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The Juneuary gloom dipped low this past weekend. A visit to the new Indian restaurant Haveli seemed like the self-diagnosed cure. But first-time visitors shouldn’t venture in alone if they want to take full advantage of Haveli’s menu. A solo dish will be plenty satisfying, but band together your heartiest eaters to really unlock the Alphabet District restaurant’s full potential. The portions are by no means tapas-sized, but only your group’s stretchiest stomachs will resist wanting to slip into a food coma by the time the bill comes.
Haveli’s flagship on Northwest 23rd Avenue near Quimby Street opened at the end of 2024, and a location opened across the river in Washougal, Wash., this past April. Speakers play irresistibly dancey Indian pop (I dare you to sit still while dining) while diners mull options in the open white dining room. My go-to order has become the mango-on-mango combination of mango tikka masala ($18) with lamb (add $3) and a mango lassi ($6). It fits what I now see is a mango trend that seems like it began shortly after the pandemic (though maybe it was in the works earlier; forgive me if I didn’t notice). I wondered how Oregon was getting more access to the fresh version of this delicious tropical fruit, not to mention why Pepsi released a mango-flavored version. The short answer, like most trends, boils down to both increased cross-cultural demand and improved cultivation techniques (even amid recent seasons with reduced harvests). But whyever the reason, my withered millennial husk craves the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants mangoes offer. (I tasted the original Four Loko; I need all the help I can get at this point.)
The mango tikka masala is a truly well-balanced meal in just about every category. The curry is pleasantly thick, slurpable and soppable with naan ($4–$7, with butter, garlic and/or cheese) without being soupy or pasty. The vegetables, in a harmonic ratio to juicy cuts of meat, hit my favorite sweet spot between cooked and crisp without mushing as the meal progresses. The cuts of lamb aren’t too stringy or fatty, either.
Just about every time I’ve ordered this, I’ve felt like I am fighting for my life by the end, in the most pleasant way possible. I feel like a beast, stuffed to absolute capacity with no remorse, ready to crawl under a porch and die should nature desire. The problem is, this doesn’t leave me room to explore the rest of the menu.
Enlisting my partner for date night proved advantageous. His chicken biryani ($19) was well-seasoned and succulent from the few bites I needed, while he was able to take on enough of my tikka masala that I still had room to try a couple of appetizers: punjabi fish pakora ($12) and samosa chaat ($11), a platter of fried-and-stuffed samosas smothered nacho-style with chickpeas, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, yogurt, cheese, tamarind sauce and mint chutney. My tastes would have preferred more crispy batter-fried fish bites, but the tamarind, mint and yogurt sauces they were served with absolutely made up for this gripe. (And I’ll be fully transparent: maybe this is how it should be and I’m just a stooge.) I enjoyed the samosa platter’s fully loaded additions to the flavors and textures a samosa can hold and tried to eat as many as I could. (I prioritized eating while hot all dishes that would perform the worst reheated, and while I wish the appetizers came before the main course, my take-home box was rewardingly well balanced and performed well as leftovers.)
Haveli’s heat index defaults toward mild and medium, so you might need to plead your case to prove you can be trusted with the spicy side of the menu. My partner can typically endure hotter temperatures than I can but struggled more than I did with the mango tikka masala. My quandary then turned to the balance of heat (very much a me problem). I wanted hotter spices at first, but I wasn’t getting as much of the mango curry’s sweetness that I’ve come to enjoy. It’s a balancing act to decide which plates need heat and which ones benefit from a cooler touch, but it’s one worth navigating through trial and error to perfect.
There are plenty of other apps and entrées I eyeball hard while mulling the team with a certain set of skills needed to pull off such a gastronomical heist. My ideal Oceans Eleven-type crew will need to weather gut-busters like onion bhaji ($9), fried Chicken 65 bites ($15), more curries, and naturally the half-dozen tandoori-marinated lamb chops ($30). The only way we could have a perfect meal is if someone carried me back to my car princess-style, but until that happens I’m willing to keep going back for more.
TRY IT: Haveli Indian Cuisine, 1514 NW 23rd Ave., 971-288-5913, havelipdx.com. 11 am–9 pm Sunday–Saturday.