Laut Chef Salil Mehta’s Favorite Restaurants for Dining Out with Family
Where do chefs go and, more importantly, where do they love to eat? In Resy Regulars, we ask Resy chefs to tell us where they’re regulars.
This time, we’re talking to prolific restaurateur and chef Salil Mehta who first gained notoriety when his first New York restaurant, the Malaysian restaurant Laut, received a Michelin star back in 2010.
Since then, he’s opened four more establishments: Laut Singapura (2019), Wau (2021), Chard, and Singlish (2022). Soon, he’s opening Kabab Aur Sharab, based on two of his favorite things — kebabs and liquor — this fall. Each of his restaurants explores different facets of southeast Asian food and culture, from Singaporean chile crab and Malaysian nasi lemak to Indonesian nasi goreng.
When he finds the time to dine out, he’s all about finding comfort in dishes that stick to what’s tried and true. “I’m a sucker for tradition,” he says. “No frills and thrills and gold leaves. No truffles in Indian food.”
For the Flushing, Queens resident, his most cherished restaurants are the ones he’s been visiting for almost a decade, staffed by the same people — often family members — for many years, and with little to no social media presence. They’re places where he loves to bring his own family, and where it’s always better to dine with a crew.
Here’s a look at all the places he proudly calls himself a regular.
