Mint

 

I was invited recently to a press dinner at Mint, an under-the-radar Indian restaurant in East Midtown. I dined there once, years ago, but have very little recollection of the meal, except that I liked the space and didn’t mind the food.

Whether you’d like the space now is a matter of taste. It’s far more comfortable and pleasant than the average neighborhood Indian spot, but the backlit minty-green interior is very much a product of its age. It may also reflect the sensibilities of its chef and owner, Gary Sikka: a new branch in Garden City is quite similar, except that the dominant color is lavender.

As a civilized place to enjoy classic Indian cuisine, free of the usual decorative clichés, I still like it here.

The menu offers most of the usual Indian specialties: your kebabs, paneers, naans, samosas, tikka masalas, and vindaloos. It also veers off the beaten path occasionally, and is more worthwhile for doing so.

Prices are modest by midtown standards, with soups and salads $6–10, appetizers $7–14, breads and rice $4–8. Entrées are in a wide range, with most in the low $20s, but vegetarian dishes are as low as $12, fish and tandoori dishes mostly in the high $20s, and one lobster dish is $36.

Everything we tried was done well, bearing in mind the context of an arranged visit. The fish and vegetarian dishes, it seemed to me, are the ones where the chef rises above the merely routine. (Prices below are from the menu; we didn’t pay for the meal.)

 

There’s the usual assortment of bread, but for this meal the kitchen sent out the simplest of them, the Roti ($4).

 

We all liked the Vegetable Samosas ($7; above left). I believe the chicken appetizer (above right) was the Malai Kebab ($12), marinated in herbs and spices, more tender and flavorful than that dish usually is.

 

The Aloo Methi Tikka ($9; above left), a spicy potato cake with chickpeas, tamarind and mint chutney, did not make any particular impression on me. But the “Chilly” [sic] Fish ($14; above right) was the hit of the evening, a spicy preparation of black sea bass.

 

The Bombay Masala Pao ($7; above left), a blend of tomato, herbs and spices on bread, could pass for Indian pizza. Fish Tikka Masala ($26; above right), marinated overnight in yogurt and garlic, was another of the evening’s highlights.

 

I’d also heartily recommend the Saag Paneer ($16; above left), a spinach base sautéed with Indian cheese, or the Yellow Tadka Dal ($12; above right), a preparation of yellow lentils with herbs and spices.

 

But Chicken Tikka Masala ($19; above left) was somewhat bland and forgettable, as was a Lamb Shahi Pasanda ($22; no photo).

The lone dessert was a Paneer cheese pastry puff with honey and rose water syrup (above right). I practically never order desserts at Indian restaurants, but my dining companions said that this was a very good exemplar of this well known dish.

If the chef is eager to to raise the restaurant’s profile, he might want to start with the beverage program. The cocktails are mostly sweet, vodka-based “–tini” drinks. The publicist recommended the wine program, but none of the wines on the by-the-glass list included the vintage, which I do not consider a good sign.

Mint is located in the San Carlos Hotel, although it is independently owned. Like any hotel restaurant, it has to offer safe and familiar dishes that can appeal to a wide variety of weary travelers. My sense of the place, on this limited sample, is that the farther the chef gets from the routine dishes that 1,000 other Indian restaurants serve, the better he does. You won’t go wrong here, but the fish and vegetarian dishes are especially worthwhile.

Mint (150 E. 50th Street between Lexington & Third Avenues, East Midtown)

Junoon

I wouldn’t call two a trend, and perhaps it’s only a coincidence that two upscale Indian restaurants have opened within the last two months: Hemant Mathur’s Tulsi; and from Salaam Bombay alumnus Vikas Khanna, Junoon, which means passion.

The space at Junoon is much larger than at Tulsi, with a comfortable bar and lounge area bigger than many whole restaurants. There is talent behind the cocktail menu, and a minor addiction to egg whites, featured in three of eight items. I especially liked the Agave Thyme (Reposado Tequila, muddled pomegranate, thyme, egg white, and white peppercorn).

