Valley’s Indian Oven grows in popularity
For Dorothy there was no place like home, and for many Cache Valley residents, there is no place like the Indian Oven Restaurant.
The Indian Oven is the only place from Brigham City to Pocatello where customers can taste authentic Indian cuisine. Matt Singh, owner of the Indian Oven, said the restaurant was just an idea that arose from a family of many talented cooks.
“We lived in Salt Lake City at the time and decided that we wanted to start a restaurant,” Singh said. “We looked at a section off of a gas station to hold our business. We had worked with a gas station before, so it did not bother us.”
After three years, the Indian Oven became too busy to accommodate all its guests inside the tiny space it was given. Singh said he knew they needed to be someplace larger.
“When we were too busy to accommodate our customers, that is when we decided to move our restaurant someplace larger,” he said. “Our building here on Main Street is now perfect for our guests and atmosphere.”
The walls of the restaurant are painted in different colors, and Indian music is played.
Wayne Jaggi, regular customer at the Indian Oven, said the atmosphere was what attracted him to the restaurant a little over a year ago.
“My wife and I were coming across campus when we stopped by the gas station,” Jaggi said. “It attracted our attention.”
The six-page menu ranges from Asian and Indian dishes, lamb, seafood, and a selection of vegetarian foods. Each dish is served with rice, and each loaf of bread is cooked in a clay oven, which Singh said he believes gives the loaf its “charcoal flavor.”
One of the more popular dishes, he said, is the chicken tikka masala, which is a boneless chicken barbecued in a clay oven and then cooked with bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, cream and spices. Other favorites include the mango ice cream-a homemade Indian ice cream made from Indian mango pulp and vanilla. Also, the mango lassi beverage is a yogurt drink blended with mangos and homemade yogurt.
Jaggi’s favorite is the vegetable masala, he said, which is a dish of mixed vegetables cooked with onions, ginger, tomatoes, cream and spices. However, Jaggi said he warns those who come for the first time to avoid asking for hot spices.
“Many do not understand their use of spices,” he said. “When my wife and I first came here, I asked for my dish hot, and my wife asked for hers to be very mild. Somehow we got one another’s orders, and my wife’s dish was so hot she couldn’t speak for three days.”
Singh said the chefs at the Indian Oven Restaurant know how to use spices to make their food taste unique to many other foods their customer’s may try. The chefs love the food they are making and love the spices they use, he said.
“We enjoy everything we do here,” Singh said. “We do our best to make sure you do also.”
The cooks’ use of spices and their cooking skills have helped them receive many awards throughout the state.
In 2006, the Indian Oven Restaurant was rated one of the top 10 restaurants in Utah from the magazine Salt Lake. It also received the Best Chef of the Year Award from the Cache Valley Ice Center.
“We have had a really good response here in Cache Calley,” Singh said. “It has become a great goal.”
The Indian Oven Restaurant is located at 130 N. Main Street. They are open Monday though Saturday with lunch served from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner served from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Takeout is also available from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
-courtnie.packer@aggiemail.usu.edu