Anis Hyderabad House serves up some of the best Indian food in St. Louis

First, inhale. Cumin, definitely. A hint of orange, so probably coriander. Remember when you went through that phase of brewing cardamom into your coffee? That’s what you’re picking up. And then many of the spices—clove, cinnamon, nutmeg—that Westerners often associate with pumpkin pie. Finally, there’s a tingling that sets off an alarm for the fieriness to come.

Next, gaze. Not all of the colors would necessarily stand out on their own, save maybe the glowing red of the ginger chicken. But if you’re eating family style, use rice to section off your plate. The chole batura is tan, the karai lamb is amber, and the nawabi gobi is golden. When you see them side by side, you can almost imagine an artist mixing paints to achieve the perfect colors, a palette to excite the palate.

Anis Hyderabad House opened about six years ago in a nondescript, hard–to–see–from–Highway K strip mall in O’Fallon, Missouri; then, about three years ago, it moved to a nondescript, hard-to-see-from-Olive strip mall in Creve Coeur.

Everything is cooked to order. The sheer size of the menu—25 appetizers, nearly 80 Indian entrées, seven more “Indo-Chinese” selections, and 11 weekends-only specials—is both a wonder and a drawback. The counter area, where both dine-in and carryout orders are placed, is invariably crowded. Consider looking at the menu online ahead of time.

Now, taste. The various flavor combinations confirm what your nostrils initially suspected, although in each dish the individual spice atoms have fully blended and consolidated into mouthwatering molecules. The nawabi gobi raises cauliflower to an art form, in this case with flavoring from tropical fruit and crunchy nuttiness from cashews. Turmeric gives it the rich golden color and adds a hint of bitterness. The karai lamb illustrates how portion sizes in Indian restaurants can be deceptive: At first, it appears that there are but a few chunks of lamb, but each successive sweep through the sauce brings up more. And the ginger in the ginger chicken is an equal partner as opposed to a dominant flavor. The chole batura, listed simply as a “snack,” is a bowl of spiced chickpeas in another warm-spiced sauce, this one with mild onion overtones. The batura, or bhature, is a flatbread made slightly puffy by deep-frying and used in a sort of dip-and-grab approach. Your choice of relative spiciness runs from “mild” to “make your eyeballs explode”—and even on the mild side, the heat is real in most of the dishes.

Finally, rest. The capsaicin is good for you. The spice blends have given your taste buds an excellent workout. You’re full. And you’ve found some of the best Indian food in St. Louis.