Masalawala & Sons belongs to the team behind Semma and Dhakama (another place you'll be hearing about shortly). At this spot in Park Slope, they reinvent some of the staples of their childhood in Calcutta and the surrounding West Bengal region, with an emphasis on seafood. Wrap the fish in banana leaves, or try fried fish with spicy mustard as a side dish. The food is up to what you'll find at Masalawala's sister restaurants, and you'll want to spend the whole night in a big party space.
Not only is Delhi Heights our favorite Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights, but it also serves great Nepalese momos. In that sense, it's like your admirable friend who goes to the gym all the time but also stays out late every weekend. On the Indian menu, we love the Punjabi style mustard greens, the fine naan with garlic and the spicy lamb bhuna. But no meal in Delhi Heights would be complete without an order of veal and chive momos.
These steamed meatballs are easily some of the best in the neighborhood. And, considering the other Nepalese meatball options in Jackson Heights, that's pretty impressive. Semma is an exceptional restaurant that serves regional South Indian specialties in a charming space in the West Village. The South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where chef Vijay Kumar is from, are the protagonists of the menu at Semma, a new West Village restaurant created by the team of Roni Mazumdar and Chintan Pandya.
Here you'll find the best places in the city to eat dal, tandoori meats, South Indian stews, puri and much more. British Indian immigrant Jaz Rupall founded this newcomer to Hell's Kitchen last spring, focusing on North Indian cuisine with a Balti twist (an Indian cooking style popular in the United Kingdom). If you stroll down 6th Street in the East Village in search of Indian food, you'll feel as overwhelmed as a baby on a bus that crosses the city. This small restaurant, just up the street in Lexington, serves Pakistani and Indian dishes, such as mixed meat skewers, mango and paratha shakes, all in the cafeteria style.
Junoon's food doesn't differ much from what can be found at a less expensive Indian restaurant in Midtown. Tucked away in a corner of Williamsburg, near the Williamsburg Bridge, Masti is a restaurant that specializes in Balti Anglo-Indian cuisine, while offering many North and South Indian dishes, including one or two dishes from West Bengal. Finally, a new variety of luxury restaurants appeared, offering more creative and nuanced versions of classic dishes, along with strong cocktails, which attracted a whole new generation of diners. Sahib travels all over North India to collect recipes.
There are only four types of bone-in goat curry, including one from Kashmir and another from Calcutta, which is a good measure of the seriousness of an Indian restaurant. This is one of the few Hemant Mathur restaurants in Manhattan, and its vegetarian dishes keep up with those that contain meat, such as paneer kali murch (cheese in a creamy black pepper sauce) and achari bindi (okra in a sauce with an intense Indian pickle flavor). There are so many Indian restaurants in New York that committing to one can be as overwhelming as choosing a new mattress. The best Indian restaurant in Queens and perhaps in all of New York City, Seva is one of those restaurants that you won't be able to stop talking about until at least two people from your social circle try it for themselves.
You'll find some of the best Indian street food stalls in the city waiting for you in a Greenwich Village window, just when and where you need it most.