Ever since my first modern Indian experience in London at the majestic Cinnamon Club not long after it debuted in 2001, I was hooked on inspired expressions of cuisine from one of the most complex food countries in the world: India. But let me be clear: curry houses, dosa destinations, traditional Indian breads, regional cooking and mom-and-pop shops of all kinds are just as much a draw. I’m crazy about Indian foods from every region and style and only wish I could spend months digging deep around the country.
I have a passion for British Indian and upscale, modern Indian where innovative chefs reinterpret this vast cuisine in often surprising ways. Over 20+ years visiting London, I’ve raved about everything from classic, elegant Gymkhana, to the delightful Kricket in Soho. At home in San Francisco, masters like chef Srijith Gopinathan have made Taj Campton Place one of the most exciting fine dining Indian destinations anywhere (and the only 2 Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in the U.S.) Its more casual but still refined modern Indian food sibling, Palo Alto’s Ettan, just earned chef Sri a Best Chef: California semi-finalist nomination at this year’s James Beard Awards.
With the pandemic closure of local treasures like August 1 Five, SF’s modern Indian options are fewer. Thank God for ROOH. With a name meaning ”soul” or “spirit,” ROOH has been a SoMa “progressive Indian” dining destination since 2017. Open flame, tandoori-focused ROOH Palo Alto location is its totally different, worthwhile sister, having the misfortune to open in 2020, but thankfully going strong.
Both were opened by Good Times Restaurants’ Vikram and Anu Bhambri, the group going on to launch ROOH in New Delhi, New York, Chicago, Palo Alto and the more recent ROOH Columbus, Ohio. But San Francisco was the first ROOH and chef Sujan Sarkar has been keeping busy running all locations since, having previously worked in kitchens from India to London. Alongside staples like one of the best Delhi-style butter chicken curries around, Sujan has a visionary palate for his home country’s cuisine, whether frozen yogurt chaat graced with tamarind, mint, cilantro, dried mango powder and chile chutney, or tandoori masala-spiced monkfish in rhubarb alleppey lentil coconut curry.
His gracious brother, chef de cuisine Pujan Sarkar, helms the kitchen in SF, where I have ordered takeout/delivery regularly in pandemic. Coming back to dine on a Tuesday, ROOH was packed with Indian families and dates, plus imbibing after-work crowds. To catch up on Sarkar’s latest, we tasted through a range of dishes and house cocktails. The lofty, narrow space — vivid in velvet blue booths, yellows and orange-reds — was buzzing, even as the music has always given me a bit of 90s, Buddha Bar lounge vibes.
Pujan kicked us off with bites including a mango-raspberry-masala play on the aforementioned yogurt chaat. A cup of lush leeks-calabash (bottle gourd) shorba (soup) gains umami depth from winter truffles, all sopped up with a warm, accompanying masala bun.
Unique kulchas (soft-leavened North Indian flatbread) have been a mainstay at ROOH for years. This night, winter truffles showed up again shaved over warm kulcha filled with creamy green peas and goat cheese, while a chili cheese kulcha gains savory, peppery layers from shishitos and manchego cheese.
Sweet and savory often play on the menu. Take a generous, veggie-laden hara bhara kebab. Here, the traditional Indian spiced potato cake is packed with edamame and peas, with a sweet-tart hit of huckleberry. The dish is green and verdant, swimming in snow pea broth and nira oil (Japanese garlic chives). Though comfortingly, it tastes like spring.
There are many variations of bonda out there (South Indian fried potato-flour balls). Here, it’s one of chef Pujan’s most playful and visually appealing dishes. Atop Dungeness crab bonda sits two little baby soft-shell crabs resting in Japanese-style mayonnaise/kewpie, with wild seaweed slaw crowning them like a wreath of green. On alternate sides of the plate, a pool of liquid nitrogen between them, their little claws are aimed and ready to “guard” the pool. Such good-taste whimsy is what I’d love to see even more of at ROOH, turning dinner mischievous deliciousness.
Longtime highlights remain — masala jackfruit tacos and the butter chicken — alongside ever-changing, unusual seasonal offerings, like paneer dolmas. These are dolma-reminiscent lettuce wraps around fluffy Indian paneer cheese, accented by peperoncini in padron pepper salan, an onion-forward Pakistani Indian “gravy. Or, millet khichdi, a “porridge” typically made of rice and lentils, here, of millet topped with maitake mushrooms, impishly fried in Indian Frito-Lay brand Kurkure, kicked up with mango achar (pickled green mango “relish”) laced with mustard seeds, chilies and turmeric.
In ROOH’s early days, I found the cocktails intriguing on paper but less so in taste and balance. Then Chetan Gangan — who also oversees the bar at the Palo Alto location — sharpened and elevated the drinks through pandemic. On my recent return, a couple drinks ran a touch too sweet, seeking that balance. But others worked, especially the video-worthy Crawford Kolada, which best captures that playful spirit that peeks out at ROOH.
It’s a sophisticated sipper of Monkey Shoulder Blended Scotch with pineapple, thyme and Sauvignon Blanc reduction. Notably, it arrives molecular-style with a giant sphere atop the gold cocktail glass, waiting to be popped, dissipating into smoke, revealing the smoky pineapple elixir in the glass.
Chef Sujan’s celeriac tart in salted jaggery and pineapple caramel — recalling pineapple upside-down cake — has long been a ROOH highlight. It’s also the most inspired use of celeriac I’ve seen since Noma in Copenhagen. However, the new-to-me Kyoto baby carrot halwa is in the running for another dessert highlight. I have long preferred savory desserts and this one walks the fine line of savory-sweet with a saffron and gold leaf-touched carrot, draped alongside cardamom mawa (milk solids) mousse and halwa, given crunchy contrast from pistachios. It’s gratifyingly textural and layered.
While dozens of Tandoor-loin (Tenderloin) Pakistani curry houses or South Indian dosa and uttapam stops (like Udupi Palace) have long been affordable treasures, we need upscale Indian, too, and the loss of a few in the last couple years has been disappointing. There are many of this ilk in the Bay Area — including one-of-a-kind, female chef, vegetarian SF destination Besharam. Thankfully here in SF, we also still have ROOH, chef Sarkar and team, bringing us regional, seasonally interesting Indian dishes with global flair from brothers who know how to bring it.
// 333 Brannan Street, www.roohsf.com
