Taj restaurant in its new location on Clarks Pond Parkway in South Portland. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

Much has happened with Taj Indian Cuisine since the Press Herald’s last review in 2018. Just the last six months alone have been momentous.

This past August, the popular South Portland restaurant moved from Gorham Road to a larger, sleeker space nearby in the Clarks Pond Shopping Center. In January, Taj was nominated among 20 national semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Hospitality award, and in February, Taj announced it was opening a sister restaurant in the Old Port this spring.

A recent dinner at Taj showed very clearly how it earned the Beard nod: Even on a night when their 62-seat dining room and 11-seat bar were packed to the hilt, the service was exceptionally good. This is no small feat for a budget-friendly restaurant with an extensive menu. And from the customer’s perspective, the service and ambience here make even a weeknight meal feel special.

Compared to the original space, with its acoustical tile ceiling and yellow walls bearing cartoon-like Indian imagery, the dark tin ceiling, clean lines and neutral color palette of the new Taj — designed by Portland’s Woodhull — is sophisticated and elegantly understated. Taj owner Sai Guntaka said he wanted to avoid the bright, boldly colored trappings found in most Indian restaurants in the U.S., and instead present a “modern, classy” vibe. It works. You may not feel transported to India, but you certainly forget you’re in a strip mall.

Guntaka also wanted to make the space suitable for date nights. Taj sets the tone with chill lounge music beats in the background, dimmed table lamps and flattering backlighting along the perimeter of the dining room. It’s almost sexy —at least sexy-adjacent — though the din of conversation on a busy night may break the spell for some.

A kitchen worker at Taj finishes preparing a naan. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

When you first enter, you’re greeted warmly both by Guntaka and the alluring aromas of Indian spice blends wafting through the dining room. To the left is the buffet room, with its 16-foot-high ceiling and mural of the Taj Mahal (by local artist Mike Rich), though it remains vacant during dinner service. To the right, the dining room, where servers handle all the tables as a team, rather than attending to specific tables or zones.

“The way I train my staff is, ‘If you’re busy, I go to that table, if I’m busy, you go,'” Guntaka said. The approach works marvelously well because his servers, to a person — no fewer than four staffers helped our table at various points in the evening — are professional, solicitous and speedy.

Listed on the menu under “shareable appetizers,” the samosa chaat ($6.99) hit our table within a few minutes of ordering, and proved to be one of the meal’s standouts. A classic street-food dish, the chaat uses Taj’s house specialty potato- and pea-stuffed fried pastries as a base, topped with warmly spiced chickpea curry, vibrant mint and tamarind sauces, house-made yogurt and deep-fried chickpea flour noodles, along with some chopped fresh tomato and red onion for a little bite. It’s a delightful mashup — crunchy and soft, tangy and creamy, fresh and stewed — and if it were offered as an entrée, I’d gladly make it my whole dinner.

The Karaikudi Chicken at Taj restaurant. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

The scrumptious Karaikudi Chicken ($16.99), also a house specialty, features boneless chicken in a rich (but cream-free) onion-tomato curry sauce seasoned with a compelling blend of garam masala, coriander, ground chile, turmeric and fresh curry leaves. We ordered it spicy, but not spicy spicy. Our server said it’d be a 7 out of 10 on a heat scale, and it came out just as we’d hoped — enough heat to catch the back of your throat, though easily tamed with a little basmati rice or, even better, some pillowy, buttery garlic naan ($3.99) with its delectably crisped underside.

One of Guntaka’s favorite parts of the new restaurant is the cocktail bar, a feature missing from the old space, and the namesake Taj martini ($14) justifies his enthusiasm. A mix of Goldie’s Gin — a classic London dry-style spirit from Portland Distilling Company  — and fresh lychee juice, rounded out with a little Licor 43 and Luxardo, the drink’s light, floral sweetness plays well with the botanicals in the gin, and also complements some of the spicier dishes.

The Curry Margarita ($12) is a pleasantly dry, booze-forward blend of tequila, Cointreau and fresh lime juice served over ice and rimmed with Tajin Mexican spice blend. The drink ostensibly contains house curry powder as well, but that flavor didn’t come through. The lychee-laced martini evoked the subcontinent; but without fragrant curry powder, this drink was just a good margarita.

Diners are seen through a screen wall at Taj restaurant. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

A similar theme played out elsewhere in the meal, where key elements didn’t register clearly, if at all. The cilantro in Taj’s mint chutney (chutneys are 80 cents each) overpowered any mint in the blend, while the flavor of shredded coconut in the coconut-peanut chutney was also undetectable. The sauces were tasty enough, just not as fully flavored as you might hope. Sweet-tart tamarind chutney and kicky ginger chutney both delivered on expectations.

