Nikita Malhotra
June 6, 2025

Growing up with Indian parents in New York meant I was subjected to a lot of Indian food, midtown restaurants that all served the agreed upon British influenced North Indian food. We would go at least once a week, and my earliest memories are of falling asleep on banquettes and waking up in my dad’s arms in a taxi headed home. It’s from those restaurants where I found an affinity for butter chicken, and during my summer visits to India this obsession forced my poor grandfather in Delhi to walk to the market which had a stall that specialized in the dish. My grandmother never made butter chicken and her dinner table was a collection of vegetable dishes and daals. Butter chicken originated in Delhi, but only in the last century, a product of partition and a mistake of mixing leftover tandoori chicken in a tomato sauce rich in butter. It was first found in print at a restaurant in Manhattan in 1975, and now, 50 years later, Adda a new Indian restaurant in the East Village, features a whole table-side experience that has to be pre-ordered and involves heritage chicken and a whole range of butters to choose from.

I went to Adda recently, sitting solo at the bar and eating a large portion of lamb biryani. They have just opened up, and I went on the day when the restaurant’s sister restaurant Semma was awarded the best restaurant in New York by the New York Times. This year has been a good year for Indian cuisine, an Indian restaurant in Dubai, Trèsind Studio, was awarded 3 Michelin stars, the first South Asian restaurant to do so. Masque, Mumbai’s best restaurant, was ranked 68th on the 50 world’s best list. It is an exciting time for South Asian food, and as it enters the realm of fine dining it is exciting to see a more serious conversation occur with wine and beverage.

I paired a bottle of Morgen Long Chardonnay that I found on Adda’s list with my biryani, and I thought that it worked quite well. Chardonnay hasn’t been my first choice for Indian cuisine, especially when considering the spice levels. But the dollop of yogurt with a spoonful of fragrant lamp biryani made for a well matched pairing. Historically, it has been difficult to navigate wine in Indian restaurants, many prefer beer. I usually enjoy Champagne or German Riesling with Indian cuisine. But I wanted to explore some other fun pairings to try out.

Pairing Wine and Indian Food

Bern’s Steak House