Tikka Masala

The clay oven at Tikka Masala runs all day, and nothing it turns out has meat in it. Soya chaap takes the marinade a tandoor usually saves for chicken — Angara Chaap Tikka in a sharp red rub of exotic spices and green chutney, Malai Chaap Tikka coated in hung yogurt, cashew, cheese, white pepper, clove, and cardamom for diners who want that texture with less fire. Paneer tikka and paneer momos marinated in tandoori spice come off the same heat, plated with a house momo sauce. This is a fully vegetarian Indian kitchen in downtown Welland that organizes itself around the grill instead of the curry list, and the chaap section is where most tables should start.

The curry list fills in around that fire. Butter Paneer Masala is the kitchen's richest plate, cottage-cheese cubes in a tomato-cashew gravy thickened with house-ground spices, while Paneer Do Pyaza runs sharper and more onion-forward for a table that already has something creamy in front of it. Dal Makhani, billed here as Maa ki dal, cooks down slowly and folds in home-churned butter. The breads hold up their end, from garlic naan finished with fresh coriander to a buttery, coriander-flecked kulcha, and the Vegetarian Thali Platter gathers naan, three curries, rice, a Gulab Jamun, onion, and mint sauce onto one plate, the single order that covers the kitchen's comfort-food range.