We've been writing about Babu Ji, the new restaurant coming to 175 Avenue B at East 11th Street.
The wife-husband team of Jennifer and Jessi Singh, who own a popular spot in Melbourne, Australia, are opening their first U.S. restaurant tonight.
Here is some info that the restaurant's reps sent us via the EVG inbox...
Babu Ji … offers a bright and airy atmosphere, adorned with Hindi proverbs, eclectic Indian photography and Bollywood films projected on the walls. The restaurant will be open for dinner six nights a week (5 PM - late; closed Mondays), as well as for lunch on weekends (11 AM - late), serving the inspired and unexpected dishes that have earned Jessi an avid following in Australia.
Incorporating outstanding, fresh ingredients, including aromatic herbs, chickpeas, scallops, yogurt, pork belly and goat, sourced from local farmers markets and specialty purveyors, Jessi's menu at Babu Ji NYC will showcase his motherland's cuisine through thoughtfully prepared, aromatic and colorful dishes.
Some highlights from the new restaurant’s menu include:
• Papadi Chaat: a lively Indian dish similar to nachos, topped with chickpea, cucumber, tamarind, mint and yoghurt chutney, and pomegranate seeds
• Gol Gappa: a favorite Indian street snack enjoyed by millions in India every day, but unknown to most Americans, this dish it is a tangy, spicy, sweet and surprising favorite
• Yoghurt Kebab: a house-made hung yoghurt croquette with spiced center, served with a vibrant beetroot ginger sauce boasting the flavors of the Middle East that have influenced Indian culinary tradition
• Scallop Coconut Curry: Blue Moon of Eastern Long Island scallops served raw in a coconut milk based curry with turmeric and mustard seed – a must-try
• Kulfi: a refreshing and delicious dessert, this Indian equivalent to ice cream is house-made from milk, cardamom, pistachio and honey
• Chef’s Table: Eat like a real Babu Ji! Chef’s selection of entrees, curries, naan, rice & kulfi.
Diners can enjoy their food with an extensive and rotating selection of local and imported craft beers from the help yourself beer fridge, an approachable yet interesting wine list and some Australian beverages that have not yet made it state side, as a nod to Babu Ji's beginnings.
Updated 6:54 p.m.
Here's the menu via Gothamist…
Previously on EV Grieve:
More about Babu Ji, opening next month on Avenue B
SERIOUSLY----$5.00 for white rice :(
ReplyDelete"NO SPLIT BILLS :: BYO WINE ONLY $10 PER BOTTLE :: 10% SURCHARGE PUBLIC HOLIDAYS" - WTF? Nothing like astronomical prices and unfriendly, authoritarian warnings on the bottom of the menu to make me want to rush right over. I was looking forward to trying this, but not any more. No accommodating patrons by splitting bills? 10 bucks to open a bottle of wine because *they* don't have a liquor license? 10% extra on public holidays? - yeah, those are all real non-starters for me. Good luck, guys, you're gonna need it.
ReplyDeleteI tried searching for a menu online, no avail. Can previous posters link me to the place where you got this information?
ReplyDeleteYou have to understand that people like this think that the East Village is the best it's ever been. It's a wonderful renniasance. They don't see too many problems. They feel that this town is them and that
ReplyDeleteFirst of all where are you guys finding a menu? Their website still says the NY restaurant will open soon?
ReplyDeleteIt is quite normal for a corking fee for wine bought in to a restaurant. When you buy a bottle in a restaurant the price you pay is already twice what the bottle cost in a liquor store.
I think the menu in this article sounds very yummy and I look forward to checking this very nearby place out.
They think that this is the greatest time in the East Village. They aren't seeing that it's a class war and that people are being pushed out and despicable things are happening. They think it's a renniassance and that the the East Village needs their insight into the neighborhood which many ways has always been theirs, you know. Think about it.
ReplyDeleteThe East Village has been about two cultures inhabiting the same blocks for as long as I have lived here (over 30 year). Immigrants families and those born elsewhere that chose to live here because, they wanted to meet like minded people, wanted to pursue a writing, acting, art, or music career and the low rents helped make it possible. Most often the two groups mixed and inspired each other. I think the EV's community gardens is a great example of pollination. We must not forget the bad years which proceeded today. I watched a lot of people's lives being destroyed by drugs and how many of us old timers can honestly say we were not robbed on the street or in our homes at least once? I am not an advocate for the sterile corporate takeover of the EV and the rest of the NY but the best we can do now is to slow it down. Organize your buildings and fight the new carpetbagger landlords, show up at community board meetings and voice your opposition to more bars where we live. New York has always been about change, look at the variety of people which has settled then moved on in the past 100 years. You can't stop change however you might be able to nudge it in a different direction if you push hard enough.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 1:26. There is change and then there is annihilation. I think most people who have moved here over 20-30-40 years either fell in love with what was here: put down roots and became involved in the community despite the drugs and the crime or left shortly after they arrived. Those of us who stayed didn't try and change the neighborhood to what we left behind and certainly weren't here to profit from what those who were here before us built. We acclimated to what was here, we didn't expect what and who was here to acclimate to us. The folks who are opening this place have made it clear by their words and their menu that they have no interest in fitting in or providing something that we need, but instead pointing out to us that what they have to offer is something we obviously can't or should not live without. I find this to be all too common with the new businesses and new residents who arrive here each and every day.