Chilli paneer ($13.99), one of the menu’s Indo-Chinese appetizers, features soft cubes of mild, house-made paneer cheese coated in a spiced batter of chickpea and rice flours. The cheese cubes are deep fried, then coated again in a glossy, sticky tomato-based sauce reminiscent of Chinese sweet and sour sauce, but spicier. The menu says the sauce contains “homemade soy and chilli sauce,” and while the heat was there, the umami and depth of flavor we wanted from the soy was not.

Some of the sauces on the extensive menu pull double-duty in other dishes, Guntaka said, which helps with efficiency, considering Chef Hema Latha Guntaka’s (his mom) lengthy menu of 15 appetizers and more than two dozen entrées. Indeed, the chilli paneer sauce showed up again as a glaze for sautéed shrimp on the Taj Grill ($18.99), which also includes tandoor oven-baked chicken that had been marinated for 18 hours in yogurt spiced with the house garam masala blend.

The tandoori dish arrives straight from the oven and sizzling, like a platter of fajitas. Our server advised pulling the meat from the platter ASAP, so it wouldn’t dry out. We complied, and the dark meat pieces were juicy, with nice charring at the edges and subtle spice flavor. The shrimp, too, were succulent, and somehow I liked the sweet and spicy sauce better in this context.

Though we’d removed the white meat pieces first, they were just a touch dry, but the ginger and tamarind chutneys came to the rescue. The Sula shiraz from India ($8) was a nice match for the tandoori meats. It’s an uncommon find and a striking wine, with dark fruitiness, peppery notes and a nose as smoky as mezcal.

The wine also paired well with the tomato-based sauces in other dishes, like chenna masala ($13.99), which features fresh chickpeas stewed in the same onion-tomato curry sauce as the Karaikudi, minus some of the spices that made that dish almost addictively enticing. Still, it’s a very tasty and hearty veggie-based entree.

The little fried dough balls in the gulab jamoon ($6.99) dessert, made from a mix of Bisquick and dry milk powder, are both indulgent and comforting. Served in a short-stemmed martini glass, the balls bob in a syrup made from molasses-rich jaggery spiced with flowery cardamom. It’s traditionally meant to be intensely sweet, and it is — unless you have a hardcore sweet tooth, a little goes a long way. Still, the jaggery soothes the palate after a spicy meal.

It’s hard not to be a fan of the new Taj. The restaurant has really come into its own, particularly since moving into its snazzy new digs. It’s also a restaurant that’s right for the moment, when so many people are seeking the best value for their dwindling disposable income. And whether it wins a Beard award or not won’t change the fact that you’d be hard-pressed to find hospitality this good at this price point anywhere else in Maine.

Bartender Cody Brann mixes drinks at Taj restaurant. The bar is a new feature since Taj moved. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

RATING: ***1/2
WHERE: 333 Clarks Pond Parkway, Suite 6, South Portland, 207-828-6677, tajofmaine.com
SERVING: Lunch, Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner, Monday-Thursday, 4:30-10 p.m.; dinner, Friday, 4:30-11 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
PRICE RANGE: Appetizers: $4-$16, Entrées: $14-$26 (though almost all entrées are under $19)
NOISE LEVEL: Medium-high with a full dining room
VEGETARIAN: Plenty of dishes, with some vegan appetizer options available as well
RESERVATIONS: Yes
BAR: Beer, wine and cocktails
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes

BOTTOM LINE: Taj is flourishing in its sleek new space in the Shops at Clarks Pond, where owner Sai Guntaka has brought to life his vision of a contemporary, upscale Indian restaurant fit for both couples on date nights and budget-minded customers looking for a nice evening out with strong value. Taj was recently nominated for a James Beard Foundation Outstanding Hospitality award, and for good reason: Restaurants at this price point don’t typically feature service as attentive, fast and professional. While key components seemed absent in the flavor of a few dishes and condiments, the kitchen delivers some terrifically tasty standouts like samosa chaat and Karaikudi chicken, along with hearty veggie dishes like chenna masala, and fluffy, chewy blistered naan. From the bar, a new feature since Taj moved from its old space, you’ll find a nicely balanced lychee-gin blend in the Taj martini. Wine fans shouldn’t miss the Sula shiraz, a smoky-fruity Indian wine that pairs well with many items on the menu.

Samosa Chaat at Taj restaurant. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

Ratings follow this scale and take into consideration food, atmosphere, service, value and type of restaurant (a casual bistro will be judged as a casual bistro, an expensive upscale restaurant as such):
* Poor
** Fair
*** Good
**** Excellent
***** Extraordinary

The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once; if the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second. The reviewer never accepts free food or drink.