The menu is on the expensive side for Indian cuisine, with entrées from $22–36 (most above $25). It is neither as clever nor as well executed as at Tulsi or Tamarind, but the elegant room and polished service offer sufficient compensation, if you want an unhurried experience where the ambiance is as important as the food itself.

The amuse bouche, as I recall, was a bite-size potato pancake. We shared the wonderful Hyderabadi Pathar Paneer ($12) appetizer, consisting of four small slices of house-made cheese in a turmeric (ginger), mint, and lime sauce.

Among the entrées, a braised lamb shank ($26) with onion, tomato, and yogurt, was the better choice. A Cornish Hen ($24), made in the tandoori oven, was over-cooked and dry. The kitchen sent out an extra entrée, a chicken curry, which was much better, but by this time it was more than we could eat, especially after we’d overdone it on the addictive Naan.

The 250-bottle wine list covers a wide range, priced from $38 to $1,800, with many in three figures but plenty below $50. For a 2006 Haut Bages Averous ($55), the sommelier rolled out a cart and put on a decanting show as if I’d ordered a 1962 Lafite Rothschild. He appeared to be doing it at every table. You may call it pretentious, but hardly anyone in town goes through the full ritual any more, and someone might as well do it. So why not here?

There were petits fours at the end—not memorable in themselves, but you don’t find them in Indian restaurants very often.

The restaurant was fairly quiet on a Sunday evening, traditionally a slow night. I have no idea how they’re doing on the other days, but they do have a large space to fill. I suspect the rent is stratospheric, and I don’t know how many of these places the market can support. The service and ambiance are memorable; the food a shade less so.

Junoon (27 W. 24th Street between Fifth & Sixth Avenues, Flatiron District)

Food: *½
Service: ***
Ambaince: ***
Overall: **

Tulsi

Note: This is a review of Tulsi under opening chef Hemant Mathur, who is no longer with the restaurant as of January 2015.

*

Tulsi is the new haute-Indian restaurant from the former Dévi chef, Hemant Mathur. The name, the Times kindly informs us, means “holy basil.”

Dévi attracted a devoted following, including a favorable two-star review from Frank Bruni and, for a while, a Michelin star. I also gave it two stars. The restaurant is still in business, under the supervision of Mathur’s former partner, Suvir Saran. It has survived numerous ups & downs, including closing for a while when the original management gave up on it.

Most of the Indian food in New York is inexpensive and interchangeable. The challenge at such a place is to persuade diners that the price premium is worthwhile. It’s the reason why Dévi struggled at times, and why Tabla is the only restaurant Danny Meyer has ever closed.

At Tulsi, there are recognizable favorites, like Tandoori Lamb and Rogan Josh, but most of the menu consists of more unusual items, such as the appetizers we tried, Tandoori Tofu ($9) and Manchurian Cauliflower ($11) in a chilli garlic sauce. Goat Dum Biryani ($24) was probably the most conventional of our choices, offset by the wacky but wonderful Pistachio Chicken ($22). We found the flavors spicy, bracing, and (at least to us) highly original—at least for New York.

We ordered comparatively inexpensively, but most of the fish and meat entrées are over $25, and there are several over $30. I wouldn’t mind paying those prices for food of this quality, but long-term success will require building up a cadre of regulars who believe in the chef. Fortunately, Mathur brings a loyal following with him, from his previous stops, although the location (not convenient to any subway stop) somewhat discourages impulse visits.

The wine list is expensive too. I didn’t see many options below the mediocre $52 Domaine Chamonard that we ordered. The bill was $128 before tax and tip—certainly well worth it, in our estimation, but more than most diners are accustomed to pay for Indian food. Partly, you are paying for a lovely, romantic space (even nicer than Dévi), which must be one of the nicest ever built for Indian cuisine in New York.

Tulsi (211 E. 46th Street between Second & Third Avenues, East Midtown)

Food: **½
Service: **½
Ambiance: **½

Tamarind Tribeca

The best place to put a restaurant is where there are already successful restaurants. So when Avatar Walia, owner of the Flatiron Indian restaurant Tamarind, wanted to go way upscale, it’s no surprise he chose Tribeca.

