New York City / Indian
Best Indian
Restaurants in NYC
Michelin-starred Tamil cooking, Bengali home food in Brooklyn, and the happy hours that make a great curry cheap.
Most Indian happy hours here run 3–7pm — Benares and Saar start earliest.
- 12 verified spots
- 1 Michelin star
- happy hours from 3pm
- beers from $4
The short version
- Best overallSemma – NYC’s only Michelin-starred Indian, and the NYT’s #1 restaurant of 2025.
- Best happy hourBenares – cocktails, draft & wine, 3–7pm daily in Tribeca.
- Cheapest drinksSaar – $4 beers and $5 margaritas, daily till 6:30pm by Times Square.
- Best in BrooklynMasalawala & Sons – Kolkata Bengali home cooking in Park Slope.
- Best in QueensAngel – Michelin Bib Gourmand, 100% halal, in Jackson Heights.
The best Indian restaurants in NYC right now run from a Michelin star to a $4 beer. For pure cooking, Semma in the West Village is the one – NYC’s only Michelin-starred Indian restaurant and the Times’ #1 restaurant of 2025 – backed by its Unapologetic Foods siblings Dhamaka and Adda, Vikas Khanna’s Bungalow, and coastal-South-Indian Kanyakumari. Beyond Manhattan, Masalawala & Sons brings real Bengali food to Park Slope and Angel holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand in Jackson Heights. And because this is a happy hour site: Benares and Saar pour the best Indian drink deals downtown and in the Theater District. Here’s the whole list, grouped by best food and best happy hours, with a map.
At a glance
Best food up top, best happy hours below. Tap a venue’s number on the map to place it.
| Restaurant | The deal / the order | Days | Window | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semma | Michelin-star South Indian | Dinner | Book on Resy | $$$ |
| Dhamaka | Regional ‘unapologetic’ Indian | Daily | Lunch wknds, dinner | $$$ |
| Bungalow | Vikas Khanna’s Bombay supper club | Closed Mon | Dinner | $$$ |
| Adda | Famous butter chicken | Closed Mon | Dinner | $$$ |
| Kanyakumari | Coastal South Indian seafood | Daily | Dinner | $$$ |
| Masalawala & Sons | Kolkata Bengali home cooking | Closed Mon | Park Slope, BK | $$$ |
| Angel Indian Restaurant | Bib Gourmand, 100% halal | Closed Mon | Queens | $$$ |
| Benares | House cocktails, draft, wine | Daily | 3-7pm | $$$ |
| Saar Indian Bistro | $4 beer, $5 margaritas, $8 bites | Daily | 4-6:30pm | $$$ |
| Cloves Indian Cuisine | Happy hour drinks & bites | Mon-Fri | 5-7pm | $$$ |
| aRoqa | Mumbai-spiced cocktails (bar) | Tue-Thu, Sun | 5-7pm | $$$ |
| GupShup | Cocktail bar, butter chicken wings | Tue-Sun | No set HH | $$$ |
Map: where these 12 spots are
These span the city – West Village and Tribeca up through Midtown, out to Park Slope and Jackson Heights. Numbers match the table.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the deal and directions.
The best Indian food in NYC
Destination dining, ranked – from a Michelin star in the West Village to Bengali home cooking in Park Slope. No happy hours in this tier, just the best plates in the city. Hungry for more lists? See our best Greek restaurants in NYC.
Semma
The one. NYC’s only Michelin-starred Indian restaurant, and in 2025 the Times ranked it the single best restaurant in the city – not best Indian, best, period. Chef Vijay Kumar cooks Tamil Nadu without translation: gunpowder dosa, country chicken, snails, vegetables you won’t see on another menu in town. The room is small and the Resy drop is a bloodsport. The Local Move: check Resy at 9am for same-day cancellations, and take any counter seat you can get. No happy hour, no shortcuts – this is a special-occasion spend that earns every dollar.
