India is universally admired for its board games and food. Today's Groupon makes you India-ready with $30 worth of food and libations for $15 at Kasa Indian Eatery, voted Best New Restaurant of 2009 by SF Weekly readers and 7X7's winner for Best Meal Under $15. Your Groupon is good for both the Castro and Marina locations.
Simplifying Christopher Columbus's memorable food-run to India, Kasa's natural local ingredients craft a delicious menu of traditional bites and comfort. Kasa hand-rolls its own buttery Kati rolls, served with marinated onions, chutney, and yogurt ($4.50 each), and offers filling $5 sides of lamb curry, aloo jeera (cumin-spiced potatoes), and the spicy, creamy hybrid of chicken tikka masala. Compose a full plate of savory flavors with two main dishes, roti bread, daal (slowly simmered lentils), rice, veggie salad, chutney, and yogurt ($10.95). Pair it with beer or wine from a handpicked list prepared by Mark Bright, the sommelier at Saison.
After an extended domestic stay amid all-you-can-eat American buffets, any appetite longs for the flavors of adventure under its tongue-belt. Don your most fetching I Hurry for Curry embroidered track jacket or dining blouse for a home-cooked experience more fragrant and well spiced than your childhood kitchen. Kasa Marina features late-night hours until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Reviews
The San Francisco Chronicle, SF Weekly's Food Blog, and the San Francisco Examiner are intrigued by Kasa Indian Eatery. It won SF Weekly's 2009 Readers' Poll for Best New Restaurant and is the 7x7 Readers' Choice winner for Best Meal Under $15:
- The selection features six to eight dishes a day that you can eat two ways - in a kati roll or a thali plate. Kati rolls…resemble an Indian-style burrito. The filling of your choice is wrapped in a roti, an Indian flatbread, along with marinated onions and chutney. Fillings include many familiar Indian dishes, such as chicken tikka, chicken tikka masala and lamb curry. But it's the vegetarian specialties that are the most interesting, especially the Karahi paneer, Indian cheese that's wok-tossed with fresh green peppers and tomatoes; and aloo jeera, cumin-spiced potatoes. – Jane Tunks, San Francisco Chronicle
- Any place billed as an Indian taqueria is worth checking out, and a lot of people have been doing just that since Kasa opened last month. There's no denying it's a great concept: drag Indian food out of the standard sit-down equation, pare it down to a few core basics (curries, tikka, roti), and serve it in the manner well-honed by local taquerias. – Brian Bernbaum, SF Weekly's Food Blog
Citysearchers and Yelpers give the 18th Street location and Filmore Street location between 4 and 4.5 stars. Zagat gives the food a very good to excellent, and 82% of Urbanspooners like it:
- Very tasty kari [sic] rolls. Friendly and fast service. – Scorpion, Urbanspoon
Groupon Says
What Explorers Were Really Looking For
The Indian cuisine at Kasa might remind you why, in the face of ridicule, Christopher Columbus sailed west, hoping to find a faster route to India. History, of course, remembers him as a somewhat creepy goofball who hated children going to school on Mondays. While exploring the menu, keep in mind other famous explorers and what they were actually looking for:
Christopher Columbus
Looking For: A faster route to India
Found: America, plus an island near Haiti composed of a sentient gas cloud filled with evil mirrors
Ponce de Leon
Looking For: The Fountain of Youth
Found: Chalice of Consolation
Neil Armstrong
Looking For: The Moon
Found: A soundstage in Reno
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