Junoon Visited 1/21/11 4 Forks

Junoon 27 W 24th St. (between Broadway & Madison Ave), Manhattan, NY 10010

 It's been a while since I have been to a place as beautiful and fancy as Junoon.  A few friends and I ended up there because our friend Maggie's fiance knew the head chef, who also was the head chef at Tabla, the now closed but well received fancy Indian place down the street.  When I first entered the restaurant I was taken aback at how upscale the decor was.  Maggie mentioned that the wooden arches were taken from a temple? Hmm, maybe I heard wrong and they were just modeled after them? But none the less, the decor made you feel like you were walking into an Asian temple.  When I usually get Indian food, I usually go to these mom and pop, slightly lower budget, but delicious restaurants.  The clientele at this place was definitely upscale and seemingly "important", high class Indians.  

The menu isn't terrible overwhelming, but it definitely had enough variety to make everyone happy.  The food is not fusion but it's not your usually saag paneer or chicken tikka masala either.  We asked our waiter what the style of food was and his answer was so unhelpful.  He said "well, you could have it on your own or you could also share it too."  Umm, thanks dude.  But he did mention that they do come around and put a bit of each dish on your plate, so in a sense it is family style-esque.  We ordered a few appetizers, which was their version of paneer ($12) and chicken tikka ($12).  They came out and the presentation was so un-Indian like to me because it was very fancy and had a very clean plate aesthetic.  For the paneer, it was 4 medium pieces of cheese and a side swipe of sauce and the chicken had about 4 pieces on the plate with a green masala sauce.  They were both very tasty and prepared with the perfect amount of spice and flavors.  We then decided to each order our "own" entree and have them put a bit of each on our plates.  So we got the lamb shank ($27), a chicken korma ($21), methi lamb ($26), and the chicken malvan ($22) with a side of naan/roti ($5) and 2 orders of rice ($7) and the chutney sampler ($8).  Again, the presentation and level of service was amazing.  It was almost too professional and adult for me, but it was very well done.  Three different waiters came and plated our food with a bit of each dish.  I was a bit nervous that the food would just be ok, but frankly everything we had was extremely delicious.  The flavors were spot on and not over spicy but had the right amount to me.  The chutney sample was good (mango, tomato, and a pineapple) and was a nice compliment to our food, I don't think it was worth $8.  The naan and roti were homemade and very soft and easy to use to sop up all the yummy sauces (which is always the best part of eating Indian food).  All the food was served in these beautiful copper tins and there was actually plenty of food leftover after the initial serving.  I was completely stuffed at the end of the meal.  We ended up deciding to share a spiced chocolate cake ($12) with a chai tea ice cream.  The portion was rather small but given that our stomachs were about to explode, it was totally fine.  The chai tea was almost a bit too overpowering for me.  The flavor really just hits you in the face...definitely not subtle.  The cake was good but quite frankly it could have been great but I had no ability to taste anything at that point.  

Later Maggie was able to get the chef to come out and say hi to us and he seemed so sweet and humble.  And he was totally cute, so any of you single Indian ladies out there, check this place out! We all also got 2 rounds of cocktails/wine and the cocktails were surprisingly strong because I was definitely feeling it at the end.  The total bill ended up around $287 without tip, which is definitely expensive and more than what I usually spend on a regular dinner out.  But this place is definitely on a different level in terms of ambiance and service and should be reserved for special occasions.