Chilli Masala

In late November Rohit Khanna, born in New Delhi, opened what he calls “the first express Indian restaurant in Michigan, where you can get a complete meal for under $6.” Chilli Masala is centrally located in Canton, in the midst of the western suburbs’ growing Indian population. The fast-food theme is followed relentlessly. Customers place their orders at the cash register. The food is served on paper plates. Diners must collect their plastic forks and skimpy napkins from labeled bins and squirt their own drinks from the pop machine. There’s a kids’ menu of pizza, mac and cheese, chicken fingers and tater tots, and, of course, there’s no alcohol. The usual korma, rogan josh, vindaloo and bhuna are all available with lamb, but chicken receives some different treatments, such as tomato sauce and makhani, often called “butter chicken.”