semma.nyc · See our all of Manhattan
Dhamaka
The most fun you’ll have eating Indian food in New York. Dhamaka means ‘explosion’ and the menu delivers – goat brain, a whole head-on goat raan built for a table, Kashmiri lamb, dishes pulled from regional home kitchens instead of the standard tikka lineup. It lives inside Essex Market on the LES, which keeps it loud and unfussy. Same Unapologetic Foods crew as Semma and Adda, same refusal to dial anything down. The Honest Caveat: the spice is real – ‘medium’ is their medium. Book on Resy, though a 5pm walk-up has a shot.
dhamaka.nyc · See our best Greek restaurants in NYC
Bungalow
Vikas Khanna’s love letter to 1970s Bombay supper clubs, and the best-looking Indian dining room in the city – brass, tile, and velvet in the East Village. The food keeps up with the set design: Bombay duck, sharp kebabs, a potato-skin chaat people line up to photograph. It’s a scene and a meal at once. The Local Move: can’t get a table, sit at the bar – full menu, strong cocktails. Honest take: you’re paying partly for the room, but the kitchen backs it up. Closed Mondays; reserve the rest of the week.
bungalowny.com · See our best cocktail bars in NYC
Adda
The comfort-food heavyweight. Adda spent years as a tiny Long Island City canteen with a cult following; in 2025 it moved to the East Village and the butter chicken made the trip intact. This is North Indian home cooking turned up loud – kebabs, biryani, dal that takes a day. Same Unapologetic Foods DNA as Semma and Dhamaka, lower price, looser room. The Local Move: order the butter chicken, full stop, with the goat right behind it. The Honest Caveat: closed Mondays and dinner-only, so plan around it.
addanyc.com · See our more Manhattan spots
Kanyakumari
Coastal South India off Union Square, and one of the most underrated rooms downtown. Salil Mehta spotlights the seafood of India’s southern tip – mussels koliwada, chili-spiked fish curry, plates most NYC Indian menus never attempt – and it joined the Michelin Guide within months of opening. A real bar anchors the space, and the crowd is lively without tipping into a scene. The Local Move: sit at the bar, order the seafood, let them set the heat. Worth it for anyone tired of the same saag-and-butter-chicken rotation.
kanyakumarinyc.com · See our best cocktail bars in NYC
Masalawala & Sons
The reason to take the train to Park Slope. This is Bengali cooking – Kolkata home food you almost never find on a New York menu – kosha mangsho (slow-cooked mutton), bhapa maach (steamed mustard fish), thalis that reset what you think ‘Indian food’ means. Family-tied to the Unapologetic group, same commitment to the real version. The room runs warm and low-key, built for a long dinner over a quick one. The Honest Caveat: closed Mondays and weekends book up – reserve. Brooklyn’s best Indian, no contest.
masalawala.com · See our more NYC best-of guides
Angel Indian Restaurant
Proof the best Indian food in the city isn’t always in Manhattan. Angel holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand in Jackson Heights – the Queens neighborhood that’s been NYC’s South Asian heartland for decades – for North Indian cooking that’s refined and 100% halal. Tandoori, curries, biryani done with care, at outer-borough prices. The Local Move: take the 7 to 74th St-Roosevelt and make a night of the whole neighborhood. The Honest Caveat: it recently moved within Jackson Heights, so double-check the address before you go. Best argument going for leaving your borough.
angelindianrestaurant.com · See our more best-of guides
Best Indian happy hours
Where to drink well and pay less – verified windows, bar bites, and the after-work moves. For weekend timing, check our Saturday happy hour guide.
Benares On now
The most generous Indian happy hour downtown – four full hours, 3 to 7pm every day, at the Tribeca location on Murray Street. Budget house cocktails, draft beer, and wine, out of a kitchen run by a chef who came up at Michelin-starred Tulsi, so the tandoori bites with your drink actually taste like something. The Local Move: the after-work crowd lands around 6 – get there by 5 for a bar seat. The Honest Caveat: there was a Midtown Benares on West 56th; it’s closed, so head to Tribeca, not uptown.
