I never understood how anyone could name a restaurant after Gandhi, who was famous for fasting, until I got inside Tantric and realized that many people wouldn’t recognize from the name that it’s an Indian restaurant. The space, which has been Bnu, David’s, and a Pho Pasteur, is a spacious duplex, with modern décor that hints at India without being explicit. The high ceiling also prevents heavy aromas, so it doesn’t smell like curry when you walk in. I’m sure some people come in, sit at the bar, have a theme martini or two, and only when they get hungry realize they aren’t in Kansas anymore.

If patrons just look at the appetizers, the list rather supports beer. Soup of the day ($3.95) was a brilliant tomato-coriander on one visit and a mild, rich yellow mulligatawny on another. A deceptively simple five-spice salad ($5.95) looks like field greens with a few mango slices, but there’s a sweet flavor to the dressing. No, it isn’t a sweet flavor, actually, but a whiff of sweet spice, perhaps cloves, that gives an illusion of sweetness.

Bhel poori ($5.95), one of my favorites, is here mostly puffed rice and bean-flour crisp noodles, with only a bit of the spice and tamarind sweet-sour that make this such an irresistible snack elsewhere. But Gobi Manchurian ($6.95), a fusion dish of stir-fried cauliflower in a sweet-sour sauce, is a spicier, vegan version of General Tso’s chicken, a wonderful surprise. Narkuli chingri ($8.95) is an appetizer of shrimp in a South Indian style, with dry-tasting sautéed mustard seeds and curry leaves. Malabar crab cakes ($8.95) have a similar flavor, on a bed of sautéed onions that are just wonderful. Herali-garlic scallops ($9.95) are five fine sea scallops with a weak green dipping sauce of basil and cilantro.

Before starting on the entrées, I want to praise the rice: super-long grain, like Persian rice, with a good basmati fragrance plus a few cloves. Breads are also outstanding, a buttery naan ($2.95), whole-wheat paratha ($2.95), and a variety of stuffed naans, of which we had the garlic-cilantro ($2.95) and the lakhnawi naan ($4.95), with a sweet filling of nuts and white raisins. The onion kulch ($3.95) is another stuffed wonder, as is the Italian-style rosemary paratha ($3.95).

With main dishes, the more exotic, the better. The Bengali fish, doi maach ($15.95), is a terrific green, creamy curry with a dry hit of kalonji seeds that brings out the slight bitter edge of the chilies. Seafood Madras ($18.95) is an ordinary combination of shrimp, scallops, and squid in an extraordinary red sauce based on tomatoes that makes full use of South Indian spices.

In dishes with more familiar sauces, bhindi do piaza ($11.95) is still an outstanding dish of okra, in tomato, onion, and plenty of hot pepper. Chicken jalfrezi ($13.95) is boned breast meat in a tomato sauce with onions and peppers, but a very good version. And rogan josh ($14.95) is excellent chunks of lamb in another tomato sauce, this one leaning toward black pepper in flavor.

Our two baked dishes both seemed a little over-marinated and powdery in texture, but tasted good. Mirchi lasuni jhinga ($16.95) is certainly a good choice for those wary of Indian food: it’s baked stuffed jumbo shrimp with some ginger and garlic, and a mango salsa/chutney that everyone will like. Adraki lamb ($15.95) is a handsome rack of four double chops from real baby lamb, with a fig chutney. Both dishes will be better when the restaurant is selling them faster, so the marinade has less time to work.

Tantric offers enough unusual drinks to amuse the young crowd, along with a selection of wines chosen for a cuisine that was never designed with wine in mind. Of our bottles, the 2004 Villa Maria sauvignon blanc ($7/glass; $25/bottle) had a fighting chance, as it was one of the most floral-tropical-fruit-flavored, highly aromatic New Zealand sauvignon blancs I’ve ever tasted. I’m buying some for my home cellar, though perhaps not for Indian food. The 2004 Alamos malbec ($7/$25), a red, was simply too soft and simple, though this Argentine wine makes no enemies; it’s just on the innocuous side. Masala tea ($3.50), the original chai, is not overly spicy, and makes for a refreshing cup of Indian tea before theater.

The dessert list at Tantric is mostly Indian, although the one fusion choice, mango cheesecake ($5.95), showed quite well our night. Generally, one wants something leaner after rich Indian sauces, and the mango kulfi ($4.95), a true fruit sherbet in cones, might be just the thing. Pistachio kulfi ($4.95) was true to the nut flavor, but I like my kulfi heavier on the cardamom, please.

The khher badami ($4.95), a rice pudding that is usually my favorite Indian-restaurant dessert, was a little thin, though nicely spiced. Gulab jamun ($5.95) is still doughnut holes in syrup, and the syrup has to reek of rosewater or something to get my attention. Not so here. Likewise, ras malai ($5.95), cheesecake in a cream sauce, was on the simple side, and shahi tukra ($5.95), described as bread pudding, is more like milk toast.

Service on two visits was excellent, not over-hovering when I was alone, not dropping a stitch with a party of eight. The modern, almost theatrical setting and hard-to-place Indian-techno background music set up an atmosphere that is of the moment, if not especially ethnic. I think this helps us approach the food without prejudice, and the food is clearly a cut above most Indian restaurants in Boston, if not at the London level.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com.