Pooja Restaurant, Somerset

The key to great Indian food, according to the chefs at Pooja Restaurant, isn’t its spiciness, but its spices. Roasted, fried, or ground into pastes, the culinary team’s handpicked spices are carefully deployed to bring out each dish’s strongest aromas and flavors. Spices marinate okra and succulent lamb, heat up shrimp cooked in honey and vinegar and add zest to cream sauce coating vegetable balls stuffed with homemade cheese. Besides spices, Pooja’s cooks rely on curry powders, meats, and veggies—all fresh, never canned or packaged—for the restaurant's other 160-plus traditional options, which range from goat curry to sag paneer.