Still, there’s a huge risk here. Tamarind Tribeca is a big-box 11,000-foot bi-level space. Take one look at the build-out (Eater.com has photos), and it’s immediately obvious it wasn’t done on the cheap. With fresh orchids on every table and a service brigade worthy of a three-star restaurant, the operating costs must be substantial.

There’s no reason why such a restaurant cannot work, but I do not recall a successful precedent for Indian food.

I can report, at least, that the food is wonderful, and it is not expensive, in light of the surroundings. Dinner for two was $135 before tip, including two appetizers, two entrées, sides of rice and naan, and a bottle of wine ($45). That’s more than you’d pay at the neighborhood tandoori mill, but Tamarind is much better than that.

I cannot compare this outpost to the Flatiron branch, but the server said the menu here is broader and more ambitious. The Village Voice, in a rave review, reported that the owner “does not employ one executive chef, instead using a team of chefs from various parts of India.”

The Voice thought that “the unusual strategy seems to be working,” and so do we.

Murg Malova ($10; above left). Hunks of chicken packing plenty of heat are seasoned with yogurt, coriander, cream cheese, and caraway seeds, then finished in the tandoor.

Bataki Kosha ($10.50; above right). Duck with mustard, onion, garlic, ginger, and garamasala is wrapped in a rice crepe with black salt and tangerine chutney, and deep fried. I’ve never had an Indian dish like this.

Both of these were large enough to be entrées—especially the duck.

Punjabi Mutton ($23; above left). Goat meat was served with whole spices, tomatoes, onions, ginger, and garlic. Aside from the use of goat—as opposed to the more common chicken or lamb—this dish resembled what you’d get in just about any Indian restaurant in the city. For all that, it was just right. The goat was served on the bone, but separated without difficulty.

Sufiani Machli ($26; above right). We were dumbfounded at the silky tenderness of sea bass, which had somehow survived roasting in the tandoor., then garnished with an intoxicating elixir of hung yogurt, dill, lime zest, and mixed peppercorns.

The server conceded that nobody in India is serving Tandoori Sea Bass. Still, this was the best fish entrée I’ve had all year—the kind of dish you can’t wait to have again.

The wine list is much longer and ambitious than it needs to be. This just might be the only Indian restaurant in town with wines that reach four figures, but there is plenty for those who want to stay under $50, as we did. The service was very close to flawless.

The space looked to be about half full by the time we left, at around 7:30 p.m. on a Friday evening, but Tribeca is a late-arriving crowd. Still, there are a lot of seats here, and they’ll need a lot of repeat business to keep them full.

If every meal at Tamarind Tribeca is as good as ours was, that won’t be a problem.

Tamarind Tribeca (99 Hudson Street at Franklin Street, TriBeCa)

Food: **½
Service: **½
Ambiance: ***
Overall: **½

Southern Spice

Today’s review comes with a huge caveat: I couldn’t tell Southern and Northern Indian cuisines apart if my life depended on it. I’ve eaten plenty of Indian food, but to tell different regions apart requires a palate more discerning than mine.

If that doesn’t disqualify me, the next disclosure surely will: before last Saturday, I had never been to Flushing, unless you count the airport or a Mets game. The city’s widely-acknowledged center of ethnic food was completely unknown to me.

Two Flushing neophytes were drawn there by a rave review of Southern Spice’s biriyani in the Times $25 & Under column. In the Village Voice, Robert Sietsema (review, photos) was smitten:

Sometimes a restaurant makes such an impression that it changes your way of thinking about an entire cuisine. Southern Spice is just such a place. While we’ve been conditioned to think of South Indian cooking as one giant collection of dosas, iddlies, and utthampams, Southern Spice flings open the doors on a half-dozen regional micro-cuisines.

That’s high praise indeed from Sietsema. Serious Eats loved it too.

