I was craving Indian food and coincidentally, I saw a photo on Instagram of a dish at Roasted Masala, an Indian restaurant in the Upper West Side. The photo was posted by my friend Malini, The Restaurant Fairy, who seemed excited about the food there and knowing her, if she was positive, it meant that it was good. So we decided to check the restaurant website and our excitement went up: lots of classic dishes, but not only. They have lots of vegetarian dishes, so it was perfect for Jodi, street food dishes as well as ones that I never seen before or maybe never noticed, away from the classic chicken tikka Masala that I bet is good anyway.

Dining room at Roasted Masala in The Upper West Side

We went there for an early dinner as we had an early lunch (only way to get a reservation to the restaurant we went to for brunch). And let me tell you: we had a solid appetite as we walked all day from Midtown to Downtown and then Downtown to the Upper West Side. So the place was empty when we arrived. Big and with a nice decor, I appreciated the fact that the noise level was low, as customers came. It seems that lots of patrons were from the neighborhood that is good, but, we felt at some point that they neglected us a bit. Despite that, the food was really good and Jodi was grateful that it was not spicy. Here is what we had:

Lasooni Gobi, an Indo-Chinese dish that is a stir fried cauliflower smothered by a garlic sauce (lasooni means garlic in Hindi).

Lasooni gobi at Roasted Masala in The Upper West Side

Another dish I love is pakora, these fritters that are so comforting: isn’t anything fried so good? So they do have onion fritters that do not even need any sauce to dip them in: the onions were cooked all the way through and the outside was delightfully crispy.

Onion fritters at Roasted Masala in The Upper West Side

Then we hesitated as we love samosa, these fried turnovers usually filled with a vegetarian mix made with potato and peas. But we finally went for samosa chaat, a sort of crushed samosa with onion, yogurt and tamarind sauce. The presentation is not always good for that dish but the taste, that is an explosion of flavors because of all the ingredients, is delicious.

Samosa chaat at Roasted Masala in The Upper West Side

For the entrees, we shared a dal makhni that was creamy and had just a slight kick and I got a chicken dish: chicken kolhapuri that is chicken cooked in roasted spices. Good, not spicy, the chicken was perfectly cooked and the sauce, although not as creamy as I like sauces in Indian cuisine, quite good. In fact, I skipped the rice and ate it with the cheddar naan that was one of their take on cheese naan.

For dessert, I first wanted to get one of their choices that has jelebi in it, a very sweet pastry rarely seen on a menu, but, unfortunately, they did not have any and we ended up with some delicious gulab jamun.

Gulab jamun at Roasted Masala in The Upper West Side

So overall, this was a very good meal, tasty and comforting. I would definitely go back to Roasted Masala to try other dishes.

Enjoy (I did)!

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Roasted Masala - 914 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY

I Just Want To Eat!