INVITING INTERIOR: The brightly lit dining room of Tamarind; One of its offerings (below)

Nagaraj Chettiar had suspected for long that Americans who love Indian food do look beyond the familiar tandoori chicken and kebabs. With nearly two decades as a waiter, chef and restaurant manager in New York and several other cities, he wanted to take a bold plunge.

It didn't matter to him that his new restaurant, Madras Palace, was in Minneapolis, the heart of Midwest, where generally meat and potato rule the cuisine. He decided to introduce, among several regional specialities, the aromatic and very spicy Chettinad chicken a little more than a year ago. "At first, mostly Indians ordered the dish, then a few Americans came along with their Indian friends and tasted it," says Chettiar. "Now more and more Americans are asking for it."

Variety-in food, presentation, and appearance-has been creeping into Indian restaurants across America for several years now. But the past 12 months have been more significant than the previous year. Not only a number of innovative Indian restaurants such as Patang, Coconut Grove and Tiffin in New York, and Mantra in Boston have opened in the past one year, but also restaurants in such cities as New Orleans and San Francisco are offering bold new dishes.

Could you have thought of venison chops at an Indian restaurant a few years ago? At Tamarind, you would enjoy the dish. Just as you'd love the quail with tamarind and fig sauce. And would you have thought that a chef called Ganesh Iyengar would join his friend Mac Rahman to create a menu at Sara's restaurant in New Orleans that blended Indian food with the Creole tradition? Among the many delicacies here is the herbed roast pork tenderloin. The meat is rubbed with Iyengar's own seasoning, oven roasted and drizzled with a tamarind sweet chilli coconut glaze, and served with jasmine rice and black salsa.

FRESH FLAVOURS: (from left) Kalantri, Sabooni and Ansari of Tiffin and Thali; Darshan Singh at Flavors of India

Who could have imagined a few years ago a champagne brunch served with fusion Indian food as Flavors of India does in Los Angeles? Or an Indian restaurant will have a separate tea room, as at the Tamarind, where 17 varieties of teas are offered throughout the day with innovative and mildly spiced Indian dishes such as yoghurt marinated lamb rolled in parathas?

At Tamarind customers can enjoy Cornish game hen with tamarind garlic sauce. Or Raji's tandoori scallops, perhaps with rosemary nan. A substantial number of intriguing dishes are named after Raji Jallepalli-Reiss, the renowned chef and owner of Raji's restaurant in Memphis, who is the consultant and executive chef here.

Could one have thought a few years ago that such an opulently appointed restaurant as Tabla could also create a colourful bread bar primarily offering lighter fare such as squid prepared with a Karwari touch? Coconut Grove, the brain child of Keshav S. Kumar and Vinny Kumar, is barely three months old. It takes pride in offering not only coastal food from India but also from neighbouring countries. Bamboo Chicken, a popular item at the restaurant, is marinated in crushed ginger, lemon grass, coconut pieces, garlic, wild basil and several spices, then stuffed into a bamboo and cooked.

The influential Time Out magazine recently listed Tamarind and Tabla among its top 100 restaurants.

When the partners of Thali in Manhattan thought of starting another venture, they decided on a vegetarian restaurant. Again. "But not the usual Indian vegetarian restaurant," says partner Saeed Sabooni. "We wanted to give a new life to Indian vegetarian cuisine."

So at Tiffin, adventurous customers get to enjoy not only the traditional dosa but also the one that can be filled with anything from palak-ricotta cheese to ratatouille. Among the outstanding dishes here is Mumbai Crepe, a chickpea and corn crepe with cream cheese and fruit filling. "It is a variation of a dish we make regularly in Rajasthan," says Kumar Kalantri, the co-owner. His partner, Ali M. Ansari, whose family owns Irani restaurants in Mumbai, says he has almost become a vegetarian after eating chef Sati Sharma's Mumbai Crepe and Banrasi Samosa. "Where else can you get a samosa filled with Greek cheese (feta) and pomegranate?" he asks. "And yet it respects the tradition too-potato is one of the fillings."

The success of Tiffin, located in the financial district, led partners to change their non-veg Tikka restaurant in mid-Manhattan into another Tiffin in the middle of 2001. One of the hot items at this location is the wafer thin eggplant dish called imli baingan.

You will not find the red-dyed tandoori chicken at Patang, yet another ritzy trendsetter in New York, which opened three months ago. For, chef and co-owner Bobby Chhikara, the exclusion of the red colour is one of the few signature innovations at Patang. More important, he says, he wants to make Patang a showcase of food from all over India. Each month it offers dishes from an Indian region. Chhikara also takes pride in his spacious lounge, with deep brown wood walls and low, soft couches. It serves cocktails and appetisers. The mini dosas here come with a choice of minced lamb, chicken or vegetables.

"Vijay Bist has created a first class restaurant that celebrates Indian culture with both the refined look of the interior and the food," the Chronicle said of Amber India, the only Indian restaurant in the San Francisco Chronicles' Top 100 Restaurants. The success of Amber has even inspired such trendy and upscale restaurants like Spago, a favourite of Hollywood celebrities such as Robin Williams, to feature tandoor ovens.

In Los Angeles, a fusion of interior designing and food at Flavors of India restaurant has been attracting the attention of the media steadily. "What do you do with the tip of an odd-shaped city block?" asked the Los Angeles Times. "Flavors of India has cleverly landscaped its prow-like, semi-outdoor room into a garden." Says Darshan Singh, who runs the restaurant along with brother Tarsem, "What can really surprise you is the special presentation like rack of lamb served with saffron rice, poached chicken with a mild flavoured basil sauce and the magic garlic pudding that keeps you guessing about the wonders that Indian cuisine can offer."

For the more health conscious, the brothers remind how much of olive oil they use in their food.