We're dining under a colourful mosaic of a peacock at Chandani on Roodebloem in Woodstock. Ornate-ly carved wooden panels, mirrors and kaleidoscope lanterns transform the nooks and crannies of the old residence into a cornucopia of eastern tone and texture.
Tables with carved chairs fill every nook and cranny from the front porch to the dining-rooms to the courtyard. The ambience is warm and intimate.
Chandani is prominently billed as an "Indian and vegetarian restaurant". The new eatery has been a talking point among vegetarians and aficionados of Indian cuisine since opening in mid-2007.
Co-owners Jagdish Vanzara and Dina de Bruyn and the tandoori team all hail from India. They named Chandani after the Hindi word for moonlight, after consulting a priest who blessed the new venture with an auspicious name.
The menu is divided into vegetarian and non-vegetarian starters and mains. Indian food is best shared communally - but the trick is to reach consensus on what to order. The menu tempts our party with a wide range of regional specialties - from the rogan josh of Kashmir and tandoori kebabs of Punjab to the seafood curries of Goa and masala briyanis of Hyderabad. While deciding, we dip into the pappadums and sambals on the table - a cool minty raita, mango achar and seriously hot vegetable pickle.
Choices, choices. The range of breads at Chandani is impressive, made with lashings of garlic and ghee - from naan and roti to chappati and paratha. We ordered a selection to mop up our meal. The naan Kabul with fruits and nuts is the mother of all breads. The wine list is subtly matched to the spicy flavours of Indian cuisine with off-dry riesling, fruity chenin blanc and house-wines by the glass. We opted for a white blend from Jean Daneel, overall winner of Wine's Chenin Blanc Challenge 2008.
Co-owner Jagdish comes from Gujarat, a state which is 90% vegetarian. It is the traditional home of the Jains - a 6th century Buddhist sect devoted to non-violence in thought or deed to all forms of life. Ten million Jain vegans do not consume any flesh, fish, fowl, dairy, eggs or animal products.
When I visited a Jain temple, called "the jewel box of Calcutta" after its ornamental mosaics and exquisite gardens, our guide explained that their philosophy of "ahimsa" means compassion for all living things.
Veganism has been around for centuries - though the term was only coined in 1944 from the first three and last two letters of vegetarian to describe "a non-dairy vegetarian".
What we eat and how we treat animals has given rise to a whole new moral vocabulary - wordsmith-stirred controversy over the use of words like specie-ism: "the assumption of superiority of humans over other animal species, especially to justify their exploitation" - and "Cafo" (confined animal feeding operations).
Catering for vegans, the menu at Chandani identifies all dishes which contain eggs and dairy products. Talking of which, I downloaded a useful list of all hidden animal ingredients commonly found in processed foodstuffs at www.elated.co.za.
You'd be surprised to find that many peppermints, marshmallows, jellies and custards contain gelatine (the boiled hooves, bones and ligaments of pigs and cows) - and that many "vegetable" soups and sauces contain animal additives, chicken or beef stock.
For our mains, we shared a spicy feast of paneer makani (unfermented curd), dhal makhani (black lentils in a tomato sauce), aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower curry) and baigan masala (marinated brinjal, a delicious house specialty from Gujarat). Served with jeera rice, the dishes were authentic, richly layered in taste and texture. We also sampled a Goan curry, simmered in coconut milk, ginger and cumin.
Too full to sample the sweet Indian desserts - gajjar (carrot) halva, kheer (a creamy rice pudding), kulfi (a signature dish made with condensed milk with nuts), we finished off with a soothing cup of masala chai. Chandani is halaal with non-alcoholic options like fruit juices and lassi (a traditional sweet or salty fruity yoghurt drink).
At Chandani, vegetarians can practice karuna - an ancient Sanskrit term for compassion.
- Chandani Indian & Vegetarian Restaurant, 85 Roodebloem Road, Woodstock. Tel 021 447 7887. Licensed. Corkage: R35. Open for lunch and dinner daily. Average cost of three-courses, excluding wine: R150. This review was unannounced and paid for in full.