CURRY HUT What used to be Two Guys from Italy now could be called A Few Guys from India. Actually, it's called Curry Hut, and Highwood finally has its first Indian restaurant. But there's a lot more going on here than curry.

Indian food is known for its complexity, its subtleties and its seasonings. Most Indian restaurants in the Chicago area, including Curry Hut, present North Indian cooking. Curry Hut goes further by including several choices from neighboring Nepal.

Some people associate Indian foods with peppery seasonings so hot they make you sweat. The truth is, the flavors are not uniform.

The easiest approach is to order one of two special combination dinners. They are relatively inexpensive and offer a variety of tastes and textures. The Curry Hut special dinner is a vegetarian meal, while its companion includes chicken, seafood, shrimp and lamb.

Both are quite good, though on one occasion the fish tikka was strong, the meats overcooked. The rich butter and vegetable sauces, however, make up for any minor lapses.

À la carte selections offer more variety. Appetizers such as samosas or pakoras are very easy for first-time diners. Both are deep-fried dumplings. Samosas are triangular and filled with meat or vegetables. Pakoras are vegetable-filled chick pea-floured crusts accompanied by three sauces.

Now, to the subject of tandoori cooking. A tandoor is a deep clay oven set over hot coals. Lamb, chicken and seafood are basted with a bright-red yogurt sauce and set on the inside of the tandoor to roast. Tandoori can be ordered à la carte as a dinner entrée.

Dal, or black lentils simmered with ginger, tomatoes and mild seasonings, is one of my favorites. We recently ordered mixed vegetables with cashews and fruits. We got a tasty mix, but it showed no sign of either cashew or fruit flavors.

Try the mild lamb curry, which proves that not all curries, by definition, need be hot. But should you want to splurge, curried lobster is the way to go: big chunks of lobster meat bathed in a mild yogurt sauce with garlic, ginger and cardamom. To soak up the sauces, order one of the nans, puffed warm breads, which rise and bubble from the hot tandoor surface on which they are baked.

Indian desserts can be intensely sweet and very delicious. I love the sweetened cheese called rasmali, or the Indian version of ice cream called kulfi. A cup of hot tea is the ideal companion.

Expect to spend under $50 a couple plus add-ons. Curry Hut has a K/RATING of 17/20.

Sherman Kaplan is midday drive co-news anchor and restaurant critic for NEWSRADIO 780 WBBM. Write him at shermank@comcast.net.