Bungalow

Vikas Khanna stuffs a kulcha with five cheeses at Bungalow, Amul among them, which is the cheese a South Asian diner grew up on.1 3

Why go

Priya Krishna made it a Critic's Pick for the Times off three visits and measured the queue against the hardest tables in the city: she could have booked Lilia, Carbone or Torrisi within weeks, and Bungalow had nothing.3 The cooking is regional Indian taken apart and put back together. Khanna's galouti kebab, a Lucknow patty normally made of mutton, is mashed kidney beans stuffed between two slices of fried lotus root over walnut-radish raita. His ghee roast, usually meat cooked down in fat, is built on plantains, and the peels become a tangy ketchup.3 The MICHELIN Guide gives the room a Bib Gourmand, its mark for cooking worth more than it costs, and says the kitchen draws on the traditions of India's 28 states.1 Beard made Khanna a semifinalist for Best Chef: New York State in 2026.4

Order this / avoid

Order: the yogurt kebabs, strained yogurt wrapped in kataifi and deep-fried, which Khanna likens to frying ice cream in dough. They come with a pickled cabbage puree and a spicy mango coulis.3 1
Order: Ammi's lamb chops, cut with sour mango powder, and the cream roll: a cone of puff pastry filled with Goan shrimp balchao stewed in coconut vinegar and tamarind, with a fried curry leaf on top.3
Avoid: the chicken amrit and the molten chocolate cake. Krishna found the chicken both overly rich and a little watery and the cake too boring for the restaurant's level of ambition.3
Avoid: rolling up on a Saturday night and hoping. Book it, or join the line early.1

What locals & experts say

Priya Krishna, The New York Times, 20 August 2024: This is a restaurant by South Asians, for South Asians, and if others want to join in, they're welcome, too.3
The same review, on the chef: Khanna has hosted seven seasons of MasterChef India, and His cooking is wildly interesting. She also names the risk: if his television work keeps him away, the room loses the thing that runs it.3
The MICHELIN Guide's inspector, on getting in: the room is always bustling and securing a reservation may be difficult, with diners eagerly lining up early to snag a walk-in spot.1

Good to know

Drinks: the cocktails run on Indian standard time, in Krishna's phrase: on each of her visits they arrived after she was already a few courses in. The guide names a turmeric-infused tequila and a chili-infused mezcal.3 1
Who owns it: Khanna with the restaurateur Jimmy Rizvi and two other partners.3
The room: down a flight of stairs, below street level, with peacocks Khanna commissioned from his sister.5

Verdict

should-visit — Vikas Khanna rebuilds a Lucknow galouti kebab out of mashed kidney beans between two slices of fried lotus root, over walnut-radish raita. Priya Krishna made it a Times Critic's Pick and could not get a table when Carbone had one free. It holds a Bib Gourmand, the guide marks it Family Friendly, and the cocktails arrive late.

Bungalow.