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:25
ReplyDeleteMaybe "annihilation" is just a bit bombastic, no? Perhaps it's best to not judge anyone, even a restaurant before it has officially opened. This is not Le Cirque opening a branch on Ave B. but a couple (one of which is a native NYer). The big fuss in some of the earlier posts regarding corking fees, and $5 rice (which is from the restaurant in Australian not on Ave B) is all too typical of reaction to anything new opening here. I hate to see inexpensive restaurants close but I am not going to complain about a restaurant which does not operate as a sports bar or a bar which serves people to a point of passing out in the streets, but instead brings a new version on a classic cuisine. You nor I can deter change in the EV and I don't care if a place priced above my means opens I only care when that new place keeps me up at night when their drunks clients are yelling and fighting in the streets.
I agree @gojira... strange "rules". What do they mean no bill splitting? And higher costs on holidays, I've never ever heard of this, it's kind of funny.
ReplyDeleteOnce I had a stalker and he lived in this building. He was successful in getting my boyfriend to give him my phone number. We called him Griswold but I can't remember why.
ReplyDeleteThere are still the remaining Indian restaurant in "Curry Row". Go there instead. Also, Jackson Heights have better and affordable Indian restaurants -- more authentic and tastier than anything that might be served in this India by way of Australia. Lastly, "He'll be cooking up street foods like Gol Gappa ($12)". That's the problem right there, yet another restaurant that serves street food but, paradoxically, catering to the higher-end transients.
ReplyDeleteJill:
ReplyDeleteDid your stalker look like Chevy Chase?
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ReplyDeletejust to clarify---YES part of the criticism was gleaned from an ONLINE menu that is linked to an australian operation BUT the $5.00 rice portion is from a YELP review of this EV location !
ReplyDeleteNo he didn't look like Chevy Chase. He was skinny and rather average looking. He was an illustrator.
ReplyDeleteThere are some good deals like BYOR(bring your own rice)...Only a $4.75 Steaming Fee.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the same people complaining here about this place being "too expensive" for Indian food also but $4 cups of coffee a few times per day?
ReplyDeleteThe people now in the EV and here complaining or not about this place being "too expensive" for Indian food need their $4 cups of coffee a many times per day and not to mention their $10 juices and & $8 bone broth and million dollar condos.
ReplyDeleteI read one review on Yelp by an idiot that reviewed this place although he has never eaten there. He made up his review by "reading" not eating the menu. He actually admits this before complaining about $5 rice (which he never tasted). This place will or will not find a customer base, sour grapes for those that want it to be another inexpensive place like those on 6th street, which are still open even with the Schimmerization going on there.
ReplyDelete"sour grapes for those that want it to be another inexpensive place"
ReplyDeletethey're serving street food at fine dining prices.
Additional charges on Sundays and holidays is common in Australia and NZ - so it sounds like that may be a carryover from that menu (or possibly even somebody was looking at the wrong location).
ReplyDeleteHand in hand with that is the fact that there is no tipping in ANZ and also that minimum wage is $16.88AUD in Australia ($13.10USD) and $14.75NZD in NZ ($10.62 USD). Workers are paid extra on sundays and holidays (at least in NZ) and restaurants raise their prices on those days to cover that.
Full time employees are also legally entitled to 10 days paid sick leave / year and 4 weeks paid holiday leave (after a year).
Why are the US employment practices stuck in the dark ages?
"sour grapes for those that want it to be another inexpensive place"
ReplyDeletethey're serving street food at fine dining prices.
It would help if people don't take things so literally especially when it comes to "foodie-speak".
I'm wondering if the people who are complaining that this isn't another of the cheap Indian places think Babu Ji is better/worse then the place that was there before, Spina, which *definitely* wasn't cheap by any means. Good food though.
ReplyDeleteBet all the staff is Australians on extended holiday.....cheers suckers!
ReplyDeleteWell now that all the joints on 6th street are gone here's what you get...
ReplyDelete