The warm air blasted my chilled face as I stepped into Curry Leaf. I stood shivering for a second as my body adjusted to the warmth of the restaurant. An older man walked up to me, led my brother and me to a booth along a wall of windows and handed us our menus.

As a child, there were two words to describe my food preferences: picky and stubborn. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve aspired to be more cosmopolitan. And part of that change includes a widening of my very narrow-minded view of “good” food.

In an effort to broaden my food horizons, I had my brother take me to Curry Leaf to experience Indian food for the first time. Although I obviously had no previous experiences to compare to Curry Leaf, I found it to be a rather great place for my first Indian dinner.

After sitting down at a booth, our cups were filled with water, and we were left alone to look over the menu. Beginning to read the menu thoroughly overwhelmed me. I had never felt so uncultured as I did while trying to read over that menu as I realized I couldn’t pronounce anything on it. My brother, who has had Indian food before, was quick to step in and help me pick what I should try. He ordered a plethora of different kinds of food to give me a fuller experience and allow me to try lots of different kinds of food.

From the background music- not too loud and not too quiet- to the clean but homey feel of Curry Leaf, I was more than content to simply sit in the restaurant and enjoy watching the sunset quickly fall outside of the wall of windows to my left. However, as content as I was, I still found it quite bothersome that our food took a while to come to our table. But the waiter was as attentive as he could be while we waited for our food.

Once our food arrived, my brother and I dug in. I immensely enjoyed trying all the different kinds of food and was happy to find that I liked most of them. Intense spices have never really been my thing; however, I found the milder of the foods to be quite tasty. I had never in my life tasted such flavorful food. From naan to Curry Leaf’s House Special, every piece of food I put in my mouth was delicious.

Although Indian food isn’t about to become my all-time favorite kind of food, Curry Leaf was an extremely enjoyable restaurant that I would definitely go to again. From the food to the good service to the homey atmosphere, every part of my very first Indian food experience was spectacular thanks to Curry Leaf.