Goa Greatly Expands Indian Cuisine In New York’s Tribeca

By and large most Indian restaurants in America toe a line first established in England, where curry houses developed many standard dishes like mulligatawny soup, lamb vindaloo and rogan josh, which were then copied everywhere else in the West. Most were variations on dishes from Mughal traditions dominant in northeastern India. That culinary heritage persists in the U.S., though in New York more regional dishes have found their way onto the menus of modern Indian restaurants.

Certainly one of the most innovative is the four-month-old Goa in Tribeca, on the premises of a failed $15 million Japanese restaurant spread over two floors, with thirty-foot ceilings. Goa’s owner, Hemant Bhagwani, inherited a dramatic space and has added his own kind of dazzle in light and shadow, including a beautiful “Tree of Life” made of white birch, amaranth and silk set in the dining room’s center, and a churning origami-like ceiling sculpture called “The Dance of the Peacocks” by Ankon Mitra.

The second floor is reached by a gangway. The dominant wall, ceiling and table colors are dark, so the black outfits on the waitstaff could use some brightening to add contrast.

For reasons that escape me, Goa is suffused with loud music, little of the kind of sinuous Indian music that would have an evocative effect. Booming disco and techno are not what most people associate with India, or want to hear at this high decibel level.

Bhagwani, who helms the Amaya Group of Restaurants, has wide international experience, settling in Toronto in 2000, bringing innovative Indian cuisine to the city with 57 restaurants, including Goa Indian Farm Kitchen, Popa Burmese, Amaya Express, Bombay Frankie and others, but Goa New York is his first U.S. project.

Goa takes its name from the territory on the Arabian Sea colonized by the Dutch, who brought chili peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, and vinegar soon matched with the ingredients in the Goan kitchen. The sour, acidic addition of vinegar alone gave Goan food a special spark and flavor distinct from Mughal, Gujarat, Punjabi, Bengali and other cuisines.

This summer they’re serving Goan-style slaw ($19), a salad with 16 ingredients, green chili, salted starfruit and alu bukhara (dried plum) dressing that is a very spicy dish indeed but absolutely wonderful and a good perk to the appetite. Goan prawn curry ($39) has nice fat crustaceans in a fiery garlic and ginger marinade that are then simmered slowly with okra, coconut, kokum and dried mango. Tiger shrimps balchao ($19) is infused with a spicy, vinegary tomato and chili tamarind sauce that has a real tang, red radish, chili oil, and it comes on Japanese milk bread toast.

There is a section of bao and pho dishes, and one of the best is the unusual leg of lamb bao ($19) with roast mango, red cabbage and sriacha aïoli stuffed into a puffy bao bun. For a fried dish, go for the Mumbai-style rava fish fry ($21) served with pickled red cabbage, green chili chutney and coated with sooji (granulated wheat) that provides layers of textures and flavors.

A robata grill is put to excellent use in dishes like the lamb chops ($42) that have become a staple in all of Bhagwani’s restaurants for good reason: The chops are grilled over charcoal, seared and still pink, suffused with a mint fenugreek sauce and crisp chickpea boondi. Beef short ribs ($29) come in a hot vindaloo style with truffled yogurt and cashew nuts.

Fried rice ($23) is flecked with chorizo, shrimp and eggs slowly cooked to absorb all the fat and spices.

Of course, there are those marvelous Indian breads that would vie for any others in the world. We loved both the naan slathered with garlic butter ($6) and the out-of-the-ordinary red chili naan with garlic and coriander ($7).

Desserts at Indian restaurants are often by rote, but at Goa you are offered much more, like the pastel de nata with tokaji sweet wine ($19) that is a Portuguese dessert, and the hot, crisp, sugared jalebi churros with sherry wine and pistachio kulfi ($10).

The wine and beer lists are above average for any Indian restaurant.

In every dish Goa shows Indian cuisine as refined, very colorful and never an amalgam of the same dishes everywhere else. As a dining venue Goa goes well beyond any I’ve ever seen and for Bhagwani to bring such regional verve and innovation to New York sets a precedent others must assuredly follow.

Goa

78 Leonard Street

646-490-4372

Dinner is served Tuesday through Sunday.