Veerays is the best new Indian restaurant East Midtown has seen in many, many years.
Chef/owner Hermant Mathur’s dishes, from familiar coconut and black pepper shrimp (an $18 starter) to rarely-served camel kebabs (a $35 main), blew me away.
But, beyond the food, Mathur and co-owner Sonny Solomon have made some strange decisions.
Veerays hides behind a narrow doorframe on East 45th Streets without a sign. It gives it the feeling of an after-hours spot on Avenue C rather than a luxe pleasure pit in the heart of corporate Midtown.
I wish they’d put up a sign saying, “Veerays Exquisite Indian” — or anything. The East 40s aren’t exactly Indian cuisine nirvana, so why not let people know about it?
Then there’s the decor. The main dining room and a small, perfect-for-seduction nook behind it have a “roaring twenties” speakeasy theme with lush, red velvet banquettes, a turquoise fainting couch and an abstract black-and-white wall panel of Patagonian quartz.
As if i that weren’t enough of a cultural mishmash, the soundtrack on my last visit included Yusef Lateef’s “Love Theme from Spartacus” and 1950s hard-bop classics by Art Blakey.
But, all the confusion’s happily forgotten on the plate.
Mathur earned a Michelin star at each of two earlier New York restaurants, Devi and Tulsi. His work at Veerays, in collaboration with chef de cuisine Binder Saini, again displays his sure hand with northern and southern Indian styles.
“Jazzy Breads” — the theming extends to menu sections — were uniformly excellent, especially amul cheese and garlic-olive naans.
A starter of spiced “Anglo” tuna and potato cakes ($18) — “made for colonial British officers,” we were helpfully informed — crackled on the outside and burst with flavor inside.
Then there’s the camel, sourced from a New Jersey ranch called Fossil Farms. It was a bit too dry on one visit but deliciously moist on another. It’s deeply herbed and emerges simmering hot from the tandoori oven.
Don’t be shy if you’ve never had it — it’s no more challenging on the palate than lamb or goat. Plus, Mathur is a tandoori master who knows how not to bake meat and fish.
“Millionaire Moliee” ($44) is his take on Chilean sea bass, firm but moist, served in a vivid coconut-mustard gravy with coconut rice.
“Illegal Pheasant” ($35) is served in a scorching, tomato-and-ginger curry. Why that name?
“It flew in from Mexico,” the manager said, adding, “That’s a joke.”
“Bootlegger” bison, described on the menu as a “modernist take on a South Indian favorite,” is a compelling stir-fry of red and green bell peppers, curry and mustard seeds.
In the end, Veerays gimmicks aren’t just a bit odd. They do it a disservice. I’m all for breaking with cliches — Indian restaurants have too many marble elephants.
But the gangster motif theme is goofy and might offend Italian- and Indian-Americans equally.
The restaurant’s owners and chefs are identified on its website as “The Don,” “The Underboss,” “The Consigliere,” and “Madame Queen,” the name of a real-life Harlem gang leader in the 1920s. Lamb chops ($48) are called “The Don’s Lamb Chops.” What were they thinking?
Skip the speakeasy shtick and let Mathur’s cooking speak for itself.
