Veerays is the perfect new Indian restaurant East Midtown has seen in lots of, a few years.
Chef/proprietor Hermant Mathur’s dishes, from acquainted coconut and black pepper shrimp (an $18 starter) to rarely-served camel kebabs (a $35 major), blew me away.
However, past the meals, Mathur and co-owner Sonny Solomon have made some unusual choices.
Veerays hides behind a slender doorframe on East forty fifth Streets with no signal. It provides it the sensation of an after-hours spot on Avenue C fairly than a luxe pleasure pit within the coronary heart of company Midtown.
I want they’d put up an indication saying, “Veerays Beautiful Indian” — or something. The East 40s aren’t precisely Indian delicacies nirvana, so why not let folks find out about it?
Then there’s the decor. The principle eating room and a small, perfect-for-seduction nook behind it have a “roaring twenties” speakeasy theme with lush, purple velvet banquettes, a turquoise fainting sofa and an summary black-and-white wall panel of Patagonian quartz.
As if i that weren’t sufficient of a cultural mishmash, the soundtrack on my final go to included Yusef Lateef’s “Love Theme from Spartacus” and Fifties hard-bop classics by Artwork Blakey.
However, all of the confusion’s fortunately forgotten on the plate.
Mathur earned a Michelin star at every of two earlier New York eating places, Devi and Tulsi. His work at Veerays, in collaboration with chef de delicacies Binder Saini, once more shows his positive hand with northern and southern Indian kinds.
“Jazzy Breads” — the theming extends to menu sections — have been uniformly glorious, particularly amul cheese and garlic-olive naans.
A starter of spiced “Anglo” tuna and potato muffins ($18) — “made for colonial British officers,” we have been helpfully knowledgeable — crackled on the surface and burst with taste inside.
Then there’s the camel, sourced from a New Jersey ranch known as Fossil Farms. It was a bit too dry on one go to however deliciously moist on one other. It’s deeply herbed and emerges simmering sizzling from the tandoori oven.
Don’t be shy when you’ve by no means had it — it’s no tougher on the palate than lamb or goat. Plus, Mathur is a tandoori grasp who is aware of how to not bake meat and fish.
“Millionaire Moliee” ($44) is his tackle Chilean sea bass, agency however moist, served in a vivid coconut-mustard gravy with coconut rice.
“Unlawful Pheasant” ($35) is served in a scorching, tomato-and-ginger curry. Why that identify?
“It flew in from Mexico,” the supervisor stated, including, “That’s a joke.”
“Bootlegger” bison, described on the menu as a “modernist tackle a South Indian favourite,” is a compelling stir-fry of purple and inexperienced bell peppers, curry and mustard seeds.
In the long run, Veerays gimmicks aren’t only a bit odd. They do it a disservice. I’m all for breaking with cliches — Indian eating places have too many marble elephants.
However the gangster motif theme is goofy and would possibly offend Italian- and Indian-Individuals equally.
The restaurant’s house owners and cooks are recognized on its web site as “The Don,” “The Underboss,” “The Consigliere,” and “Madame Queen,” the identify of a real-life Harlem gang chief within the Twenties. Lamb chops ($48) are known as “The Don’s Lamb Chops.” What have been they considering?
Skip the speakeasy shtick and let Mathur’s cooking converse for itself.