We were less enthralled. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of Flushing, and we also enjoyed our food, especially as a full meal was just $35 before tip. But it wasn’t markedly better than our neighborhood Indian restaurant, which is ten minutes’ walk from our apartment.

We liked our first dish best: Chicken 65 ($6; above left), a house specialty. The chicken was tender, but with plenty of fire.

The Hyderbadi-style Dhum Biriyani comes in four varieties: chicken, mutton, shrimp, and vegetable. We had the Mutton Biriyani ($11; above right). We loved the rice, which had none of the clumpyness that often mars this dish, but we didn’t like having to pick inedible lamb bones out of the mix.

In Chicken Vindaloo ($9; above left), the seasoning seemed to be off. It was so mild that I wondered if Southern India had a different vidaloo recipe than I’m used to, but the menu describes it as “extremely hot.” It was less spicy than even the secondary curry dish served at most Indian restaurants (i.e. the level below vindaloo, often called “Madras”).

A comped dessert, sweet carrots with almonds (above right) was a nice treat. It would have set us back all of $3.

The restaurant has been open since last November, but as yet it has no liquor license. The décor is spare, but service was surprisingly good. I figured that a place with $6 appetizers and $11 entrées would leave us with one set of silverware for the whole meal, but they delivered a fresh place setting for every course.

We had a decent enough meal and would love to sample more. We’re just not prepared to travel two hours to get there.

*

This isn’t related to the restaurant, but I have to share the experience of walking into a Chinese market near the Flushing–Main Street LIRR station. The place was filthy, with rotting clams sitting around in unrefrigerated crates, and fish packed so tightly into their tanks that they couldn’t move. All kinds of unmentionables were for sale: pig snouts, feet and intestines, chicken feet, duck hearts, and black chickens, to name a few. Probably the nastiest offering was “miscellaneous meat,” sold for about $1 a pound and wrapped in large frozen bags.

I know there are some terrific restaurants in Flushing, but it’s one neighborhood where I wouldn’t just wander in without a prior recommendation.

Southern Spice (143–06 45th Avenue nr. Bowne Street, Flushing, Queens)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: *
Overall: *

The Bread Bar at Tabla

Bread Bar is the oddly named casual sibling to chef Floyd Cardoz’s fine-dining Indian restaurant, Tabla.

I say “oddly named” because bread isn’t any more prominently featured here than at any other Indian restaurant. It’s a small section at the end of the two-page menu. If you didn’t know otherwise, you’d think it’s a bar that serves bread with your cocktails, and that’s not what Bread Bar is at all.

In the fine print (a/k/a/ the website), Bread Bar bills itself as “home-style Indian cuisine,” but of the four dishes we tried, none would be encountered in the typical Indian restaurant. There are traditional dishes on the menu, like Tandoori Lamb, Chicken Tikka, and Naan, but most of the items—at least as described—seem just as novel as the upstairs fine dining restaurant.

Tabla is the the quietest member of Danny Meyer’s restaurant brood. It’s not as well known as Union Square Cafe, for which the company is named; nor Eleven Madison Park, for which Frank Bruni has such a shine; nor The Modern, where chef Gabriel Kreuther just won a James Beard award; nor Shake Shack, so adored by the burger mavens; nor the perennially booked Gramercy Tavern.

But we have no reason to doubt Floyd Cardoz is just as talented as those other chefs. We awarded three stars when we dined there three years ago, the same as Ruth Reichl in the Times a decade ago. Tabla still serves a prix fixe menu, and at $59 it’s actually $5 cheaper than it was in 2006. The Bread Bar a different restaurant, for all intents and purposes, but its only Times write-up was a 2002 rave from Eric Asimov in $25 & Under. If the paper has mentioned Bread Bar since then, I seem to have missed it.

The space is typical of the casual “front rooms” attached to fine dining restaurants. Reservations aren’t taken, and the atmosphere is very much a bar that serves food. The dishes are served family style—meaning they come out as they’re ready—and the server recommended sharing, which we did.

