Food

100 Best Restaurants 2010: Heritage India

No. 91: Heritage India

Cuisine: Opulent Indian. The curries are lush, the flatbreads are hot and flaky, and dishes seldom seen at quick-serve joints that gloss over the subtlety and variety of this complex cooking find their way into the mix.

Mood: With carved wooden screens, British Colonial furnishings, and vintage sepia photos of Indian princes, the main dining room channels the days of the Raj.

Best for: A communal meal with a group, the better to order widely and experience the myriad styles of Indian cooking; a romantic dinner; a vegetarian meal full of conviction.

Best dishes: Bhel puri, an Indian-style salad with puffed rice, chickpea vermicelli, cilantro, shallots, and sweet-and-sour chutney; eggplant in a velvety sesame-cashew sauce; black lentils elevated to star status with cream and butter; yakhani gosht, a Kashmiri lamb stew with yogurt and saffron; prawns in green-pepper sauce; a ginger-shot sag paneer, the classic cheese-and-spinach dish; first-rate flatbreads.

Insider tips: While service is friendlier than in the past, the restaurant sometimes seems short-staffed, a situation that’s underscored when it’s crowded. Ask for a table in the dining room overlooking Wisconsin Avenue, preferably by the window.

Service: •½

Open daily for lunch and dinner. Moderate.

 

See all of 2010's 100 Best Restaurants

 

Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.