100 Very Best 2017
Eat Great Cheap 2013Allow us a moment, please, to praise the thoughtful civility of this dining room: the soft ragas on the sound system, the tables laid with crisp cloth, the sense that you’ve gotten away from it all. None of this would mean very much if it weren’t for the quality of the food, which, when the kitchen is on, has a subtlety and nuance missing in the competition. A curry here isn’t merely an excuse to bring the heat but to treat you to the full range of effects that come from proper, layered spicing. And there are flavors and combinations you simply won’t find anywhere else in the area, with dishes drawn from all across the subcontinent.
Don’t miss: Pickle plate; tandoori lamb; sev-murmura chaat, a puffed-rice salad; shrimp in coconut curry; lamb stew with apricots; karwari prawn curry; spinach with buttermilk and black salt; chickpea roti.
See what other restaurants made our 100 Very Best Restaurants list. This article appears in our February 2016 issue of Washingtonian.
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.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