The à la carte menu has 6–7 choices in each of five categories: Cold ($6–15), Hot ($9–15), Vegetables ($4–24), Fish & Shellfish ($16–38), and Meat ($18–23). There are two tasting menus ($54 or $89). Breads and chutneys are $4–10 each.

Some of the prices are tough to comprehend. In the Creamed Spinach Samosa ($15), and the only other ingredients are garlic, chickpeas, and radishes. The server said that it was just a single samosa, and she was at a loss to explain why it would be the most expensive hot appetizer. Why is the most expensive seafood dish the soft-shell crabs at $38, when lobster is only $23? I’m sure there are reasons, but not that we could make out from the menu.

Family-style menus tend to induce over-ordering, but we resisted that. Two of the small plates and two of the larger ones were more than we could finish, especially as the entrée portions were ample.

It’s also hard to tell what counts as an appetizer, and what’s just a side dish. Onion Rings ($10; above left) flaked in chickpea batter were perfect, but a bit odd to eat on their own. A Sunny Side Spiced Up Egg ($13; above right) worked beautifully as a starter. My girlfriend was skeptical of the dish, but the egg contrasted nicely with arugula, applewood smoked bacon, and gingered chicken livers.

Incidentally, all of Danny Meyer’s restaurants are offering a special “egg” dish during the spring, with $2 from each sale going to City Harvest. The Feedbag’s Josh Ozersky tried them all on a single evening, demonstrating that even his legendary appetite had its limits. But this is a great dish, and it’s a pity that it will come off the menu on June 20.

The Berkshire Country Pork Pan Roast ($18; above left), marinated with apple cider, cinammon, and mustard seeds, was the better of the two entrées. The pork was tender, the seasoning well judged.

A Pulled Lamb & Mustard-Mashed Potato “Naanini,” or “street sandwich” ($23; above right) seemed far too carb-heavy. The potatoes seemed to be there, not so much for flavor, but merely as a binder to hold the lamb together. The lamb was pretty good, though. It was an enormous portion, probably 50 percent larger than it needed to be. Imagine eating three pieces of quiche at one sitting.

This is a Danny Meyer restaurant, and naturally the service is first-rate. Some of the prices seemed dear to us, but with judicious ordering you can put together a fine, inexpensive casual meal.

Bread Bar at Tabla (11 Madison Avenue at 25th Street, Flatiron District)

Food: *½
Service: *½
Ambiance: *
Overall: *

The House-Made Hot Dog at Elettaria

Note: Elettaria closed in August 2009, after the owners could not negotiate a lease extension.

News of a Hot Dog, of all things, sent me back to Elettaria last week. According to the Feedbag, chef Akthar Nawab spent months perfecting it.

Actually, there are two hot dogs on Elettaria’s bar menu, either $2.50 or $4.50. The latter, which we ordered, resembles a hefty bratwurst sausage—house made, of course.

We enjoyed the robust, spicy flavor of the hot dog and the warm, toasted bun, but they weren’t made for each other. The bun needed to be about twice the size to wrap its way around the sausage. We did our best, but this beast would have been better with a knife and fork.

It’s a great hot dog, though, and a bargain at $4.50. If Nawab can just find the right bun, it would be perfect.

The kitchen comped a crab cake (right), which wasn’t anywhere near as memorable as the bratwurst. An order of meatballs ($5), served on a skewer, had a mild curry flavor, but they weren’t tender enough.

These items are served only at the bar, along with an alluring selection of cocktails. I’ve been meaning to go back for the Zombie, allegedly so potent that they won’t serve you more than one. I was headed for a show, so I gave that one a pass.

Elettaria (33 W. 8th Street at MacDougal Street, Greenwich Village)

Elettaria

Akhtar Nawab (center) runs a tight ship at Elettaria

Note: Elettaria closed in August 2009, after the owners could not negotiate a lease extension.

*

Akhtar Nawab first came to prominence at Tom Colicchio’s Craftbar. He left in 2006 to go solo, but things didn’t quite go as planned. He was the originally announced chef at Allen & Delancey, but when the restaurant finally opened, Neil Ferguson was at the helm. Then he signed on at The E.U., a star-crossed restaurant if ever there was one.

