It all started with Jess going to her cousin's baby shower. She was told she had to have a baby shower, too. So, in all of the preparation for that, we were told we'd have to get samosas for the party.
In our 3½ years in Madison, we haven't found an Indian restaurant that we've been crazy about, so we weren't sure where to get samosas for this party. It came to us that the solution to this problem would be to try all of the samosa in Madison, and find the one we liked the best. Thus far, we've hit 6 different restaurants, but this is more a tale of the first 5 that we tried in one day.
The contenders:
Since we were picking these up and then going to eat them all at once later, we decided to nibble a little piece of all of them before moving on to the next place, to see how their crust was when they were fresh. I only remember that Maharaja's crust seemed spicy, and India Darbar's was salty.
When we got home, we unwrapped all of the samosas and sauces and started our test. The first thing we noticed were the sauces. As you can see in the pictures, each place gave the red onion chutney, and the (somewhat mysterious, but seemingly tasting like cilantro) green chutney. India Darbar's green was somewhat scary in its neon-ish fashion. The rest were much darker. All but Taste of India supplied a tamarind sauce. Which is a shame, since that is both of our favorite. -1 for ToI.
Swagat started the tasting. There was a nice flavor, and individual vegetables were distinguishable. The onion chutney was very flavorful and delightful, while the tamarind sauce was sweet, with what appeared to be seeds of some sort floating around.
Maharaja was next. The onions were not as tasty, but edible. The tamarind was good, but not outstanding. The filling had more spice, and vegetables were distinguishable, and the flavor was good.
One bite into India Darbar's offering and I knew this one was not going to win. There was an off-putting taste that I couldn't identify, but Jess knew what it was right away: Ginger. Not that I don't like ginger, but it was just too over powering. The potato was apparent, but it was pretty mushy. The onion wasn't very appealing, and the tamarind was not as good as the first two.
Taj's offering didn't impress us either. The onion here was much more finely chopped, almost puréed, and wasn't very pleasing to the palette. I don't remember much about the tamarind, so I'm guessing it was about average. The filling was definitely dyed yellow, and somewhat mushy. I seem to remember seeing mushed peas along the outside of the filling, as well. But the vegetable pakora was pretty good (ordering mishap; he thought I said pakora, I wanted samosas, he threw in the pakoras since I was probably the only person doing any kind of take out on a Sunday afternoon).
Taste of India was also dyed yellow, but had a consistency almost of mashed potatoes. The flavorings were not great, and, again, the lack of tamarind really hurts here. They are the most generous with their chutney sizes (the containers were larger than the rest), but they weren't all that great. Now that I think of it, I wonder if the lack of tamarind was an oversight. We've eaten here a few times, and I seem to remember the usual 3 chutney rack being brought out with the poppadums before. No matter, as the samosa itself disappointed.
We quickly concluded that Swagat's samosas were the best of the day. Jess ended up finishing both pieces from here, while giving me her remaining bites of ToI, Taj, and India Darbar.
Two days later, we went downtown for dinner at Maharani, since we were nearby and could sample a 6th samosa. The offering here was pleasant – the crust was my favorite, as it was darker and bubblier than the other places. The filling seemed as good as Swagat, and the chutneys were pleasant as well. Most of this is to be expected, though, as both places are owned by the same people.
So, my ratings thus far are as follows: Maharani, followed by Swagat, then Maharaja, Taj, India Darbar, and Taste of India. At this point, I know of one other restaurant west of the capital (Flavor of India) that we have yet to try. If there are others that I've missed, feel free to let me know.
