 5–9:30 p.m.
Parking
Ample; strip mall parking lot
Reservations
Suggested for weekends
Payment
Visa, MasterCard, American Express
What to Order
Saag paneer, chicken tikka masala, tandoori shrimp, Madras chicken curry. The garlic naan is pungent and flavorful. Mango lassi is made from scratch and is a sweet and tangy counterpart to the heat level in some of the dishes. It’s hard to go wrong and the menu will take you some time to really go through.
