Rahi means traveler in Hindi. The restaurants describes itself as a journey across India, and as artisanal Indian. I had checked out the menu soon after it opened, and was not excited by it. The selection was limited and did not look all that interesting considering the prices. After recently reading a review of Adda in Long Island City, which recently opened under the same ownership, I took a look at Rahi’s menu again, and was very pleasantly surprised. There is now much much more to choose from and the dishes looked really intriguing. We had friends visiting last week, so the four of us gave it a try. This was truly excellent. Up to now our favorite for Indian food has been Awadh on the Upper West Side. As good as Awadh is, Rahi takes the food a notch higher.
We had a much longer wait for our table than I would normally tolerate with a reservation, but they did give us a very nice table.
The dishes are artfully presented. We shared everything, starting with octopus, snails with merguez, and artichoke chaat. Main courses were goat curry, chicken leg with coconut curry in a banana leaf, three-mango cod, and prawns with lemongrass and uni butter. Can you get more creative than this? I don’t think so.
Service was very attentive and prompt. I am thrilled that we have this right around the corner from where we live.
Robert Rems' Open House 