{"id":52922,"date":"2026-10-15T12:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/52922\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T12:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:20:16","slug":"where-tv-host-and-cookbook-author-padma-lakshmi-eats-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/52922\/","title":{"rendered":"Where TV Host and Cookbook Author Padma Lakshmi Eats in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

I grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, not far from Jackson Heights. It was a very mixed neighborhood, but it did have a lot of South Asian kids. In the \u201970s, I remember always going to Jackson Heights on Saturday to the temple, to go grocery shopping for all our Indian groceries, and to bring home samosas. When I was older, my mother and I moved back and forth between Queens and Manhattan; my mother shopped at Kalustyan\u2019s because that was the only place that sold Indian groceries in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\"Padma<\/p>\n

Padma Lakshmi lights the Empire State Building. Eugene Gologursky\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Those days, I was still very much a pure vegetarian and I didn\u2019t eat a lot of things. If we did go out to eat anything other than Indian food, it would always have to have some rice. Even if there was nothing else, at least I could get rice with some soy sauce and Tabasco or something. As a teen I moved to California and then I came back to New York after I graduated from college in the mid-\u201990s. I was in Manhattan and I wasn\u2019t going back to Queens so much. I did my grocery shopping on 28th Street by then. I lived just above Gramercy Park so I could walk to Kalustyan\u2019s, and because Kalustyan\u2019s did well, by that time other Indian stores started popping up around it, as well as vegetarian eateries. It was great.<\/p>\n

When I was growing up, Indian food in New York was pretty much Northern Indian or Punjabi food, even if Bangladeshis were cooking it. Even the uptown restaurant off Central Park called Nirvana served the same menu that you saw from every takeout restaurant. When I came back there was Tamarind. Now there\u2019s all these second- and third-generation Indians chefs becoming emboldened, cooking their own food, and bringing it to a larger audience.<\/p>\n

In that decade after college as a model, I also traveled extensively and I had the privilege of tasting a lot of different foods. I was very much into Mediterranean food at the time. I developed a palate for really good Italian food. We would go to all of the chichi places that a \u201990s model would go to: Mr. Chow, for example.<\/p>\n

Now, I try to eat really light and simple food when I\u2019m not eating for work. I\u2019m always excited when I find a new restaurant, but it\u2019s rare because I\u2019m a creature of habit. My attitude is: If I can cook this at home, why do I need to go out? It has to be recommended by a friend who really is over the moon about it. If I want to go out with my friends, I just go to old standbys.<\/p>\n

1\/4A spread at Kabawa. Kabawa<\/p>\n

I like chef Paul Carmichael\u2019s approach to food, treating Caribbean food with the respect that French food gets, but without losing any of that down-home flavor. I tried every single thing on the menu and I highly recommend the goat. It\u2019s a fairly new restaurant, but there just seemed to be a coziness. It felt very relaxed and convivial; everyone seemed to be having a good time like they knew each other already.<\/p>\n

Pro tip: We sat at the bar and it just seemed like a fun place to hang out. <\/p>\n

8 Extra Place, East Village. Open from 5:30 to 10 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n

I like to have meetings somewhere like Indochine or La Mercerie, established restaurants that have great food \u2014 or good enough food \u2014 really good service, and there\u2019s a vibe. I love the decor and atmosphere at Indochine. I think it still exists because the whole package is there and I like how glamorous it feels. Restaurants that last for decades are really rare in New York.<\/p>\n

I know the menu by heart: I always get the spring rolls, the vegetable stew, and the sea bass or amok Cambodgien. My daughter usually gets the No. 29, which is the chicken. Sometimes we\u2019ll get the kale salad too.<\/p>\n

Pro tip: It\u2019s fun to people-watch here.<\/p>\n

430 Lafayette Street, Noho. Open from 5:30 to 11:00 p.m., Sunday to Wednesday; 5:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., Thursday to Saturday.<\/p>\n

1\/4Semma\u2019s nathai pirattal, a dish featuring Long Island snails, ginger, and tamarind. Molly Tavoletti\/Eater<\/p>\n

I was raised as a lacto-vegetarian because of my religion, and so I know all about vegetarian South Indian food. But frankly I didn\u2019t know about non-vegetarian South Indian food until I became an adult. Chef Vijay Kumar actually taught me a lot about regional dishes from my own area of heritage that I had never tasted because of that barrier. My go-to order is the lobster moilee. Usually, it\u2019s made with fish, but Vijay\u2019s is a little bit more dressed up, rich, and delicious. I did a documentary decades ago called Planet Food where I learned to make it in Kerala, and I make it constantly at home.<\/p>\n

Pro tip: There\u2019s also the nathai pirattal, a dish with snails. I never knew there were any snails in Indian cuisine; I\u2019ve only had them at places like Chez Georges, drowned in garlic, parsley, and butter. It just goes to show there\u2019s a lot of food for me still to learn about.<\/p>\n

60 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich Village. Open from 5 to 10 p.m., Monday to Saturday; closed Sunday.<\/p>\n

Il Posto Accanto serves very simple, farm-to-table Roman trattoria food. I like that it\u2019s small and that it\u2019s not a scene; it\u2019s really people from the neighborhood that go there. I will go sometimes by myself and I always go for brunch. I like the feeling of camaraderie and connection, and I love the amatriciana.<\/p>\n

Pro tip: That amatriciana is fantastic. It\u2019s a simple dish, so there\u2019s nowhere to hide. I loved it so much that I put it in my cookbook.<\/p>\n

190 East 2nd Street, Lower East Side. Open from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m., Monday to Sunday.<\/p>\n

1\/4Kandaswamy Thirukumar at his dosa cart. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet\/Eater<\/p>\n

I like going to have a dosa in Washington Square Park. I used to take my daughter to the playscape when she was young. I get a regular dosa but no masala inside, with podi on the side and chutney. It\u2019s fresh and simple, and it\u2019s all vegetarian.<\/p>\n

Pro tip: What NY Dosas seems to do \u2014 and what I do with my dosa recipe \u2014 is increase the proportion of lentils to rice. It makes it a little more flavorful and nutty.<\/p>\n

50 Washington Square South, Washington Square Park. Open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Saturday; closed on Sundays.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been going to Balthazar since it opened in 1997. It\u2019s very nostalgic for me because at first, I couldn\u2019t even get in. I didn\u2019t even know what it was until somebody took me. Everybody has that version of New York for them. It just seemed so magical and glamorous and I felt like, Wow, this is where the nightlife is. I like that it\u2019s the same: It\u2019s always a crowded scene and it\u2019s great people-watching.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just regular bistro food, but we\u2019re not looking to set the world on fire. I always get a martini and a burger; the patty isn\u2019t too thick, and I think it\u2019s the fries that make it so good. I don\u2019t make burgers at home; that, to me, is just a going-out thing.<\/p>\n

Pro tip: You don\u2019t go to Balthazar if you want a quiet meal. The time to go is later. <\/p>\n

80 Spring Street, Soho. Open from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m., Monday to Friday; open 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, not far from Jackson Heights. It was a very mixed neighborhood, but it did have a lot of South Asian kids. In the \u201970s, I remember always going to Jackson Heights on Saturday to the temple, to go grocery shopping for all our Indian groceries, and to bring home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[362,332,407,389,408,578],"class_list":["post-52922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-chefs","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-dining","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-dining","tag-travel-guides"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117444897900501429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}