Cheap Indian Eats at Milon

My friends rave about Indian food, and while I've never tried it, my friends suggested we go to a fantastic Indian restaurant on the lower east side before our friend Adam's show at Pianos. The restaurant was hard to miss because of its bright Christmas and decorative lights inside the restaurant that shined so brightly you could see it a block away! Located on 1st between 5th and 6th Avenues, the restaurant was a teeny tiny walk up called Milon. Although the place was small, it was completely packed! The lights completely flooded the ceiling of the restaurant, so much so, that even I at 5' 3" had to duck so the lights wouldn't hit me in the face! The six of us started off with three orders of assorted appetizers (at $2.75 per order). The appetizer can with one samose, two piaza, and two banana pakora.
I learned a samose is a meat and potato "fritter," a piaza is a vegetable fritter, and the pakora is a fried banana fritter. They were all fried yet tasty in their flavors. We also ordered three orders of nan ($1.50 per order) which is a flat pita bread that comes in either regular or garlic. The bread was a great accessory to our entrees. Before I left my roommate told me to try the tandoori, so I tried the shrimp tandoori ($8.95). It came out sizzling in a metal pan and was served hot on my plate. The shrimp was a bright colored red which scared me because I am not big on very spicy foods. However, the shrimp had a kick, but tasted very flagrant without being too spicy. I would definitely recommend it to someone who hasn't had Indian food before. We told the waiters it was our friend Ashley's birthday (although I must admit we fibbed a bit) the waiter came out with small dishes of mango ice cream for each of us! All the light overhead turned off expect for a big disco ball light that lit up to the music of an Indian version of "Happy Birthday." Overall, our bill left us only paying $14 each! Incredible.
The best thing about this restaurant beside the atmosphere and food is that it is a bring your own booze restaurant! Our friend stopped at Trader's Joe's beforehand and bought six bottle of their "two buck Chuck" (okay, three in the city) bottles of wine. Therefore we got sloshed before the show and had our stomachs filled for the cheap. A side note: if you're really claustrophobic this place might not be suitable for you. It is very, almost too cozy but the cheap eats really makes up for it. So go out to the LES, grab some Indian food, and check out some cool bars and venues in the area. Or even better, you can check out my friend Adam (also known as Saul Ashby) on myspace and listen to some of his sweet jams.

Until next time, happy eating!

Bianca