196 replies to this topic

[Orik]

Hmm, I'm seeing them in this last one - anywhere else?

[prasantrin]

Yes.

[Suzanne F]

Yes.

[Sneakeater]

He said "anywhere else" not "anyone else".

His other posts look OK to me. Are there others?

[prasantrin]

I was still responding to taion. Bet Suzanne was, too.

Don't see it anywhere else, just that one.

(Sometimes I get weird html tags like that after I've edited posts. Don't know why.)

[Robert Brown]

By more than just default, Tulsi is, as far as I can tell, the best Indian restaurant in New York. Other than a long wait between the appetizers and the main courses and a single 12 oz. Indian beer on the handful of beer offerings, the five dishes three of us had between us (not counting a three-part dessert featuring cardoman chocolate)ranged from quite nice to superb. A plate of five chaats and Hemat's perfectly-timed well-known lamb chops were my favorites, but the cauliflower appetizer, pistachio chicken and rogan josh (bones included as they should be) all distinguished themselves. Restaurants are for eating and not for writing. Therefore the best words I can pass along are simply to go there.

[Rich]

Five of us last night.

Simply outstanding - different than Devi. Can't say better or worse, but it's more athentic Indian, so in that sense, probably the best in NYC.

Hermat told us the new chef at Devi will be at Tulsi next week to gather some experience. Wonder if he'll do some cooking?

Room is beautiful, but I would suggest slightly dim the lights. Nice bar, small, but interesting wine list including a 12-year-old California Cab that is served by the glass.

Way too much food, but it was all good - especially the halibut wrapped in banana leaves...and surprisingly the Tofu with Indian spices.

On a personal note - I received the "Smoking Gun" that I saw in operation at Brooklyn Fare last week. So for those who will be coming to Staten Island for dinner during the year - watch out!!!

[oakapple]

You can add me to the list of Tulsi fans (blog post here). We were particularly impressed with the Tandoori Tofu and the Pistachio Chicken, which seemed to me well beyond the norms of the typical Indian restaurant.

I already realize that people are going to say, "You idiot. If only you'd visited [Indian city], like the rest of us have, you'd realize that these things are served on every street corner and there is nothing original about them." I haven't, so I don't.

[Orik]

The restaurant is still in business, under the supervision of Mathur's former partner, Suvir Saran.

You should always be very careful when it comes to statements concerning Suvir. If you ask him I'm sure he'd also tell you he runs the government and consults at Amma and Diwan (even though the latter is closed)


eta: regarding prices - it's interesting that while Tulsi's menu is priced more or less the same as Devi's and Amma's (and only a notch above other midtown Indian mainstays), it seems so much more outstanding to try and charge $30+ for a huge lamb chop entree these days that this is highlighted in several reviews I've seen.

[oakapple]

Hemant posted a comment on my blog post:

True . Are the best in town. Nothing can beat us. We are the Best.

Well, there you go. If he says so, it must be true.

[Steve R.]

A couple of side notes to the wonderful dinner we had last week at Tulsi:

First of all, Hemant says that he's still involved with Devi &, although I know enough to not try to verify anything, that Suvir is as well. He still recommends going there and I think I'll go back to see. It would be nice to have both Tulsi and Devi to go to.

Moreso than ever at Devi, going to Tulsi made me feel much like when I first went to an Italian restaurant that had no connection to red sauce Brooklyn places or when I first started going to regional Chinese places that werent Cantonese or Hong Kong based cooking. I can recognize the similarities but feel it on a totally different level. My meal at Tulsi was excellent and I enjoyed almost every dish presented (and there were many many dishes presented to the 5 of us). However, I left feeling like I hadnt eaten "Indian" food, at least as my tastebuds know it. Its not just the upgrade in ingredients, price or ambience that I'm referring to and it's really not something I'd call "fusion Indian" either, it's that "I have a yen...let's go eat Indian food" would not elicit an automatic response of "okay, let's go to Tulsi", which it would if it were Devi a couple of years ago. This place will be more of a response to "I really want to go eat some more of Hemant's food... let's go to Tulsi". Does that make sense to youse guys? Has he really moved off the basic track enough to be something else other than perhaps the best Indian restaurant in NYC?

eta: the above is made all the stranger to me by Hemant's interview comments that Tulsi is more straightforward Indian food than Devi was/is meant to be.

[Orik]

Devi had stuff like fattoush, mayo based dipping sauce for some deep fried apps, and other entries that were pretty far from Indian. Tulsi doesn't.


eta: I know what you mean though, even though every dish is grounded in some Indian classic, they're all very different. I believe some of the investors in Devi are also investors in Tulsi, which may explain some of the peculiar statements regarding consulting, etc.

[Steve R.]

Devi had stuff like fattoush, mayo based dipping sauce for some deep fried apps, and other entries that were pretty far from Indian. Tulsi doesn't.


eta: I know what you mean though, even though every dish is grounded in some Indian classic, they're all very different. I believe some of the investors in Devi are also investors in Tulsi, which may explain some of the peculiar statements regarding consulting, etc.

I definitely understand the difference in what he's trying to do at Tulsi and even joked with Hemant that I wouldnt be able to get the fried chicken here. But Devi always left me with a "mouthfeel" that reminded me that I had eaten a riff on Indian food. Tulsi actually left me with less of that taste in my mouth, even though the food on the table was more traditional looking (well, except for the mozz. filled app.) It may well just be that I havent been exposed to enough of real higher end Indian cuisine but I'm not sure that's it either.

[splinky]

i tend to think in terms of wanting hemant's cooking rather than a specific national cuisine.

as to the mysterious business relationships, there is a catering business that is part of devi and i wonder if that is what suvir and hemant still have some involvement in. but i think orik is right, that it's partly about shared investors between the restaurants/catering businesses.

[mongo_jones]

based on my meal at devi i'm sure the food is excellent. but the menu is anything but traditional; in fact, it's a bit of a strange mish-mash--though that is entirely a function of how differently high-end indian food is conceptualized in the u.s than in india, and possibly even the u.k (our meal at quilon was quite specficially regional, but they may be an exception).

look at the starters:

masala ceviche?
shrimp and crab stuffed papads?
pea and coconut croquettes?

none of this is traditional.

then you have samosas and chaat--which i'm sure are excellent but are a bit like seeing hot dogs and pretzels on the appetizer list at a high-end american restaurant. it's a completely different genre of food that has been shoehorned in (not just at tulsi, of course) to fit both the appetizer-entree model and also to furnish new'ness to relatively jaded palates. again, nothing wrong with it but very far from a traditional juxtaposition.

the entrees too lists a couple of things that i would not describe as traditional: the seared scallops, for example, or the roasted pesto portobello mushroom. most of the rest do seem like traditional recipes that have doubtless been refined and tweaked, but put together in a very non-traditional menu format. nothing wrong with that, of course, but to my eyes the menu doesn't read very differently than what i remember of devi. may taste very different though.