Victoria Pesce Elliott

velliott@MiamiHerald.com

Some karmic recipe conspires to make Indian restaurants a tricky business in Miami. While the best have struggled, the worst of the greasy, budget buffets have managed to hang around like a gang of unruly teenagers, giving Indian food a seedy reputation.

A sad state of affairs for me, since, if forced to choose, I would have to say the wildly varied regional foods of beloved Hindustan thrill me more than any other of the world's cuisines.

So it is with gluttonous glee that I welcome Mint Leaf to my hometown and bow to the self-proclaimed ambassador of Indian food, Mr. Ranjit Sood, for following his daughter and son-in-law to our culinarily quirky city. The dashing and talkative swell with a quick smile beneath his cropped salt and pepper mustache has managed to turn a pappadam-sized eatery into a thriving business in less than three months. He was aided, no doubt, by decades of experience in the U.K., where he launched Woodlands, a South Indian vegetarian chain.

Has he finally managed to break the curse at this address where flops include the short-lived and much-mourned Brana (a lovely creperie), an authentic Italian and, yes, an Indian called Darbar that opened (and closed) in the early '90s?

The space has not changed dramatically. Now red glass pendant lights illuminate the dozen or so white-clothed tables and chocolate-colored concrete floors. Bejeweled tapestries in silver and gold frame one wall along with an ancient stone carving. A pair of flat screens loop campy Bollywood music videos.

The lengthy menu is also enticing, with specialties from all over the Indian map, featuring plenty of hearty chicken, fish and exquisite lamb dishes.

Essential dishes to sample include steamy mounds of basmati rice layered into intricate biryanis or steamed with coconut milk and peppered with fried lentils and sweet, caramelized onions.

Coupled with a mysteriously perfect bowl of creamy, smoky rich and comforting black lentils, dal makhani, these pulses could be reason enough to love this place.

But there is more. Sooki sabsi is made with velvety chunks of skin-on eggplant gently spiced with zingy mustard seeds and tender, baby curry leaves, while an unusually complex sag paneer with house-made cheese is as tangy as it is silken.

Nirvana-like breads, including naan, onion kulcha and roti are baked in the clay oven until divinely scorched, puffy, chewy and hot. Glistening coats of melted ghee make them rich, but dunk them into any of the rich sauces like that of the complex and buttery curry chicken and it is divine.

More delightful dipping goes on with medu vada, or dry lentil donuts in a thick sambar, lentil puree. Also worth a try are their fancier twins soaked in sweet and sour cold yogurt sauce and flecked with raisins, ginger and tamarind.

Remember to order chutney tray, which includes, of course, vibrant green mint, as well as musky tamarind, mango and a chunky coconut.

Chaat, Indian street snacks that are meant to be shared, come in various combinations of fried potatoes, puffed rice, tamarind sauce, garlic, yogurt, mung beans, apples, bananas and peanuts.

Golden dosas are made of a slightly fermented rice and lentil batter that turns into springy, buttery envelopes filled with your choice of stuffings. My favorite is the simple potato and onion classic.

Although tempting to try the combo platters, I suggest narrowing down what you really like and going for it. Lamb lovers cannot go wrong with lamb rogan josh, a tomato-ey stew with tender chunks of flavorful meat that might even tempt a vegetarian. But even better is the lamb dhansak cooked with lentils in a creamy stew.

Other standouts include a lemony shrimp lasooni, divine tandoor chicken, and, for that matter, anything from the scorching tandoor oven.

Though Indian sweets have never been my speed, I appreciate a few spoonfuls of the warm almond halwa, a hot porridge-like mash of pulverized almonds spiked with saffron or the subtle butterscotch-like jaggery dosa with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

It's easy to run up a big tab here when sampling so many lovely dishes. And servers, though pleasant and handsome, are sometimes bumbling. I recommend instead coming back often and trying them one by one even if it takes a lifetime. It would be nice to think Mint Leaf will stick around long enough for us to try.