The Greatest New Indian Restaurant in NYC Takes You on a Journey By means of South Asia — and It is Impressed by One Iconic Chef’s Travels

On an informal Tuesday night, you possibly can count on to see a queue outdoors an emerald inexperienced facade in New York Metropolis’s East Village, the place diners are lining as much as rating a seat at Bungalow, the town’s latest Indian restaurant, led by Chef Vikas Khanna. Already incomes accolades from eating critics, bloggers, and influencers alike, Bungalow’s most acclaimed achievement lies elsewhere: within the rave critiques of the South Asian diaspora.

One diner who ate there described the meals as “fusion,” whereas one other known as it “fancy Indian meals.” However ask Khanna himself, and he’ll inform you that it’s conventional Indian delicacies that has been reimagined. 

This reimagination of South Asian meals stems from Khanna’s travels all through India and the broader subcontinent. “I’ve been an obsessive traveler all through the nation since 1991. From working in Delhi, Agra, Mumbai, and Kathmandu throughout my school coaching to writing journey books and internet hosting TV exhibits, I’ve simply beloved understanding and experiencing India by way of journey,” Khanna advised Journey + Leisure. “All of it helped me carry variety to Bungalow’s menu.”

His hen tikka, for instance, is completely different out of your run-of-the-mill poultry curry. Throughout a visit to Jammu, a northern area of the South Asian subcontinent, he tried a hen curry ready with pomegranate molasses. “It blew my thoughts. I might by no means had such tender hen,” Khanna stated. Impressed by this expertise, the hen tikka on his menu (known as anarkali hen) makes use of pomegranate in 3 ways: as a tenderizer whereas being marinated, within the garlic and chili paste, and within the glaze.

Every merchandise on his menu is a tribute to his travels in India and the various delicacies there. “The entire menu has been deliberate as a journey by way of India,” Khanna stated. The yogurt kabab is impressed by his travels to Indore, Madhya Pradesh; the white peas guguni is a tribute to his go to to Cuttack, Odisha; and hen amrit (his tackle butter hen) is a tribute to Amritsar, Punjab.

His favourite dish is the spiced roasted pineapple, impressed by a go to to a temple in Udupi, Karnataka. The pineapple is pan-seared upon order, whereas a coconut curry infused with South Indian spices is made tableside in minutes. Behind the scenes, the prep takes two days, and, in keeping with Khanna, it’s properly well worth the effort. ”Individuals go loopy for this dish,” he stated, including that Bungalow sells extra pineapple curry than butter hen. “The odor of the contemporary coconut makes this dish stand aside.”

Having lived in New York Metropolis for twenty-four years, Khanna has witnessed — and contributed to — the evolution of the Indian meals scene because it went from a takeout delicacies to Michelin-starred. He was, in any case, the chef at Junoon in 2011, when the restaurant first earned its Michelin recognition. His present favourite South Asian eating places in New York Metropolis embody Angel in Jackson Heights; Dhamaka; Semma; and Sarvana Bhavan. “I am additionally an enormous fan of something Hemant Mathur does,” he added. (Mathur is behind Chola, Chote Nawab, Dhaba, Sahib, Malai Marke, and Saar Indian Bistro, all within the metropolis.)

Nonetheless, the greatest meal Khanna has ever had is on the Golden Temple, a gurdwara in Amritsar, Punjab. “That’s the basis of what I realized as a chef and what I experiment and specific,” he stated, including that the prasad there can be his final meal.

As somebody who has traveled to all corners of India, Khanna advised T+L that the northeastern a part of the nation is his favourite, which stunned him. However his two favourite meals cities in India are break up between Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, and Kolkata, Bengal. “I used to be moved to tears by the cooking in these cities,” he stated.

Outdoors of India, touring to Paro in Bhutan left an enduring impression as a meals vacation spot for the acclaimed chef. “There’s one thing in regards to the tradition and the folks being so beneficiant,” Khanna stated, “as a result of generosity is the identify of nice cooking, and I felt that in Paro. Whereas I’ve seen every part — I have been to a lot of the Michelin stars in Paris and Tokyo — nothing moved my soul like what occurred to me in Bhutan.”

When Khanna curates meals on a visit, whether or not it’s home or worldwide, he turns to the steerage and solutions of cooks and meals writers. However his largest hack is to ask a neighborhood. (When he first moved to New York Metropolis in 2000, it was a cab driver who launched him to the East Village hole-in-the-wall Punjabi Deli.)

Now, slightly greater than 20 years later, it’s his very personal restaurant that locals are name-dropping. “Everybody actually loves that place,” stated my cab driver as we drove previous Bungalow and its ubiquitous line. “I haven’t heard one unhealthy factor. It is best to attempt it.”