I could happily eat Indian food every day for the rest of my life, but recently indulging my passion for curry either involved hunting for parking on Clinton Ave or fighting the swirl of suburban traffic in Henrietta to get my fix. When I heard that a new Indian place had opened, I googled the location, grabbed my keys, and ran for the car. Tandoor Flame is located on the outskirts of Webster, holding down the far end of a strip mall at the busy intersection of Creek Street and Empire Boulevard, a spot that was most recently a Texas-themed bar and restaurant that specialized in Buffalo wings. This new restaurant, owned by Baljit Singh and his partner Gurndeer Singh (no relation; Baljit tells me that Singh is like "Smith" in Punjab, where he was born), is a great improvement on the previous one.

Tandoor Flame is a remarkably mature restaurant for its age. And Baljit's claim that he has no experience running a restaurant seems barely credible. Open for a scant month, the restaurant has a friendly and attentive staff that attempts to accommodate even the strangest of requests. Recently, my wife and I were forced to take our 5-year-old dining companion to dinner with us. To save strain on ourselves and on the restaurant's staff, we called ahead and put in our order, informing Singh's wife that we would be arriving at a particular time. We showed up five minutes early, and a table was already set for us. Food started arriving before we had even taken our coats off and settled in - an appetizer of papri chaat ($2.75) and a plate of poppadums, followed in close order by a special biryani and a sizzling pot full of balti chicken masala.

If that wasn't impressive enough, our waiter noticed that our youngest diner wasn't thrilled with the spice level in either of the dishes and, without us requesting it, delivered him his own dish of kid-friendly chicken makhani. Out of such little touches, long-term affection for a restaurant is born.

The best way to taste a good cross-section of Tandoor Flame's menu is by indulging in its peerless lunchtime buffet ($6.99). Many standard Indian buffet items are available: chana masala, saag paneer, chicken makhani, chicken curry, and tandoori chicken legs. But there are also some more unusual dishes that I found deeply appealing, including a navratan korma that looked like it might have been made with some fresh vegetables rather than the usual frozen variety; and bright yellow kadi pakora, a combination of complex curry spices with the tang of yogurt and the toothsome meatiness of chickpea and onion fritters.

Even the standard items had a bit of an unexpected twist. Chana masala had the usual ginger and hot pepper bite, but there was also a bit of cinnamon in it that added interest to one of my favorite dishes. The saag paneer was smoother and a bit less creamy than others that I've had, allowing the flavor of the spinach to peek through. Even the tandoori chicken was freshly cooked rather than the dried-out bits and pieces that too often wind up on Indian buffets. The chicken bore the tell-tale signs of having withstood tremendous heat in the tandoori oven, but the meat within was meltingly tender and perfumed with ginger and garlic (perhaps if the wing place had specialized in tandoori chicken instead....). Even the breads were tasty. My companion waxed rhapsodic about the sweet-flavored deep-fried pooris (in texture and taste something like a beignet), while I was quite taken with the garlic- and cilantro-studded naan that we ordered a couple days later.

I'm not usually inclined to venture too far afield from the dishes I know and love on Indian menus, but in the interest of being thorough, I decided to try out Tandoor Flame's special biryani ($15.95) and one of its balti dishes - chicken masala balti ($13.95). To anyone familiar with Indonesian food, the special biryani will strongly remind you of nasi goreng (curried fried rice). That's not in any way a bad thing. Studded with tender chunks of tandoori chicken, shrimp, and lamb along with broccoli, green peas, cashews, and raisins (the last two typically used as garnishes in Indonesian nasi) this was exceptionally good fried rice with a nice curry bite.

Balti is both a description of a type of Indian cuisine and the dish that it's served in. Originating in the United Kingdom, balti cuisine is a forbear of the national dish of Great Britain, chicken tikka masala. A balti is a shallow wok, and balti cuisine is characterized by meat with thickish gravies. The dish we ordered was very much like chicken tikka masala in terms of ingredients - tandoori chicken, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, onions, and spices - but there was no cream to speak of. Add cream and you'd have classic tikka masala. Without it, the dish is rougher, more intense, and in some ways much more satisfying than the British version, the smoky flavor imparted by the wok more pronounced than it would be muffled by cream.

Of course, one of the best dishes on the menu is more or less swimming in cream and butter, and it's still remarkable. Chicken makhani ($10.95) is the default choice of just about everyone who visits an Indian restaurant, and with good reason. Tender bites of chicken stewed in a rich tomato sauce with ginger, cilantro, and smoothed out with a staggering amount of cream, the dish has to be done pretty badly to be anything less than wonderful. The makhani at Tandoor Flame meets the same high standard it sets for all of its dishes. The cooks also add something a little unexpected - a whisper of anise (probably from fennel seeds) - that cuts through the fat of the dish, leaving your mouth refreshed for the next delectable bite, and making you reach for the naan so that not a drop of the sauce escapes.

Tandoor Flame

1855 Empire Blvd, Webster | 670-0009

Lunch buffet Tue-Sun 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner Sun-Thu 5-9:30 p.m., Fri-Sat 5-10 p.m.