There is the endless debate about authentic vs modified/fusion dishes when going to restaurants. And many tend to be more interested in “authentic” dishes but for us that is often something to make at home and we like to go to restaurants for a chef’s interpretation of a dish (and the more creative the better).
Chef Sujan Sarkar is trying to do it for Indian cuisine. He is involved in a number of restaurants in a number of cities with ROOH https://www.roohrestaurants.com/palo-alto having two locations in the Bay Area. We recently visited the restaurant in Palo Alto and really enjoyed this modern interpretation of Indian cuisine which is clearly rooted in Indian dishes but isn’t afraid to incorporate “foreign” components or ingredients.
For those in the EBay, the Rooh group has also opened Pippal in the Bay St. Mall in Emeryville. It is their casual, regional Indian cuisine, and very good.
We always had very good meals from Rooh. Had a few takeout meals during Covid, all very good. For some reasons forgot about them after the pandemic. Time to revisit.
Palo Alto and Los Altos are blessed with having three progressive Indian, Cal-Indian restaurants in Rooh, Ettan and Aurum. I know they all have distinct styles but they all shine in their own unique ways.
I have often ended up there with larger groups when most popular restaurants are booked. For some reason Rooh is rarely fully booked, even at the last minute, even for larger parties. I believe my last trip included my extended family, and my sister is 100% veg and was able to have a great meal there.
We were surprised how fully booked ROOH was on a weekend. It was also good and bad to see that it seemed that many families were there (which we always like so that kids have the opportunity to eat all kind of foods) but also way too many kids who clearly weren’t often in a restaurant before and don’t know how to behave and the parents didn’t seem to care (which led to relatively loud night with kids screaming around)
Interesting. I hadn’t noticed kids there much before, certainly not enough to interrupt the dining experience. The room is always a large number of 1st / 2nd generation indians appearing to be of the tech community, and certainly they are especially family focused. I’ve noticed groups like that at Ettan, but usually outdoors, and there’s more latitude (not great latitude, but a little extra noise is less bothersome). I wonder if that’ll be a new thing there, or if you just happened to hit a night or table with more kids nearby.
