Reservations are now live for a major Indian fine dining contender opening in New York this May. Chicago’s Michelin-starred Indienne debuts Thursday, May 28, at 515 West 38th Street and 10th Avenue, in Hudson Yards. It’s the first of three spots from chef Sujan Sarkar that will open inside the luxury residential building Henry Hall. British Indian chophouse Elder and cocktail bar Apas are expected later this year.
Sarkar joins a wave of out-of-town arrivals: Houston’s Musaafer and London’s Ambassadors Clubhouse, for example. They’ve joined a roster of exciting Indian restaurants, including Vikas Khanna’s Bungalow, Salil Mehta’s Kebab aur Sharab Uptown, and Unapologetic Foods‘ expanding empire, whose Semma, like Indienne, earned a Michelin star.
Sarkar has spent his career making the case that Indian cuisine belongs in the global fine dining conversation. Indienne opened in Chicago’s River North in 2022 and earned its Michelin star within the first year — and remains the only starred Indian restaurant in the city.
“I want to be a true representation of Indian food in America, which can be on par with the top restaurants in the city and the country — and in the world,” he says.
After more than two decades in kitchens, including 12 years in modern European and French cooking before pivoting to Indian cuisine, Sarkar sees Indienne as the culmination of that arc: “After 22 years in my career, I thought this could be a good time to open my restaurant.”
Mapa Mueller designed the 34-seat space as a series of rooms, from a golden ochre entry foyer, a lighter front dining room, to a main room wrapped in burgundy leather with hand-blown glass chandeliers. Holi-inspired paintings by Chicago artist Ken Andjulis connect the locations. Sarkar inherited the space from Legacy Records and transformed it in under a year.
The restaurant offers three nine-course tasting menus: one that includes meats and fish ($195), vegetarian, and vegan ($175). The approach reflects Sarkar’s broader mission to reframe how Indian food is perceived. “We always try to change the perception about what people think about Indian food,” he says. “It is not only Indian cuisine, but it is the cuisines of India, because there are so many micro cuisines.”
The menu moves from chaat-inspired openers to more composed dishes. The May offerings start with chickpea dhokla with mint and mustard, as well as oyster with pani puri, passionfruit, and cucumber; then it segues to a scallop dish with ramp, corn raab, and caviar, as well as lamb shammi kebab with jicama.
For drinks, kitchen byproducts are repurposed into cocktails: a white Negroni of vetiver, gin, bitter bianco, and yuzu, or a milk punch with mango, rum, saffron, yogurt, and cardamom, for example. Wine director Chris Farrell (formerly of Chicago’s RPM Restaurants) built the list around small-production, minimal-intervention producers, with pairings around $125.
