Kailash Parbat is more than just another new Indian restaurant populating Curry Hill. The décor is simple, yes. Taupe leather booths and dark brown lacquered tables are the name of the game here. In fact, the most elaborate and eye-catching piece is a black and gold-leafed mural hanging behind the waiting area. But you won’t hear me complaining further about the monochromatic color scheme, as the food served at Kailash Parbat is far more colorful.
The restaurant has its origins in Mumbai, and was founded by the Muchandani brothers in 1952. Kailash Parbat has since become one of the most successful chains in the capital city of India, and has just opened its first outpost in New York.
The restaurant is most famous for its authentic Sindhi cuisine, which serves up chaats (savory snacks sold roadside in India). In fact, Kailash Parbat is one of the only restaurants in New York to serve chaat.
Before we were served our very first chaat as guests of the restaurant, my friend and I both glugged down some refreshingly velvety lassis. George ordered the mango lassi, which tasted exactly as it should: tangy from the yogurt, pulpy and sweet from the mango, but not achingly so. I ordered the sweet lassi, which looks quite unassuming, but the tanginess from the yogurt and the floral sweetness from the rosewater syrup made it a real sensation.
We were then served our first chaat, known as pani puri, which was a refreshing bowl of yogurt served with lentil dumplings, mint and tamarin chutneys, and sprinkled with sev (crunchy noodles made of chickpea flour) and cilantro. Eating pani puri is kind of like eating a savory granola bowl, or a very hearty lentil salad drizzled with yogurt. Either way, it was texturally exciting (the smoothness of the lentils and the yogurt and the crunchiness of the sev), and also mild in its flavoring.
Our next dish was chole bhature, which is a popular Punjabi dish served with spicy curried chickpeas and puffed pita-like breads. We ordered the cheese and fenugreek chole, and the texture was crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside. The cheese chole was for me the most delicious item on the menu, as the inside of the bread was coated with a thin layer of warm, gooey cheese.
Before our main dish arrived, we were served one of the most popular chaats in Mumbai, known as sev puri. The dish is essentially a crispy pastry filled with tomatoes, potatoes, onion, tamarin and mint chutneys, all coated in a heaping handful of crunchy sev. Sev puri is an elaborate dish to eat with your knife and fork, so if you choose to eat it with your hands, brace yourself for some flying sev noodles.
The main dish of the night was an in-house biryani, a traditional rice dish served with carrots, peas, and cottage cheese, accompanied by three different sauces. The green sauce was composed of green beans in a mint and spinach puree, the rose-colored sauce a combination of vegetable and cheese dumplings in an almond puree, and finally the red sauce, which was composed of cottage cheese cubes in a yogurt curry sauce. If you are perhaps not the most raving fan of cottage cheese, particularly in curry yogurt sauces, I can only say that it tastes more delicious than it sounds or looks. For me, this dish was the heartiest of the night, and also the most texturally exciting (the chewiness of the cottage cheese and the smoothness of the curry yogurt sauce, for example).
Finally, to cap off the meal, we were served kulfi falooda, an exotic dessert that equally resembles an ethereal pillow. At its base was bright green pistachio ice cream, followed by long sweet vermicelli noodles, tapioca pearls nestled in sweet cream, all drizzled in rosewater syrup.
Overall, Kailash Parbat serves exquisite northwest Indian food from Mumbai, not typically found in New York City. If you are well-versed in the chicken tandoori, naan and palak paneer department, then Kailash Parbat is most definitely a counterpoint, serving exotic Sindhi cuisine that is a rarity in New York. And the dessert. Always the dessert.
Kailash Parbat
99 Lexington Avenue (btwn. 27th and 28th Streets)
Manhattan, NY 10016
212-679-4232