MadhurJaffrey's Dawat Restaurant, New York
Dawat means “invitation to feast.” This is the most appropriate name for a restaurant that serves the most exciting Indian cuisine in New York. The famous cookbook writer, Madhur Jaffrey, is the food consultant responsible for the long-standing success of this restaurant. Her books include: An Invitation to Indian Cooking, Indian Cookery, Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking, Madhur Jaffrey’s Cookbook, A Taste of India, and Far Eastern Cookery. Her cookbooks have won six James Beard Awards from 1973 to 2003. She is also a renowned actress who won the Berlin Film Festival Award for her performance in Merchant and Ivory’s Shakespeare Wallah.
Madhur Jaffrey has been the force behind the perfectly executed cuisine at Dawat since it opened in 1986. She carefully sets directions for each recipe, and the chef de cuisine follows them with care and exactness. The menu includes dishes from India’s four corners. Madhur Jaffrey’s talent of turning traditional Indian recipes into contemporary delicacies has won her the title of “The Queen of Indian cookery” in New York, and other Indian restaurants are measured by the standards she sets.
Our dinner at Dawat was directed by Sommelier and Maître’D Vicki, who carefully selected our menu with dishes representing the different regions of India. He took time to explain the importance of each dish, and why he had decided to include it in our dinner. Madhur Jaffrey has put together an extraordinary menu of regional Indian cuisine. Her food is creative, intensely flavorful, and at the same time delicate and sophisticated. The numerous spices involved in creating each dish harmonize and blend deliciously with each bite. With the meal we were served cold crisp Indian beer, cleansing our palates and opening our taste-buds to the nuanced spices of the menu Vicki orchestrated. For appetizers, the sweet-tart Litchi martinis were a perfect balance of fruit and alcohol, and we enjoyed them with a plate of cumin Papadam served with mint, tamarind, and pear chutneys. Papadam is light crisp bread made from lentil flour; it is served with chutneys as a starter.
We sampled three starters: Aloo Tikkyas with Red Peshawari Chutney $6.75, Bahgare Jhinga $11.95, and Hyderabadi Lamb Pathar Kebab $10.95. The Aloo Tikkyas were beautiful and delicious potato pancakes served with red pepper, almond, and mint chutneys. The Bahgare Jhinga was perfectly cooked shrimp with a sensational garlic, mustard seed and curry leave sauce. The Hyderabade Lamb Kebab was thin sliced lamb that is beaten to tenderness on a stone and browned on a hot griddle.
Our entrees were spectacular. Raan is a large lamb shank marinated for seventy-two hours in a multitude of spices, then seared in a seven-hundred-degree Tandoor oven until it is crisp outside and meltingly tender inside. Kerala-Style Konju Pappaas are large shrimp poached in a coconut sauce flavored with aromatic curry leaves and smoked tamarind. We also enjoyed a classic Chicken Tikka Masala, yogurt and spice marinated chicken roasted in the tandoori oven and then folded into a spiced tomato sauce. Dawat’s Saag Paneer, a vegetarian spinach dish with cubes of fresh Paneer cheese, was the best we have ever experienced. Dawat has elevated this dish with an intricate blend of subtle spices that linger and leave you wanting more so that you can try to discern all of the seasoning that created its intriguing flavor. With dinner we enjoyed cooling Kheera Raita, refreshing Lemon Rice, excellent Naan, and a giant Poori. Poori is lightly fried, slightly flaky, puffed up bread that looks impressive and tastes amazing. It blows up when deep fried and looks like a pillow on the plate. It slowly deflates acquiring a pleasant elastic and very delicate texture.
Desserts were spectacular: Gajarela, caramelized grated carrots studded with pistachios served with whipped cream, a truly special recipe; Rasmalai, sweet cheese dumplings flavored with cardamom and rose water; Gulab Jamun, fried round balls of dough in delicious syrup with rose water. Our last dessert was Kulfi, a traditional Indian cone-shaped ice cream made with pistachios and cardamom seeds, was light and refreshing, a perfect note to end an exceptional meal.
Dawat is the place to truly feast on Indian cuisine. Madhur Jaffrey’s recipes are a harmonious group of dishes from all over India that come together into a lovely symphony of flavors and creativity. Service at Dawat was calm, professional, and very knowledgeable. Dawat is located at 210 East 58th Street. Call 212-355-7555 for reservations. The restaurant opens daily for lunch and dinner.
