Making food from scratch typically requires advance preparation, adherence to a recipe, and your third and final genie wish. Save the third wish for more wishes with today's Groupon: for $15, you get $30 for Indian cuisine and drink at Shan E Daawat.

Shan E Daawat concocts its menu of traditional Indian recipes from freshly ground rare Indian spices and hand-picked ingredients. Cooked over an open flame, smoked eggplant ($10.95) stops, drops, and rolls before arriving mashed and sautéed with fresh onions and tomatoes. Tender pieces of boneless, natural chicken breast ($14.95) drift in a creamy cashew nut and almond based sauce, and prawns ($18.95) nestle alongside potatoes in a spicy hot sauce. Whole black lentils, onions, tomatoes, and Indian spices in Dal Makhani ($10.95) sleepily stumble, like second year university students, onto plates after cooking overnight. Soaked in cardamom-flavoured syrup, golden fried milk balls ($3.95) trundle down tongues as sips of pop ($1.50) or Indian tea ($2.50) tickle taste buds. Exposed brick walls and warm, red colours imbue a casually modern ambience, akin to a flannel iPad case.