My wife Fran and I were headed to a few days of getaway in Newport, Rhode Island earlier this month and knew there were no kosher restaurants at our destination. Not a problem—we had abundant Shabbos leftovers in freezer bags (“Oh, joy,” said Fran, with great enthusiasm) and planned to visit a supermarket in the neighborhood of our apartment rental to pick up easy to prep foods.

But IMHO, a vacation is not really complete without a visit to a nice kosher restaurant. Knowing we’d be passing through Connecticut for a few hours each way, I looked online for dining out options. I found Navaratna, a vegetarian restaurant offering “authentic Indian cuisine” in Stamford with kosher certification from the Vaad HaKashrus of Fairfield County.

Fran and I both agreed that we had to try this restaurant and stopped there for lunch on our way to Rhode Island. We easily found street parking nearby and went into the restaurant near the end of the lunch hour. We got the menu and were awed by the abundance of choices, with 15 appetizers, 10 dosa options (a dosa is a thin savory pancake, often served with spices or stuffing), six rava possibilities (rava is a durum wheat pancake with stuffing), 10 south Indian curry options, 14 north Indian curry possibilities, seven rice varieties, 10 breads, soups, salads, and more. Whew—how to choose?

We decided to try and share the Thali lunch special, with Fran electing to get the spicier south Indian combination while I opted for the north Indian combination. Fran’s dish featured modest samplings of six dishes, while my dish had modest samplings of five. Our samplings included Sambar Idli (steamed rice and lentil pancake in sambar), Rasam (a homestyle spicy tamarind tomato soup), Paneer Tikka Masala (cottage cheese, onion, bell pepper, cooked in creamy tomato sauce), Chana Masala (chickpeas with onion and tomato sauce) and Dal Makhani (slow cooked black lentil with onion and tomato sauce).

Everything we had was, without qualification, amazing—flavorful, unusual and truly delicious. We also opted for one of the bread side dishes and absolutely devoured it. And we couldn’t leave without sampling their desserts, so we got two—Rasamali (spongy cottage cheese served in creamy custard sauce) and Kheer (Indian style rice pudding). Both were delightful.

I should add two notable features of our visit. The service was prompt and polite and the server was happy to explain to us the composition of each of the dishes we considered. And the prices were remarkably affordable—when we paid the bill, the full lunch with two desserts came out to roughly $60 for the two of us.

It so happened that our visit coincided with a visit from one of the owners, Prakash Nath, so we spoke with him. We learned that the restaurant opened in 2010 and became kosher six months later. He told us that the busiest times at the restaurant are weekends and 5 p.m. on weeknights—sometimes there’s a short wait to get a table. He mentioned that the owners have five restaurants, including one in Manhattan, one in Greenwich, one in Westport, and two in Stamford, but only Navaratna is kosher.

We thoroughly recommend this restaurant and are confident you will find it well worth the trip.

Navaratna is located at 133 Atlantic St. in Stamford. You can reach them by phone at (203) 348-1070 or online at navaratnact.com.

P.S. If you can’t get to the restaurant, Navaratna makes deliveries to North Jersey, New York City, and Riverdale, New York.

Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County Editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at [email protected].