At Elettaria, Nawab is finally in control of his own destiny, along with partner Noel Cruz (Dani). Let’s hope that it’s a hit. Based on our meal there last night, it certainly deserves to be.

The name is the Latin word for cardamom, a spice often used in Indian cuisine. There are Indian accents all over the menu at Elettaria, but there are accents from a lot of places. Nawab is from Kentucky, and the cooking here could as well be called Modern American.

The interior design is from the same folks that did Allen & Delancey. You can see the resemblance, but their work is less successful here. For A&D’s charm, they’ve substituted a laundry list of clichés.

The bar takes up too much space. Dining tables are crammed too closely together. There’s a long row of them along the restaurant’s spine, and they’re just inches apart. We considered ourselves lucky to be there early, before the place filled up. There isn’t much space to manoever.

There’s a wide-open kitchen at the back of the restaurant. Nawab has it running smoothly. It’s a pleasure to watch. The space, most recently a men’s clothing store, was once a nightclub, and the kitchen is “on the very same spot where Jimi Hendrix reputedly plucked his guitar.”

 
Bread service (left); White asparagus with foie gras (left)

Our dinner at Elettaria was one of those rare restaurant meals that actually improved as it went along. The bread service consisted of two slices of naan. For the appetizer course, we were both attracted to one of the recited specials: a serving of white asparagus with shaved foie gras.

Pork, rice, quail egg

The asparagus, served chilled, had been over-cooked. The foie gras lacked the flavor punch it should have, and the few croutons offered were slightly soggy. At $20, this appetizer needed to be better.

The kitchen sent out a comped mid-course. It wasn’t on the printed menu, so I am guessing this is an item the chef is still tinkering with. He need tinker no longer. The highlights were two contrasting cuts of pork and a fried quail egg, resting in a slurry of rice. Nawab risks accusations of being derivative, with pork and fried eggs showing up on menus all over town, but this dish was much more of a hit than our original appetizer.

[Update: In his rave review for The Sun, Paul Adams described “an off-the-menu starter of lúgao ($12), Filipino rice porridge flavored with a succulent panoply of pig parts.” I am pretty sure that’s the mid-course item described above.]

 
Red Snapper (left); Striped Bass (right)

We both chose fish for the main course: red snapper ($28) for me, striped bass ($22) for my girlfriend. The kitchen did well by both fish, which were tender, flavorful, and well complemented by the accompanying vegetables and cous cous. A bed of small clams that came with the red snapper seemed more decorative than anything else.

The wine list here is downright revelatory, with many great bottles under $50, along with an impressive list of cocktails, liqueurs, apéritifs, and so forth. A 2004 Cotes de Provence from Chateau de Roquefort was only $37.

Although our appetizer misfired, the cooking here is ambitious. Over time, we suspect that Akhtar Nawab will have many more successes than failures. The reasonable prices make the restaurant especially compelling. Elettaria is well worth a return visit.

Elettaria (33 W. 8th Street at MacDougal Street, Greenwich Village)

Food: **
Service: **
Ambiance: *½
Overall: **

Mint

My friend Kelly and I paid a visit to Mint a few weeks ago. The décor has a cool, modern vibe that’s calculated to appeal to the East Midtown lunch circuit. At dinner time, it was not particularly busy.

The menu is a mix of Indian standards and a few original dishes. I shot photos, but didn’t take notes at the time. Our general sense was that the appetizers (top row of photos) were better than the entrées (bottom row). Kelly particularly raved about the Crispy Cauliflower tossed in Tomato Garlic Sauce (top right). The platings, however, are rather humdrum and might even be called careless. Prices don’t break the bank, with all appetizers at $12 or lower, and entrées at $20 or lower.

Service was a bit confused. There are different drinks menus at the bar and the tables. Our server had trouble understanding that, although we were seated at a table, we wanted one of the drinks from the bar. I cannot recall another restaurant with such a peculiar arrangement. Our bread order also flummoxed them.

