NYCReview
photo credit: Will Ellis
Dhamaka
Included In
Can one of the most memorable meals of your year possibly take place in a food hall? Who’s to say that goat kidneys can’t garner mainstream fangirl-ing on the Lower East Side? Or that a whole yogurt-marinated rabbit inspired by a Rajasthani hunting dish won’t be booked by a party a month before dinner? These are the questions that eating at Dhamaka triggers, and then, maybe a day or so after your meal, implicitly answers. A lot of New York restaurants serve exciting food, but few hack away at what you know to be true about Manhattan’s dining scene. That’s the phenomenon of Dhamaka, an Indian restaurant that says, “I’ll see your butter chicken and raise you one goat testicle.”
This spot in Essex Market is from the team behind some of our other favorite Indian restaurants in the city, Adda in Long Island City and Semma in Greenwich Village. The menu pieces together regional specialties from all over India, and, in one meal, you could very well try dishes associated with four or five different areas of the country. Some of them will be virtually impossible to find elsewhere in New York City, let alone in many other American cities — and that’s kind of the whole point. Dhamaka’s website claims, “This is the other side of India, the forgotten side of India.” You won’t see the predominantly-Northern dishes you may be used to ordering at your neighborhood Indian restaurant on the menu here. You won’t miss them, either.
photo credit: Paul McDonough
One of the things that makes Dhamaka so special is the cumulative effect of zig-zagging from bright, chutney-kissed seafood to garam masala-heavy stews and tandoori meats. Start with chaat that’s popular in Maharashtra, then move onto Goan-influenced grilled tiger prawns and fried pomfret. Next, split a goat belly seekh kebab and a bath of paneer methi from the North, and round things out with a subtly-sweet, baked chenna poda from Odisha in the East. If you’re with a big group, get your table committed to tender goat kidneys and testicles served in a fragrant onion and tomato gravy alongside ghee-shimmering pao. You’ll want to ping pong between all of these things and then take a couple minutes to spill your secrets to the crunchy whole paplet dusted in cumin, too.
But, wait, there’s more. To skip out on Dhamaka’s family-style claypots and rice dishes would be like taking the time to train a dog only to realize it’s actually a hamster: you’ve come so far only to miss something pivotal. We especially love the soft blocks of housemade paneer in a creamy cashew-fenugreek bath, as well as the murgh kofta — a baseball-sized hunk of ground chicken with a hardboiled egg hiding in the center. Cutting into the rich eggy interior might make you feel temporarily responsible for reuniting mother and child. If that tickles you, wonderful. If not, just eat it and forget we said anything.
photo credit: Will Ellis
Dhamaka — along with other impressive food hall restaurants like Kelewele in DeKalb Market and Peoples Wine Bar on the basement level of Essex Market — proves that you can in fact have an incredible meal in a space next to a closed florist stall where a security guard is playing games on their phone. It’s also worth mentioning that a meal at Dhamaka will cost you considerably more money than you’ve ever spent in a food hall — or even on a regular old Wednesday night. (In our experiences, meals here have totaled roughly $100 per person, including tip and drinks). Treat dinner like a feast, rather than a casual catch-up meal with a friend, and be aware that there’s nothing too sexy or intimate about Dhamaka’s jumbo, color-blocked dining room. You should bring people here for beautifully-cooked goat and paneer, not to be dazzled by the space.
New York has plenty of restaurants serving regional Indian food. You can eat Southern-style dosas and rasa vada at Ganesh Temple Canteen in Flushing, vegetarian Gujarati thalis at Vatan in Kips Bay, Chinese and Nepalese-influenced noodles at Delhi Heights in Jackson Heights. But few NYC restaurants make such an obvious effort to take on India’s unfathomably wide array of specialties like Dhamaka does. And even fewer do it with a packed dining room every night of the week. Here’s to hoping there are more to come.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Paul McDonough
Beguni
photo credit: Paul McDonough
Paplet Fry
photo credit: Paul McDonough
Gurda Kapoora
photo credit: Adam Friedlander
Doh Kleh
photo credit: Dane Isaac
Bharela Marcha
Goat Belly Seekh
photo credit: Dane Isaac
Tabak Maaz
photo credit: Hannah Albertine
Paneer Methi
photo credit: Adam Friedlander
Murgh Kofta
Pressure Cooker Chicken Pulao
photo credit: Hannah Albertine