Mela is not your everyday Indian restaurant. Yes, there’s the ubiquitous buffet, and it does perfume your arrival at this artfully transformed chain-restaurant structure alongside a busy freeway, but Shiva is in the specifics. Even if they’re street-food simple.

Try, for example, the “Dahi Papri Chaat,” a street snack of fried dough squares with lentils, chickpeas, and yogurt. Don’t ignore the “Aloo Tiki,” potato patties with tamarind, or the “Chili Paneer” stir fried with peppers and an unapologetic chili sauce with ginger. This will get the palate primed. Now move on to the South Indian “Chicken Chettinad” and bravely ask for it more than medium spicy. We suggest “Lamb Nargisi” in coconut sauce redolent of dark cardamom—despite the rubbery boiled egg that inexplicably accompanies it. In the vegetable realm, smoky “Ghobi Bhurji,” cauliflower with green peas, bests the almost-bitter sautéed okra that is the “Bhindi Masala.”

Arriving at dessert, it’s hard to resist the traditional frozen kulfi flavored with pistachio and cashew—thoughtfully pre-sliced so that the melting will enhance the flavors. But by no means miss the rose-scented “Falooda,” an exotic parfait of noodles, seeds, and syrup that will have you wishing you looked good in saris.