Haldi Indian Cuisine
“The Chaats, Calcutta street food, are a good menu option for further variety, but plenty to like here.”
“Nothing better than Luchi for a Bong.”
“Had the Dak Bungalow and Lamb Rezala.”
Haldi Indian Cuisine
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Accepts Apple Pay: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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I loved my experience here!
The bright yellow interior drew me in. I haven't been to many Indian restaurants that were decorated so trendy.
I had the non-vegetarian lunch special, which cost me $13 in total after tax. ITS UNLIMITED, which is amazing, but if you fill up fast like me, one serving will be enough.
The food came out quickly and the server was super attentive.
For an appetizer I was given chicken kebab which had a good amount of kick to it. Then I was presented with chicken tikka masala, lamb, daal, rice and naan. The lamb was the best of all the servings. The other two were a little less flavorful. The naan is amazing and I wanted to take home their whole inventory. I finished with one gulab jamun which I usually hate, but this one had a muted sweetness that I appreciated.
Would absolutely bring friends here.
Went here for lunch with 3 others once we saw that Bhatti had a line. We had the lunch buffet with one of us being a vegetarian. It seemed like a good deal judging by what was listed on the wall.
They started with 2 appetizers which seemed to be given to everyone. It was pieces of a chicken kebab as well as some fried spinach (or something green) with some chutney. The former had a good amount of spice though the chicken was gummy. The fried greens had a good texture while the chutney was mostly flavorless.
The main dishes came out which were Sag Paneer (Paneer Cheese in Spinach,) some very red coconut and chicken dish, an eggplant dish (I'm assuming from the flavor that it is the Bengali equivalent to Baingan Bharta,) and some Moong Dal (mung bean ) as well. There was also some pretty OK Naan as well as some nicely fluffy rice.
I'll order below in terms of what was the best:
Good:
Moong Dal: Good. I mostly had this as there wasn't much chicken in the other plate and quite simply, the flavors were better. I'd order it solely next time if it was 9 bucks or something.
The Sag Paneer was fine, not super spicy. I don't think it was much better than any other local place or worse. I wouldn't order it again as there is better for less and the portion of Paneer was small though it might have been the case for a lunch special.
Not so Good:
The coconut and chicken dish was slightly sweet and the chicken was OK though there wasn't much of it. I also found a piece of inedible gristle in there. It was slightly worse than normal.
The eggplant dish was mostly flavorless outside of some tomato (?) or something similar. It was mostly worse than normal.
In short, all of the dishes outside of said Moong Dal needed more spice to them.
For dessert there was a single Gulab Jamun which the normal but it was tasty (and at least better than the chickpea halwa next door.)
Overall the food was OK, probably a high/mid 2 or something similar.
I'd round it up to a 3 but we didn't get one of the dishes which was a lamb dish. One of us even inquired about it to confirm that was all the dishes. Of course the group to the next of us got said lamb dish and the group behind us but of course, we got "all" the dishes. Maybe the lamb had some spice judging by the color but who knows.
Service otherwise was fine. They refilled the water consistently.
2.2 Bland indian food outside of the Moong Dal and perhaps the lamb.
There was also some weird guy who was riding a little cart into and out of the restaurant. Annoyed one of the people with me as he had to stand up occasionally.
I doubt I will ever set foot in here again.
Went here for the "all you can eat" lunch special the other day. Very very bland food. Hot only was it ultra mild but it way too oily. Quite a disappointment from the last time we ate here.
We were seated at about 2:15pm and service was very slow. There were only two other parties eating, so I have no idea why the food took so long to come out. And big gaps between courses.
But the real reason we won't be going back is they ripped us off. At about 2:50 we got some more of both entrees, and then decided that we would like another order of naan … all of a sudden … "the kitchen is closed"…. umm why didn't you warn us???
They obviously did not want to give us another naan – I mean we had one naan for two people, isn't that "all you can eat".
Stupid!
My wife and I showed up here on a Sunday night for dinner. We were seated pretty quickly and were excited about what we were going to eat because of their claims to serve Calcutta style cuisine.
