The Team That’s Redefining Indian Cuisine
If you’re hip to the Manhattan food scene, you have probably heard of one of Unapolagtic Foods Indian restaurants. The group currently has four restaurants, and two fast-casual spots, each highlighting a different, yet equally exceptional, Indian cuisine.
Now closed, though planning on reopening in a new location, Masalawala was Roni Mazumdar’s first establishment. The restaurant opened in 2011, on the lower east side, and served high-quality Indian street food to happy customers for a decade before its closing. Now much busier, with other restaurant ventures and high regard in the food world, restauranteur, and unapologetic foods founder Roni, will be opening a reimagined version of Masalwala in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with the rest of his team. The opening date has yet to be released.
Unapologetic foods seek to challenge diner’s conventional assumptions about traditional Indian food. Adda was the next opening for Roni and business partner Chef Chintan Pandya. Still alive and thriving today, Adda opened in Long Island City in September of 2018. It was an instant success: ranked in New York Magazines’ top 10 new restaurants of the year, a semi-finalist for The James Beard Foundation’s Best new restaurant in America in 2019, and dozens of other high praise awards.
The success didn’t stop here for Unapologetic foods. In 2021, they opened two new restaurants in Manhattan. Dhamaka, on the lower east side, celebrates provincial Indian cuisine. The restaurant advertises its food as being “the other side of India, the forgotten side of India.” At this moment, it’s booked out until August 20th, exhibiting the smashing success that’s become charataristc of unapolagetic food’s restaurant openings. Across the island, in the west village, Semma came onto the scene serving southern Indian cuisine. The venue is hip and fun, with excellent service, and come-as-you-are energy that is refreshing to the traditional upscale dining attitude.