Critics’ choice: New paths for Indian dining in New York

Junoon

Opulence is bouncing back in the hometown of 2008’s financial crisis, said Adam Platt in New York. To stand out among New York’s high-end Indian restaurants, the team behind Junoon spared no expense when furnishing their palatial new space in the Flatiron District. Its façade, made of hand-chiseled limestone, “looks like the exterior of a Mughal fort.” Naturally, the chefs at Junoon are “adept at enlivening the usual curries and tandooris with intricate combinations of flavor and spice.” But you’ll also find less common cooking methods, including tawa (cast-iron) and sigri (fire pit). Frequently, the cooking lives up to the “pomp” of its presentation. The Goan shrimp—served in “a rich, properly fiery piri-piri sauce”—is one standout. Another: the tandoori-style adraki bater—a quartered quail “softened in ginger and lime juice.” Skip the fussy desserts for a good old-fashioned mango or pomegranate lassi: Junoon serves it in champagne flutes. 27 W. 24th St., (212) 490-2100

Tulsi

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

If Junoon’s food is “very good,” Tulsi’s is even better, said Sam Sifton in The New York Times. There’s a trade-off, though: The harshly lit dining room of this Midtown newcomer is “more reminiscent of Home Depot’s patio furniture department than anything filmed by Merchant Ivory.” Still, lighting can be changed, and Tulsi is foremost a bet on a chef of “rare brilliance”—Hemant Mathur, formerly an owner of Dévi. “No one in New York makes lamb chops like Mr. Mathur—heavy, ugly things caked in yogurt but tasting of gamy perfection.” And his vegetables are equally good. Don’t miss the Manchurian cauliflower. It’s a “magical dish, sweet and fiery,” crusted in a secret ingredient (a well-caramelized ketchup). The menu’s rewards also include marvelous breads—particularly a “rich” rosemary-garlic naan—and elegant desserts that disprove the notion “that all Indian sweets must be wickedly so.” The food might not make you forget the discomforts of the room, but it may help you forgive them. 211 E. 46th St., (212) 888-0820

Mehtaphor

The ever-inventive Jehangir Mehta, a runner-up on The Next Iron Chef, never fails to surprise, said Lauren Shockey in The Village Voice. As a follow-up to his acclaimed 18-seat Graffiti, the Mumbai-born former pastry chef has opened a 45-seat venture in Tribeca that is almost as cramped yet “equally eclectic” in its reach. The cuisine of his native land has always been just one of Mehta’s many launching points: In his minimalist but slightly whimsical new space, he serves a lamb shank that slips off the bone, “falling into a rich masala-spiced broth.” But he’s more famous for stunts like the oysters he tarts up with grapefruit granita and “a sprinking of neon-pink Pop Rocks,” and he’s at his best combining flavors from across the Pacific Rim and around the world. 130 Duane St., (212) 542-9440