Dhamaka
Three years later, it’s still the best paneer in New York.
In 2021, Dhamaka opened at Essex Market, and at the time of their opening, owner Roni Mazumdar said in an interview, “Dhamaka is our way of showing New Yorkers parts of India they might not have seen.” Mazumdar, along with his restaurant partner Chef Chintan Pandya, mentioned the ever-present butter chicken on Indian restaurant menus in the U.S. as their inspiration to serve anything else… and IMO, the Indian dining scene in New York has never been the same.
A few months later, Viraj and I visited New York over the summer, when actually moving to New York seemed like such a distant dream. I arrived in New York by myself a week early, and I felt so grown up taking the subway to the office of the New York company I was interning at. (Oh, how time flies!) But most importantly, ahead of our big New York City trip, Viraj and I made a list of restaurants we wanted to go to, and Dhamaka was at the top of the list.
There are some wonderful Indian restaurants that I frequented in California: Zareen’s is one of my family’s favorites, and at the time, Ettan had just opened right before the pandemic, filling the lack of upscale Indian restaurants in my hometown. But, it wasn’t until I ate at Dhamaka that I was able to experience a little more of the breadth of Indian cuisine and how much more potential the foods I was familiar with had.
The most memorable dish Viraj and I ate during that initial Dhamaka visit was the paneer tikka, a marinated and roasted paneer seasoned with carom seeds, garlic and ginger. Dhamaka’s paneer is definitely the best paneer I’ve ever eaten and perhaps the best single dish I’ve had in New York. Others clearly agree—the dish has remained on Dhamaka’s menu even after most of it was changed in April 2023. (Pandya said in an interview, “Someone would shoot us if we took these out.” He’s probably right.) Honestly, it’s so good that I’ve always assumed that I already wrote about Dhamaka… but I haven’t. So, this is a very overdue write-up.
I wrote in a previous newsletter that I didn’t like paneer until Dhamaka’s, and ever since, I’ve continued to enjoy many inferior paneers, hoping to one day find one similar to Dhamaka’s again. What makes it special? Their paneer is soft and incredibly fluffy on the inside, kind of in the way that French scrambled eggs are, yet also solid. It’s a texture of cheese that I’ve found to be unique, and as far as I know, Dhamaka’s paneer is the best, most faithful execution of it in the U.S. (That’s according to Viraj, who is familiar with paneer in India.)
Three years later, I still remember the feeling of biting into a piece of their paneer for the very first time. And even more so, I will never forget Viraj’s joy at his first bite—I’ve said this a million times before, but while time travel and teleportation may not be possible, food may be the closest we’ll get. Isn't it funny how many memories the right bite can contain?
Three years later, I’ve also graduated and moved to New York, where I've been able to keep up with the impact Dhamaka has had in the Indian food space. So many great Indian restaurants have opened since, each offering a unique POV on Indian dining—Jazba, Kebab aur Sharab and Kanyakumari, to name a few and not including Dhamaka’s restaurant group’s other restaurants.
We’ve also been back to Dhamaka, first in 2023 and then back again two weeks ago. During my most recent visit, I was really struck by just how good everything was. When I ate there for the first time, other than the paneer, everything we ordered was brand new to me, like the paplet fry and lasooni prawns. It was all great, but there wasn’t anything to compare it to. Funny, because I didn’t feel completely unfamiliar with the cuisine thanks to the aforementioned California restaurants. But I guess that’s the whole point of Dhamaka.
Now, with many more Indian restaurants under my belt, returning to Dhamaka was a completely different experience, one where I felt like I understood what I was eating, and that I was eating the most exceptional execution of it. With more confidence than ever, I can say that Dhamaka is really fucking good. Apart from the paneer tikka, which is absolutely a must, my favorites are the champaran meat, a mutton curry cooked in a sealed clay pot with a whole head of garlic mixed in tableside, and the nalli biryani, lamb shank and rice, also cooked in a sealed clay pot. The heat of both of the dishes is unapologetic, but so is the flavor, and I’ve learned from lots and lots of dining that a restaurant that doesn’t compromise in either direction is rare.
Maybe Dhamaka’s food has really gotten better with time, to the point that it’s downright addictive. More likely though, by chasing after all of the Indian restaurants in New York, I’ve unintentionally given myself the beginnings of an education on Indian cuisine. And then I went back to the restaurant that started it all for me, that showed me the true potential of paneer, and it turns out that it remains the best of the best.
I’m absolutely guilty of chasing after the shiny new thing, the restaurant of the moment, but this was a nice reminder to return to old favorites… you might just learn something new…
Bite it!
Now that the initial hype of Dhamaka has died down, it’s considerably easier to book a reservation. Lucky you!
i'm in the food desert known as palm springs/coachella valley and my mouth is literally salivating just reading about this indian food. you may never be able to live in another place after nyc.