RWC is moving from good to great with the addition of this new spot. Spot is on Broadway next to Philz where Dragon Theater used to be. https://www.varamrestaurant.com/menu
TL;DR - excellent menu, well executed, casual and fun at a fairly high price
I think I saw it written up at least one place recently. It has a fast casual vibe, but prices are more like mid-peninsula normal (small plates $17 to $23, but entrees the same range with one outlier).
Place is a little loud indoors. High ceilings, no attempt at sound abatement, fairly loud music playing. Would probably profit from at least a bit of moderate sound damping, but it’s also clear the owners want a boisterous vibe. We sat outdoors - which I think is the move. Lots of propane heaters, good street scene on a Friday. There was some kind of busking performance at the corner that did make it a little too boisterous, especially with restaurant-supplied music coming over an outdoor speaker.
The menu leans heavily veg, but not entirely. We stuck to the “small plates”. 4 plates for two hungry people was more than enough - 3 would have probably done it. However the menu was interesting enough we had trouble picking.
Bombay Beet Sliders - I’m usually allergic to slider retreads, but these were good. They’re in the family of pav baji, but the use of beet deep fried (baji style) gave a juicy filling bite. Rolls were fresh and whatever spice was well balanced.
Street Style Chilli Paneer - interesting dish because it uses the “indo chinese” (desi chinese) gravy, which is fairly simple. Pairing with the cheese worked great, the cheese was either unusually dry for a paneer, or slightly pressed / fried, in a good way. Successful dish although I doubt I’d order again.
“signature of varam - Haleem”. This was so interesting it demanded its own section on the menu. It was essentially a mush, rather like Saag, but all mush, not just a gravy, apparently (according to the menu) including some meat. I found it fascinating, but wished I had ordered a bread ~ we didn’t order any breads or rice, as most dishes weren’t gravy heavy so didn’t seem to want anything.
Chicken 65 Bezule - I have no idea what a “bezule” is, but I’ve eaten so much chicken 65 that it’s a great benchmark for me. Excellent execution. There are two fundamenal theories of chicken 65, one is “fried” and one I’ll call “wet”, where you cook the chicken somehow then add the sauce (or more sauce). Fried is more common, and good because, yknow, fried, but in reality the spices take a back seat because they get lost in the fry process. While there could be hybrids in each camp (spice, then bread, then fry; fry, then add wet sauce which would destroy the frying? or dust post fry?), I haven’t seen much innovation in those areas. Varam is in the “wet” camp, which I greatly agree with. My dining partner said “best since sneha”, which was a famed tech hangout (actual techies not the bros) from the 80’s to I think around '15 when they closed?). Sneha won my review of all the chicken 65 in the south bay which I wrote for the Metro in probably about '13, now vanished from their website. Sneha’s had a really unfortunate texture - I have no idea how they cooked the chicken - but the value of the “wet approach” came through as the complexity of the spice mixture sang. Varam’s wet implementation had a similar awesome mix of yoghurt and n+1 spices, with moderately cooked chicken chunks. Large quantity for the price, too - it was a good choice of that as the only meat for 2 people.
When I looked around at the surrounding tables, I saw very little reptition in dishes. One table had the biryani, which was done in a style I hadn’t seen (porcelin bowl with breading on top, which I do think is Dum Biryana, I just haven’t seen the Dum delivered to the table?). I asked the server what the popular dishes were, and he basically repeated the ones I’d ordered, which I took as positive reinforcement of my experience than actual truth.
Service was charmingly indian. We were seated almost instantly (arriving 8:30p, restaurant close time listed as 10p). Main room was pretty full (maybe one table?), outside had two tables, likely caused by the loud street performers. We were placed in a bit of a corner, and the fellow had trouble getting to us. The person bussing had to make their way through the people, and used a cart which certainly was more efficient but was a certain bustle of getting the patrons out of the way. My beer was mislaid, another (indian) table ordered first, I had to go fetch menus myself because I knew we’d need time deciding. The food came pretty close together in time, but each was delivered fresh. There was a certain amount of checking on us as tables emptied out a bit, and apologies for the late arrival of my beverage and my scrounging for menus were profuse in that charming indian way.
Alcohol is not the strong point, but available. No full bar, short and uninspired wine and beer list. I had an indian beer in a bottle, it was “fine” and complemented the food well. The menu section for alcohol states they have “Beer’s”. another charming hopefully unintentional touch.
Most of the other diners were that same category you see at Zareen down the street - local indian tech people of various ages, from kids in their 20’s probably raised on street food, older. A few non-indians such as myself, in the minority.
I propose looking at the menu - link at top - because you see a solid number of dishes that should be very good. The menu is a bit “all over the place”, regionally through the south, with coastal coconut dishes, central grill dishes, and APPAM. I only personally know one other purveyor of Appam - AappaKadi in sunnyvale / dublin - but there must be more - the tangy sweet is super addictive. What I tasted was a good hand in complex mixtures, and that basic strength should play well given the large different types of dishes.
Comparing to the competition? RWC previously had Broadway Masala and Zareen’s. Zareen’s needs no introduction, the tastes are bold and complex but the menu is more limited (and prices are lower). Also the fast casual vibe is a little more fast and casual. Broadway Masala I haven’t visited in years - it was a fairly standard but slightly above-grade northern indian menu as I remember, full bar, more like Saffron up-peninsula (which I consider “fine” but not exceptional). A more interesting comparison is Rooh and Ettan, both in the non-fast-casual mode. The execution of dishes is more like Rooh, with deep fascinating spice and texture combinations, but with a much broader menu (MUCH). Ettan is more in its own universe with ligher and fresher offerings (I can’t resist the papad and chutney sampler there) - both also have full bars.
