Tashan exemplifies upscale Indian, but is Philly ready for it?

MUNISH Narula already knows what a lot of you think about Indian restaurants. All those unfortunate stereotypes you hold on to. He knows you usually think of Indian food for cheap, super-spicy takeout, or perhaps a hangover meal at one of those longtime spots on University City's Curry Row.

Narula even empathizes with you, a little bit. "Indian food in Philadelphia has never been presented in a good manner," he said. "The yellow walls, the crammed-in tables, the dirty bathrooms and the $9.99 buffet."

Of course, Narula has earned the right to be critical, since he redefined Indian food here when he launched his Tiffin delivery-and-takeout empire in 2006, now in six locations. Since Tiffin, more than a dozen Indian restaurants have opened in the region, several of them by former Tiffin employees, including archrival Ekta.

Still, even after the so-called vindaloo boom that he spawned, Narula - the New Delhi, India, native with the Wharton MBA - believed many diners still didn't get it, that the stereotypes persisted.

"We were meeting too many people who said, 'I don't like Indian food. It's too spicy,' " Narula said. "We wanted to take Indian food to a new level, make it more approachable. We throw the word 'sexy' around as a joke. But we do want to make it sexy."

Enter Tashan, Narula's ambitious, high-end, delightful - and yes, sexy - new modern Indian spot. By now, most of the city's food writers have weighed in with fawning declarations of love to Tashan. But their orgasmic reviews have also struck a hand-wringing note of worry: Can an upscale Indian restaurant like Tashan survive in Philadelphia?

There's been a great deal of chatter on the local food blogs about whether Philadelphians are "ready" for a restaurant like Tashan. As evidence that we are not, foodies point to Bindi, the Indian BYO owned by Valerie Safran and Marcie Turney, which was shuttered several months ago.

"Is Tashan Too Good for Philadelphia?" asked Trey Popp on the blog Foobooz. He even suggested that Tashan's success or failure will serve as a "referendum" on whether Philadelphia "really deserves its reputation as a top-tier restaurant town." After an Indian friend predicted Tashan would last only six months, Popp wrote, "I hope she's wrong. But if she's right, what will we have to say for ourselves?"

Ahem. Yes, feel free to file this hyperbolic sort of soul-searching under First World Problems.