Adda Returns With a Reimagined Menu of Classics, Now in the East Village

1. Wait, so what’s happening exactly?

Multiple factors went into the decision to close the original Long Island City location of Adda, namely the toll the COVID-19 pandemic put on a neighborhood of mostly students and working professionals.

The team is still holding onto the original location in some capacity, likely using it as a test kitchen for R&D on their other menus, takeout, catering, and maybe even a supper club.

“We will probably go back to its roots, but in a different avatar,” Mazumdar says of the original Adda space. “It’ll be something that is totally different that we’re still deciding, [but] it will just be a more approachable, easy option for all the students, the faculty, and the people who are working there in the neighborhood.”

The new Adda is just down the block from sibling Filipino restaurant Naks, and the group’s fast-casual fried chicken spot, Rowdy Rooster.

So, deep breaths everyone: This is not an exact revival of the same restaurant you knew and loved in Long Island City. It wouldn’t be Unapologetic Foods if it were: The team prides themselves on continuous evolution and invention. But rest assured, there will be some familiar aspects, too.

“In many ways, the brand and the idea of Adda is really deeply personal and special to us,” Mazumdar says. “It was the first time as a group, as Unapologetic Foods, that we started seeing lines wrapped around the corner. We started to see a different kind of frenzy happening with Indian cuisine. It was the first time that the idea of what it was to be unapologetic really started to come to the forefront.”

2. For the new Adda, it’s all about “reimagined classics.”

For each of their restaurants, Pandya says the group likes to keep a certain ethos or phrase in mind during the development of the space and the menu. For the first Adda, it was the “canteen food of India.” For Dhamaka, it was the “forgotten side of India.” Now, for the new Adda, it’s all about “reimagined classics” with a particular focus on northern India.

“We have grown up since the time Adda opened,” Pandya notes. “It’s been seven years. We have grown leaps and bounds.”

He’s also quick to point out that “reimagined classics” don’t necessarily translate to contemporary twists. “A lot of people, when they hear the word ‘reimagined,’ think ‘Are [they] trying to Westernize it? Are [they] trying to do a modern take on it?’ It’s not that. We take a specific dish, and we reimagine it; while the flavor may remain the same, the entire experience of having that specific dish has changed.”

Pandya is playing the menu details pretty close to the vest, but he did share that many of the old favorites will still be there in one form or another. The famous bheja fry (fried goat brains) and baby goat biryani are still on the menu, alongside kebabs, samosas, bone marrow, and curries, all in refreshed form.

There’s still butter chicken, too, but now it’s a full-on butter chicken experience. What that means in practice you’ll have to wait to find out — even Mazumdar says that he barely knows the details — but it involves choosing which wood your bird is cooked over, as well as a tableside presentation. And an optional butter chicken cocktail, too.

And while it might seem odd, to some, that an Indian restaurant group that calls itself “unapologetic” would have a butter chicken on its menu, there’s a reason for it, says Mazumdar. “It has become embarrassing for Indian restaurants to have this on the menu, while it has been one of the greatest additions to our cuisine. Which is exactly why we’re doing it. Adda is reclaiming butter chicken with full force.”

3. So, what else is new?

New dishes include scallops cooked in coconut milk, cilantro, and green chile; slow-braised beef cheeks in puff pastry; and a chicken curry made with housemade lime pickles. Aside from the butter chicken, there are other large-format dishes, available in limited quantities, like a Nagaland pork fry; Bihari kebabs with Wagyu ribeye; dough-wrapped chicken with roasted vegetables; and your choice of a whole Dungeness crab or lobster cooked in coconut cream kokum, and red chile.

There’s also a separate vegetarian menu with dishes like malai broccoli with hung yogurt, a pumpkin coconut curry, and a pulao with morels, seasonal mushrooms, and aged basmati rice.

Everything, however, still retains that homecooked feel or style for which Adda was so well known. So much so that many of the dishes will be served in the same Le Creuset dishes in which they were cooked. “We want to transport the guests to our childhood dinner tables,” says Mazumdar.

4. Cocktails take center stage.

A large part of these new dish experiences will come from Adda’s beverage program, directed by beverage director Mike Reed.

Several of the cocktails on the menu will only be available to those who order specific dishes (that butter chicken is one of them), and non-alcoholic drinks are not at all an afterthought.

“We’re not just taking Chintan’s food and infusing it with alcohol and clarifying it,” Reed says. “We’re not just adding vodka. We’re actually seeking out spirits that can build upon a profile that would complement and make sense for that dish.”

Also on the menu is a chutney trio of small half-drinks based on Adda’s housemade mint, tamarind, and mango pickle condiments. There’s also a non-alcoholic aperitif, infused with fresh curry leaves and cumin seeds.

“As people walk by, they’ve been [asking], ‘is this a bar?’” Reed laughs. “No, this is going to be a great Indian restaurant, but we are also going to have a really good bar program.”

5. The interior may seem a bit familiar.

The new space, which was once home to Huertas and seats 68, was designed based on the same philosophy as the original, Mazumdar says. “There’s an idea that we call jugaad. It almost means going on a scavenger hunt and picking up different scraps to put together.” The team applied the same design philosophy to Dhamaka, too.

At Adda, you see this in the original newsprint that lined the walls of Adda, peeled off and reapplied here in the new space. There’s a corrugated sheet metal surrounding the kitchen — a nod to the tin roof that sat above Adda’s original bar. Above the new bar, which seats 10, are light shades made from metal buckets, and multicolored booths lining the walls. To get inside, you walk through painted archways, and the kitchen is semi-open to diners.

The hodgepodge look and feel of the space is intended to allow for a more casual environment. The restaurant’s name, Mazumdar says, means “a hangout spot”, and they want the space to reflect that.

“We actually celebrate imperfection. The idea of perfection, when you go to the highest level, becomes a little too clinical, and that’s not what food and experience and emotions are tied to. Many of us have grown up in environments that were nowhere near perfect, yet we found that to be our home,” Mazumdar said.

6. A lot has changed in seven years, but a lot remains the same.

In the seven years since Adda first opened, the landscape of Indian cuisine in New York has evolved dramatically. Some might argue this is thanks to the Unapologetic Foods group, who were among those on the forefront of serving more regional Indian dishes that preceded the openings of newcomers like Jazba, Angel Indian, Kanyakumari, Chatti, and Bungalow.

“Collectively, the bar has been raised,” Mazumdar says. “I want to clarify — it’s not from a competition perspective, it’s from a consumer perspective. The world is not the same as when we started, and I think in many ways we were thinking ‘Could we take that same conversation we started even deeper into the canon of Indian cuisine?’ That’s what this journey is about.”

He says diners’ tastes and appetites have driven this pursuit to continuously evolve.

“As we kept on growing, the expectations of our customers changed. They’re the people who made us believe that we can push more and more,” Mazumdar says. We keep pushing ourselves just because of the belief that people have in us, and something interesting has happened. Usually, you have a restaurant where people want to eat the same thing over and over, but our most excited guests will come up to us and say ‘What’s next?’”

Adda is open Tuesday through Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.

Resy New York & Philadelphia editor Deanna Ting contributed to this article.