Readers question why I always visit restaurants twice, and sometimes three times before I write a review. Can't I tell after one visit whether a restaurant is good or not?

The short answer: No, I can't, although I admit that my first impression of an eatery often holds up. Here's the long answer in the form of a review.

I've enjoyed dining at Little India, but I've never reviewed it. I liked it enough to give it a Dining Guide 2004 award, so my hopes were high when we convened there for dinner.

Things started well with complimentary zippy papadam, wafer-thin chickpea crackers, with mint and tamarind chutneys. We also liked the vegetable samosas ($3.25), crisp pastry envelopes of perfectly seasoned spud and pea mash.

However, the calamari pakora ($7.99) was a disappointment. The greasy, bland chickpea batter did little to enhance the sliced squid sticks.

The entrees were a mixed group. The fish korma ($13.99) had a decent creamy-nutty sauce, but the fish chunks were dry and chewy and unidentifiable as fish. The crustaceans in the shrimp curry ($13.99) suffered an ignominious fate. They were small and cooked until rubbery. The odd and too-sweet tomato-based sauce was heavy on the cloves.

The greatest travesty was the saag paneer ($9.99), the Indian creamed spinach with cheese chunks, and one of my favorite dishes in the world. Instead of spinach leaves, this lukewarm saag had the consistency of baby spinach. It was overcooked, underflavored and had few pieces of cheese in it.

The tandoor oven-baked breads, another longtime fave, were also flawed. The naan ($1.65) was tolerable but not served warm. The deep-fried puri ($1.99) whole wheat bread was oil-soaked and not puffy. The kabli naan ($2.75) sounded great on paper but was stuffed with a gritty pink mush of nuts, raisins and maraschino cherries. It was very unappealing, to say the least.

That said, I did enjoy the Goa-style lamb vindaloo ($11.99). The red sauce with carrots and potatoes boasted a lingering chile kick that took the chill out of a rainy night. The one dish everybody raved about was the butter chicken ($10.99). The yummy, chopped red-hued chicken napped in a smooth, silky sauce was smartly spiced but not overseasoned.

Dessert was the coup de grace. The usually pleasant galab jamun ($3) balls were dark brown, overfried and tasteless with almost no syrup. The pistachio kulfi ($3), the Indian ice cream, was so drenched in rose water that it tasted soapy. The bland kheer ($3) rice pudding was missing a key element, rice, and the coffee was burnt.

The meal was a disappointment, including the hit-or-miss service, and seemed expensive for what it was. If I had based the review on this meal, Little India would have received a C- grade at best.

A few days later, I revisited the well-stocked buffet ($6.95) at Little India's newer Champa Street restaurant for an early lunch. I started with a soothing bowl of dal, a modestly spiced steaming soup thickened with lentils but incorporating nontraditional kidney beans.

I skipped the boring American salad items and opted for cucumber slices drenched in tart raita, the cooling yogurt sauce with herbs and carrot that echoes Greek tzatziki. It's a neat foil for fiery condiments such as the crunchy Indian pickle, achar, the spice-coated onion pickle, and milder chickpea and potato chaat.

The twinkle returned to my eye when I crunched some of the appetizing fresh spinach pakora flash-fried in nutty chickpea batter, and dipped them in chunky sweet mango chutney. I also remembered how much I love Little India's tandoori chicken. The mesquite-fired poultry smoke infuses each piece of mild, red-hued poultry with hints of garlic and ginger.

Other main dishes on the steam table were neon-yellow, garlic-soaked cabbage and green beans, and complexly seasoned but mild vegetable curry that left a memorable afterglow on my tongue.

This time, the fresh-tasting tortilla-like naan begged to be a scoop for the saag paneer. This nicely spiced chunkier saag was light years better than the dinner version. Once again there weren't enough chunks of homemade cheese to label it "paneer."

The dish of the day was the appealing chicken makhani, the same butter chicken we enjoyed at dinner. The royal red-hued chopped roast chicken is enveloped in the same rich-tasting, creamy sauce.

Even dessert, an afterthought on most buffets, was a step up. The lovely kheer brimmed with rice, almonds and ground cardamom. The super-creamy mango custard was a cool finale, though it didn't need the limp canned fruit cocktail.

If I was just reviewing lunch, this unusually good buffet would merit a B grade at least. As a final bit of research, I picked up some takeout at Little India's Sixth Avenue location.

I enjoyed sipping orange-colored mulligatawny soup ($2.99) chock-full of finely minced chicken. The tasty warm cheese naan ($2.75) proved the ideal wrapper for smoky seekh kebab ($10.99) of chopped spiced lamb served fajita-like with sauteed onion and pepper. This time the delight was chicken tikka saag ($11.99). The saag was vastly improved, especially with the addition of roast fowl. The only true letdown was the over-oily everything-in-the-kitchen vegetable biryani ($9.99) with nuts, raisins and a few too many frozen peas added to the basmati.

So what's a critic to do? Little India is clearly a better restaurant than my first dinner indicated, but not as good as I had originally thought. The cause of the inconsistent fare and service may be the opening of the second eatery that halved the people and resources.

I'm giving Little India a medium grade that doesn't quite tell the tale. That's why I always tell readers: read the review, not just the grade.