The rise of upscale Indian restaurants in the U.S.

Executive chef Vikas Khanna has covered hundreds of thousands of dinner in the last 20 years – and saw how much Indian cuisine has developed in the USA.

Khanna, a world-renowned Indian restaurant, created the senior Indian restaurant in New York to push Junoon to pushing deeper into sophisticated Indian dishes more than a decade ago, and ultimately won a Michelin star for the restaurant-one of the first Indian restaurants to win.

As an immigrant in the United States after September 11, Khanna said that his bosses hesitated to branch deeper and try with a large canvas of Indian cuisine at the beginning of his career. Instead, he stuck to what he knew they were working for the American palette: stereotyped menus and flavors such as Butter Chicken and Tikka Masala.

However, when the American chef Anthony Bourdain visited Junoon for the first time, Khanna said that he got the call of waking his career.

Khanna told CNBC, “I don’t understand why you want to camouflage your food to please the Western world.” And this was the basis of the bungalow in many ways. “

Khanna’s next and extremely popular attempt in New York Bungalow is one of the increasing number of Indian luxury and thin food restaurants in the United States, once packaging menus and kiosks, and turned into a business segment aiming to compete with Khanna, Italian and French kitchens and aims to meet the growing interest.

According to Khanna’s business partner Jimmy Rizvi, restaurant reservations are sold live in 30 to 90 seconds, and night waiting lists have more than 1000 people on average. Rizvi said that the restaurant was opened less than two years ago, but served 300 to 400 dinner every night and there were the top 10 restaurants in New York on Rizvi’s booking platform.

“I think there is definitely an increasing information base, there’s more awareness about Indian food.” He said. “And there are different kitchens in Indian cuisine that people are aware of.”

Khanna, who has been on the American restaurant scene for more than twenty years, said that he saw all the landscape shifts from “cheap food and curry houses to sophisticated seating organizations.

Circana FoodService Analyst David Portalatin, CNBC, just a pandemic appetite for a food experience beyond food, told CNBC for the last few years.

Despite macroeconomic pressure Portalate, a withdrawal in inflation and consumer expenditures, said that customer visits to beautiful food restaurants increased by 5% annually in July.

And while looking for the American interest in global kitchens, the Indian American population reflected this growth. Accordingly Pew Research CenterThe population of India in the United States increased by about 3.1 million and has increased by 174% since 2000.

According to Pew, this population also saw an increase in welfare, and in 2023, more than 151,000 dollars of high median household revenues.

When the reservations in Indian restaurants begin to sell even faster, investors want to protect a seat at the table.

Only this month, Dishoom, a popular UK restaurant chain, won private capital support next year while preparing the US to scaling.

Supported by L Catterton Lvmh announced that he had received a minority share for an unnamed amount in Dishoom and pointed to the first foreign investment of the restaurant group. The company adds Dishoom to the increase in growing restaurant investments, including Japanese Kobe cattle chain Kisshokichi and Spanish daily food brand Goiko.

New agreement reported It values ​​the restaurant about 400 million dollars. L Catterton and Dishoom did not respond to CNBC’s comments.

Roni Mazumdar said that James Beard award -winning Indian restaurant Semma has seen a direct increase in investor interest for the last few years of luxury Indian restaurants exploded.

UNAPOLOGY FOOD, which is behind many popular New York restaurants, including Mazumdar, Semma, Dhamaka, Adda and more, makes a “continuous conversations” with foreign investors, but even these talks indicate an important change when the group restaurants first entered the restaurant scene.

Mazumdar, “Nobody sees Indian cuisine as a suitable option so far.” He said. He continued: “Oh, look at it five years ago, it could be an interesting business model.”

Mazumdar, more investors realized that the landscape “rapidly changed”, he said.

“I wouldn’t call it trend,” he added. “To take one of the oldest cuisines in the world – I think it’s inevitable. This is a matter of time.”

Indian restaurant American Association described hyper-regional delicacies as one of the best 2025 Indian Restaurant Trends The chefs enter hundreds of local kitchens pointing to the sub -continent.

Each of the Mazumdar and Unapologist Foods Chief Chintan Pandya emphasizes regional cuisine rather than typical northwest Indian menus, including decades of Semma.

“I think we see a very interesting model that a community has a sense of curiosity to find out what is about food lens.” He said. “And I don’t think that’s the case 20 years ago.”

For example, Semma ranked number 1 in the New York Times in 2025 Best Restaurants ListHe is investigating the cuisine of Southern India, especially Tamil Nadu.

“One of the glorious reasons why Semma does something crazy or breaking out is the touches of the nerve of Indian food cooked in India.” He said. “This is the whole belief, standard or vision of our company, where we will touch and cook the real Indian dishes that we love to eat ourselves.”

Avtar Walia, the owner of Tamarind in Tribeca, has been on the American restaurant scene for decades. When he first emigrated to America in the 70s, he could not understand why Indian restaurants were not at the same level as Italian and French restaurants.

By adding more regional dishes and classic Indian Street dishes, Walia said that Indian restaurants from typical buffets to stylish, elegant dishes – including their own restaurants – said.

Walia, “I have been following the same pattern from the last 47 years. Every month, month, one and a half, lunch, I change the menemia.” He said. “We take one of the regions … So people can try different dishes, authentic dishes, and they don’t have to go anywhere else. And this worked very well for me.”

Walia estimated that approximately 95% of its customer was regular and that its restaurant has become a basis for Wall Street business meetings.

And for Khanna in the bungalow, the lines outside the restaurant continue to only last long.

Rattan chairs, India’s billionaire Ambani family and Bollywood stars, as well as famous Indian celebrities such as American Bigwigs sat Amazon The founder Jeff Bezos, who visited the restaurant last year,.

“When he comes, I know why every Indian in Seattle is on the phones at 8 o’clock to wear a reservation, because for them not just visit a restaurant – a pilgrimage back to this house.” He said. “And that really stayed with me.”