Spices and seasonings have complexity in all the dishes at aRqua
The Indian restaurant aRoqa opened in 2017. What have I been missing?
For one thing, a scintillating array of unusual dishes that depart from the over-sauced stew-like items in so many Indian-American restaurants. Second, a handsome, well-lighted bar doing an array of cocktails based on Indian spices, and third, the story of owner Monica Saxena, who was born in Lucknow, grew up to be a Senior Program Manager of semiconductor chip programs in Los Angeles, and somehow found her true calling at aRoqa in Chelsea, which is bereft of good Indian restaurants.
A roka ceremony is where friends and family come together to enjoy the engagement of a couple and celebrate by sharing a meal. It’s a fairly small place, with seating for 45 in the shadowy dining room, 14 at the bar and, when open, 14 outside. The overriding colors are black and gold, but lighting is deftly appointed to create a chiaroscuro effect and tables lights complete the casual, warm ambiance. Music plays very faintly in the background, so conversation is quite easy.
The bar dominates the front room with a glamorous lighting.
Beverage Director Prasad Pawar is up to some tricks he plays with cocktails spewing dry ice clouds in drinks with names like “Marigold and Smoke,” made with vodka infused with saffron and vanilla, fresh turmeric cordial, ginger juice, and habanero tincture.
Executive Chef Munny Passi comes from a family of restaurateurs in India, working with his father to learn the cuisine. After stints in restaurants in London, he came to New York to become chef at aRoqa. He quite obviously shares Saxena’s intention to showcase distinct from the usual clichés of Indian cuisine in New York (though the city now has an increasing array of exciting Indian restaurants beyond the enclaves of Queens).
Paddu patty (a favorite breakfast item in Indian) made from corn and rice
Put yourself in their hands and you will be brought starters like
Punjabi-style goat keema matar ($26), a ground meat dish including the identifying matapeas and various other spices. These variations distinguish aRoqa from the usual dishes all with much the same spice mix.
Whole, softened baby eggplant tingles with five spices and is made creamy with a little yogurt ($18), while lasuni gobi —“garlicky cauliflower” — is another delectable vegetable dish of Graham flour battered cauliflower in a heady garlic sauce and sprinkled with onion seeds ($16). Indeed, vegetarians will swoon at the variety here, like a paddu patty (a favorite breakfast item in Indian) made from corn and rice with a sweet-sour coconut and kaffir lime chutney ($17). A platter of mixed vegetables includes sweet potato cutlets ($8). There is much to applaud by Passi’s careful cooking of okra in a blended tomato sauce with a touch of pomegranate ($22) that proves okra had its own vegetal flavor and need not be in the least slimy in texture. There is, of course, a Punjabi dal makhana ($23) of long simmered kidney beans and lentils.
Salmon and seafood are expertly cooked to retain succulence.
Pakistani-style chicken kofta nihari is a hearty dish of soft poultry dumplings in a flavorful bone broth sauce ($28), and if you crave real heat in your Indian food, go for the habanero aïoli-spiked chicken tikka cooked in the blast of the tandoor oven ($18). There are always lamb chops in Indian restaurants, but aRoqua’s are exceptionally juicy and aromatic with spices and mint chutney, topped with a fried onion ring ($25).
Indian cooks sometimes leave their seafood too long on the fire, but aRoqa’s are done to the perfect point of tenderness, like the dry pepper prawns from Southern India tempered in curry leaves with a side of onion relish ($21), as well as the fish tikka marinated in carrm seeds and served with sweet asparagus and mint chutney ($21).
Whimsy is part of aRoqa NYC’s presentation of its food.
The breads here are outstanding examples of how careful tending brings out the yeastiness, the charred puffiness and the smoky smell of naan ($6); when they are stuffed like paneer aur hari mirchi kulcha, stuffed with Indian Amul cheese and green chilies, they are as good as any stuffed breads on earth ($9), and you should definitely opt for the bread basket of garlic naan, another naan that oozes butter, paneer kulcha; and onion kulcha ($24).
Desserts (all $15) should be of interest, especially the souffle-like daulat ki chaat (“wealthy mixture”) made from saffron milk foam, baba au rhum and blackberries, and the coconut kheer with mango sorbet and the unusual jaggery sugar emulsion and almond flakes. Rasmali was a pretty standard rendering.
Whatever god—probably the plump gourmand elephant Ganesh—drew Saxena away from the semiconductor business and Passi to New York should be thanked for giving New York such an exceptionally restaurant that is so persuasive of India’s gastronomic diversity and dimensions delivered with such an admirable sense of Asian hospitality.
aROQA
206 Ninth Avenue
646-678-5741
Open for lunch Mon.-Wed and Fri.; Dinner nightly; brunch Sun.