benaresnyc.com · See our Saturday happy hours
Saar Indian Bistro On now
The Theater District steal. Saar runs happy hour every day, 4 to 6:30pm, with prices that don’t exist anywhere else this close to Times Square: $4 beers (Taj Mahal, Kingfisher, Stella), $5 margaritas in six flavors, $8 bar bites like chilli paneer and masala fries. There’s a Michelin-starred chef (Hemant Mathur) behind the kitchen, which is faintly absurd at these numbers. The Local Move: this is your pre-Broadway move – eat and drink here, skip the $19 well drinks by the theaters. Worth it, full stop.
saarnyc.com · See our Saturday happy hours
Cloves Indian Cuisine On now
NoMad’s reliable after-work move. Cloves pours happy hour weekdays, 5 to 7pm, on Madison Avenue – discounted drinks and Northern Indian bites in a polished room that doesn’t feel like a bargain even though it is. Good for a low-key first drink before dinner, or a wind-down in a stretch of town where most bars charge a premium. The Local Move: the midday lunch special (11:30 to 3) is one of the better deals in NoMad if you’re around. The Honest Caveat: happy hour’s weekdays only – don’t roll in Saturday expecting it.
clovesindiannyc.com · See our best cocktail bars in NYC
aRoqa On now
The cocktail-forward pick. aRoqa’s ‘progressive Indian’ kitchen comes with a serious bar, and happy hour runs Tuesday through Thursday plus Sunday, 5 to 7pm, at the bar in their Chelsea room on Ninth Avenue – Mumbai-spiced margaritas and toddies, not watered-down well pours. The Honest Caveat: it’s bar-only and narrower than Saar’s or Benares’s spread, so come for the cocktails and the room more than rock-bottom prices. The Local Move: pair it with a Chelsea gallery crawl – it’s steps from the 23rd St C/E. Confirm the current pricing when you sit down.
aroqanyc.com · See our best cocktail bars in NYC
GupShup
The cocktail destination of the bunch. GupShup is a bi-level Gramercy room built on old-Bombay nostalgia – tiger mural, checkerboard floor – with one of the city’s best Indian cocktail programs and butter chicken wings worth ordering twice. The Honest Caveat: I couldn’t confirm a posted happy-hour discount window, so treat this as a bar, not a bargain – you’re here for the drinks and the room. The Local Move: the bar packs out Thursday through Saturday; on a weeknight you can walk in and grab a stool. Steps from Union Square.
gupshupnyc.com · See our best cocktail bars in NYC
Best Indian restaurants in NYC: FAQ
What is the best Indian restaurant in NYC?
Semma, in the West Village, is NYC’s only Michelin-starred Indian restaurant and topped The New York Times’ 2025 best-restaurants list. For something more casual, Adda (East Village) and Masalawala & Sons (Park Slope) are standouts. Semma’s reservations are notoriously hard – check Resy at 9am for same-day cancellations.
Which Indian restaurants in NYC have happy hour?
Benares (Tribeca) runs the longest, 3-7pm daily. Saar (Theater District) goes 4-6:30pm daily with $4 beers and $5 margaritas. Cloves (NoMad) does 5-7pm weekdays, and aRoqa (Chelsea) 5-7pm Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday at the bar.
Where is the best Indian food in Queens?
Jackson Heights is the heart of NYC’s South Asian food scene. Angel Indian Restaurant earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand there for North Indian, 100% halal cooking. Take the 7 train to 74th St-Roosevelt Ave and the whole neighborhood is yours.
What’s the best cheap Indian happy hour in NYC?
Saar Indian Bistro in the Theater District: $4 beers (Taj Mahal, Kingfisher, Stella), $5 margaritas in six flavors, and $8 bar bites, every day until 6:30pm – a steal for a block off Times Square.
Do I need a reservation for the best Indian restaurants in NYC?
For Semma, Dhamaka, Bungalow, and Kanyakumari, yes – book on Resy well ahead, and walk-ins have the best shot right at 5pm. The happy-hour spots (Benares, Saar, Cloves, GupShup) take walk-ins easily at the bar.
Last updated: June 2026. Deals and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
Passerine in Flatiron pairs Michelin-pedigree regional Indian with a rare Drawing Room happy hour.
