Indian cuisine has arrived in Logan
Looking for some real curry?
The Indian Oven restaurant might only have five tables and be tucked within a Sinclair gas station, but it is the only place to find authentic Indian food in Cache Valley.
“It’s about time Logan got some great Indian food,” said Annie Barlow, a graphics design senior. Barlow said she enjoys Indian food and was excited to
Sham Singh and his uncle Mukhtiar Singh run the gas station, Indian grocery store and restaurant together along with their family.
Sham said all the food is cooked with authentic Indian spices, ingredients and with cooking tools unique to his home country. This includes a clay oven, called a tandoori, which bakes chicken and bread at extremely high temperatures.
“It’s all real Indian food,” Sham said.
Singh might be new to Logan, but cooking Indian food is his profession.
Before coming to Logan, Sham was the head chef at the Bombay House Indian restaurant in Salt Lake City. He came to Logan four months ago to start something new and have his own restaurant.
The Indian Oven, located on the corner of 10th N. and 700 E., has been open just over a month and already has loyal patrons.
“Some customers come everyday,” Sham said.
Although, in the first weeks the restaurant had been pushed to make changes, not because of too few customers, but too many.
“The first week was very, very busy,” Sham said. “Some people had to wait one to one half hours. We can’t afford a lot of people.”
Lunchtime soon became too crazy to handle so they changed their serving times to only dinner. Sham and Mukhtiar Singh said they wanted the highest quality food and service and it was too difficult to accommodate both meal times in such a small location.
“We don’t want to make a lot of money,” Sham said. Keeping customers, he said, is his number one priority.
“I want perfect food for the customers.”
However, the Indian Oven still does take-out orders starting after 11:30 a.m. everyday.
What the Indian Oven lacks in hours, it definitely makes up in food variety.
The menu is four pages full of items such as spinach soup with onions, tomatoes and cream, eight chicken specialties, seven seafood specialties, 12 vegetarian dishes, six types of Indian flat breads, deserts including rice pudding and mango ice cream and beverages such as strawberry lassi, a homemade yogurt drink.
As of now, the menu is just for take-out. But for those dining inside, the Indian Oven offers a “super buffet” from 4:30-10 p.m. with different dishes and deserts each day.
“Everyday it changes,” Sham said about the buffet.
Logan resident, Rich Timothy, has been to the Indian Oven four times since it openened last month.
“It’s good food,” he said. “What they put out is really tasty.”
“Indian food, I’ve enjoyed for a really long time. It’s nice to not have to travel all the way to Salt Lake to actually get some,” Timothy said.
The Singh family is breaking new ground for all of Cache Valley at their little convenience store. They have opened the first Indian restaurant, the first Indian market and the store is the only place in the valley to rent Indian made films on VHS -something that might not be of interest to the average student, but to the growing population of Indian students and residents in Logan.
And Sham said, “It is just the beginning.”
Sham plans to eventually have a larger restaurant in Logan accommodating lunch, dinner and enough seats for everyone. He said for now he is just building a base with his customers.
joelfeathers@cc.usu.edu