Diva

Diva Indian Bistro - 246 Elm Street, Somerville (Davis)

I'm surprised I've waited this long to post about Diva. Perhaps it's because it's so close and familiar that I don't feel it's an event going there. In fact, because of Ann's and my newfound love of Indian cuisine, I've probably been to this restaurant more than almost anywhere else in Boston.

Our experience Friday along with Sanjay and Lauren was pretty typical of what Diva has to offer. We were going around 8:30 on Friday night so we were pretty sure it would be busy. Sanjay tried to call ahead and was told they don't take reservations but just come on over. He put our name in and we had a 30+ minute wait. Standing there, a group comes in from outside and just sits down. Confused, we ask the hostess and she's like "Oh, we had to seat them, they have reservations." Needless to say she was surprised to hear we were told they don't take reservations. Apparently we had spoken to someone else. That is my biggest complaint with Diva, you never know who you're dealing with. You always see the same characters in the restaurant, but you never really get assigned a server and it's unclear who the manager in charge is or if he really cares that things are being run well. This happened to us where our server was also busing tables so some things took a long time to come around, like our check. Like I said, typical.

Enough of that. Let's get to the good stuff. The food. It's incredible (at least for a non-Indian like myself). I don't think I've had a bad meal there. My favorites are the Tandoori Tikka and anything in their Masala sauce. Their chicken curry is also very good, but I'd say neighboring Namaskar's is slightly better. They have a fairly limited wine and beer list, but Ann really enjoys their lychee martinis. All of their breads are really good and I've had many good appetizers with several more to explore. Let's just say we never leave hungry.

Finally, the atmosphere is lively, drawing in a good neighborhood mix of young professionals and college students with Friday night being particularly busy. I must say that despite the generally lackluster service, Diva is still one of my favorite places to go in Boston with great food and reasonable prices.