We ordered the following:
1)Mangshor Chop (breaded and fried patties with minched lamb)
2)Luchi Aloo Dum (puffed bread with a spicy/thick potato curry)
3)Bhindi Ghar Ki (crispy okra tossed in some chaat spices)
4)Kosha mangso (goat curry with a thick curry and is supposed to be spicy)
5)Misti Doi (Sweet yogurt entree)
The Mangshor Chop – I felt like they put a lot of filler inside…. didn't know I was eating a "lamb chop". The Luchi Aloo Dum was awesome and I would recommend it over and over again. The crispy okra was great but I didn't care much for the spices they tossed them in. The goat curry was excellent but it needed some additional heat. The misti doi was great.
All said and done, we left satisfied….but not jumping for joy like we have in the past with another Calcutta oriented restaurant in Westchester county. I would go back to give it a second chance.
oh… no free refills on fountain drinks here….. i got hit for three $6 sodas on my bill :(.
I like this place. The decor is nice, the staff is nice, and the food is nice. It's nothing to write home about. Dishes varied from ok to quite good, but after the meal I felt satisfied but not amazed. There are so many Indian places in Curry Hill that I won't hurry back here, but I wouldn't mind returning I suppose.
Vegetarian friendly // Top Pick
Exceptional Dining Experience
I feel like we had a private tour of the restaurant's secret tasting menu. Such a fantastic restaurant. My friends were visiting from out of the country and we came to their friend's restaurant. With certain dietary restrictions we decided on having a vegan tasting of the chefs choice, and I'm still not sure what we ate but it was impressive.
The Scene: Modern, Chic
Destination Rating: 7
Date Rating: 8
Hob Nob Potential: 2
Strong Suggestion: say yes! Try everything.
KenScale: 8.0/10
Curry Hill is an area within the Murray Hill neighborhood where Indian restaurants have lined up. I have yet to visit all of the major players on this little strip, but Haldi has been high on my list for a while now. Indian cuisine is so much more than just cheap take-outs or Seamless orders. It can display a diversity of regional influences, and Haldi specializes in the cooking of Kolkata (formerly named Calcutta) in West Bengal, drawing influences from not just Bengalis but also Baghdadi Jews. What comes of the kitchen has turned into a very satisfying meal on my recent visit.
A meal at Haldi must start with cheese samosa, a mini dumpling of cheese, garlic and tomato sauce that was absolutely pleasant on each bite. Among the kebab options, I very much enjoyed the tandoor fired mustard chicken that was tender and displayed a bit of spicy and sour kick to it. The restaurant has a wide range of Kolkata-inspired dishes, and both dishes that I tried didn't disappoint. Shrimp that came with coconut and mustard gravy had that addictive quality to it, with such aromatic flavor that I couldn't stop digging it with the side of basmati rice and onion and chili naan. While the seasoning for lamb with okra and tangy was a bit more on the aggressive side, it was still a very solid dish that my dining companion and I were able to nearly empty. I was able to tell that a lot of thoughts have gone into the preparation of dishes, and the flavor was definitely more elevated than the typical Indian joint churning out Americans' favorites like chicken tikka masala.
Getting a reservation wasn't particularly challenging, and you could probably try walk-ins as well, although the dining space was close to full on my visit. It is really a great place for a large party to dine together and share a variety of different dishes. There are typical wine and beer selections as well as Asian-inspired cocktail offerings. I always need a fix of Indian food every once in a while, and Haldi is the type of place I would like to come back again and sample other dishes that I hadn't tried.
We stumbled into this restaurant in Murray Hill ("Curry Hill") in between my fiance's midterm exams at Baruch. There were a lot of options around, but this one has a simple lunch special even on a Sunday so we opted for that.
When we went inside, we were seated immediately and the wait or asked if we wanted the meat or vegetarian lunch special option. I didn't realize ordering would be so simple!
We asked for two meat specials and they did not disappoint. An appetizer platter immediately came out with something that reminded me of pakora – fried onion and other mystery things that were delicious. There was also a chicken appetizer that was so scrumptious. The meat was very tender and came right apart with my fork.
For the main course they brought out butter naan (HOT fresh out of the oven), white rice, and then chicken tikka masala, a goat curry, and some lentil daal. The food was great and I asked for seconds on the hot butter naan since we made it disappear pretty quickly. The goat curry was my favorite.
For dessert they brought out some sort of coconut pudding which I loved although my fiancé hates coconut so that was the only issue for him.
Summary: This place is very good for the lunch special but not if you're a control freak (I'm not) – they bring out a bunch of dishes that they choose, but they are good!