Mint is a slight cut above the usual Indian restaurant in New York City, and certainly acceptable if you happen to be in the neighborhood, but not worth going out of the way.

Mint (150 E. 50th Street in the San Carlos Hotel, between Third & Lexington Avenues, East Midtown)

Food: *
Service: Satisfactory
Ambiance: *½
Overall: *

Dévi

Note: Dévi closed in April 2012 and, a short time later, quietly re-opened under new management. Eventually, it closed for good (I am not sure of the date).

*

Indian cuisine, like Mexican, Italian and Chinese, can be found in New York just about everywhere you look. Nine out of ten restaurants offer the standard dishes that you could name in your sleep. Truly memorable Indian restaurants are rare.

Dévi, which opened in 2004, is that rare exception. It earned two stars from Frank Bruni, which is almost the high-water mark for an Indian restaurant, as only Tabla carries three. This year, the Michelin Guide agreed, awarding a star — one of the few granted to a restaurant not serving European (or Euro-inspired) cuisine.

I dined at Dévi not long after it opened, and it was on my short list for a return visit. On Saturday, my friend and I had the six-course tasting menu, which at $60 is a bargain. We made different choices for most courses where a selection was offered, so I got to taste most of the menu.

Calcutta Jhaal Muri (rice puffs, red onions, chickpeas, green chilies, mustard oil, lemon juice)
or
Salmon Crab Cake (tomato chutney mayonaise)

I had the salmon crab cake, which was just fine, but I would have liked a little more spice in the tomato chutney mayonaise.

Tandoori Quail (spicy fig chutney)
or
Grilled Scallops (roasted red pepper chutney, Manchurian cauliflower, spicy bitter-orange marmelade)

I think the quail was the better deal here, as it was the whole bird, and the piece I tasted was wonderful. The “scallops” were in fact a single scallop, and tasted just a tad under-cooked.

At around this time, the server dropped off a plate of the spinach & goat cheese bread, which was probably the best bread I’ve ever had in an Indian restaurant. We were glad to have eight slices of it to share; we noticed that a nearby table of four received the identical portion.

Mirchi Wali Machi (roasted pepper chutney, spiced radish rice, fish of the day)
or
Veal Liver & Brain Bruschetta (veal with quail egg and green chilies, liver with cinnamon, tomatoes and onions)

I’m pretty adventurous, but neither of us had the guts to try the liver & brain dish, so that left us both with the fish, which I believe was a black bass, enjoyably spiced.

Tandoori Prawns (eggplant pickle, crispy okra)

Once again, the restaurant had a little trouble distinguishing singular and plural. This was a prawn, not prawns. Eggplant is one of the few foods I never enjoy, but my friend thought this dish was just fine.

Tandoor-Grilled Lamb Chops (sweet & sour pear chutney, spiced potatoes)

You can probably guess what’s coming: one chop from a rack of lamb, not chops. I thought this was competently done, but I would have liked a more crisp exterior to the chop.

Emperor’s Morsel (Shahi Tukra) (crispy saffron bread pudding, cardamom cream, candied almonds)
or
Pistachio Kulfi (Indian ice cream, candied pistachio, citrus soup)

I get almost weak-kneed at the thought of bread pudding, and Dévi’s presentation didn’t disappoint.

The alcohol, just like the tasting menu, is very reasonably priced. Specialty cocktails I tried ($12) included the Cilantro Tonic (Hendrick’s gin, cilantro, tonic, lime) and Hard Limeade (Kaffir lime vodka, guanabana nectar, lime juice). Paired wines with the tasting menu would have been $40 apiece, but we decided to spend that amount on a bottle to share between us.

The bi-level space is striking. Like most of Dévi, it isn’t cut from the same generic cloth as most Indian restaurants. We were seated upstairs, where it almost feels like you’re at a small private dinner party. Service was solid and assured throughout.

Dévi (8 East 18th Street between Fifth Avenue & Broadway, Gramercy)

Food: **
Service: **
Ambiance: ***
Overall: **