For quite some time, Indian cuisine has been making inroads into the international market. On November 8, three Indian restaurants in the United States were granted Michelin stars - Rania in Washington, DC, Semma in New York City, and Indienne in Chicago. Here's a look at some of the best restaurants that are highlighting Indian cuisine abroad.
People are known to queue up for hours to get a taste of Asma Khan's biryani. And you have to pull many strings to get a table to sample it at her acclaimed restaurant Darjeeling Express in London. Khan is in fact one of the hottest people in food in the UK. In 2017, she became the first British chef to be filmed for her own episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table. Her signature style of cooking is influenced by her childhood in Kolkata, a city famous for its biryani and biryani fanatics. Hollywood A-listers Paul Rudd and Dan Levy have dined at her restaurant. Read about the restaurant and her famed biryani in our interview here. More about it here.
Address: 2.4 Kingly Ct, Carnaby, London W1B 5PW, United Kingdom
Quilon is an award-wining Michelin-star restaurant serving South-west coastal Indian cuisine in Central London. They are known to have rewritten the perception of South Indian cuisine, especially cuisine from the west coast. Longtime Head Chef Sriram Aylur and his experienced team cook in the time-honoured way but also do a lot of progressive cooking. Their baked black cod is famous. More info here.
Address: 41 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AF, United Kingdom
This Michelin-starred restaurant pays homage to South Indian cuisine with unique variations such as goat intestines with toddy-fermented dosa. Semma's menu is a celebration of the food that shaped its Head Chef Vijaya Kumar's childhood in Southern India. It has mains like oxtails and snail curry, as well as curry leaf-infused cocktails. In this interview, you can learn more about the restaurant and Chef Kumar's cuisine influences and memories. More info here.
Address: 60 Greenwich Ave, New York, NY 10011, United States
Rania, which means "queen" in Hindi, challenges preconceived notions about what an Indian restaurant is and may be. The brainchild of Chef Chetan Shetty, it offers a one-of-a-kind prix fixe cuisine that artistically marries traditional Indian ingredients with modern techniques. From the fun shiso leaf chaat to the rich ghee-roasted lamb, each dish is a perfect combination of modern innovation and classic cuisine, creating a regal dining experience fit for royalty. More info here.
Address: 427 11th St NW, Washington, DC 20004, United States
Gaa is a Modern Indian fine dining restaurant located in Bangkok in a traditional Thai house. The Gaa experience is a wonderful blend of tradition and modernity, where an exciting world of modern Indian flavours meets a setting of baan ruen thai. Chef Garima Arora helms the restaurant. Arora is the first Indian female chef to be awarded a Michelin star. Arora also helms an initiative to catalogue Indian food for a global audience called 'Food Forward India'. Read about it in our interview here. More about the restaurant here.
Address: 46 Sukhumvit 53 Alley, Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
