Semma

Bold, region-specific Southern Indian cooking with fine-dining precision.

Semma means something close to "awesome" in Tamil slang, and the Greenwich Village room spends every night earning it. It's the South Indian project from the Unapologetic Foods team, with chef Vijay Kumar cooking the regional, rural dishes that rarely reach an American menu, let alone a Michelin-starred one. This is country chicken, heritage grains, and heat with no apology: the gunpowder dosa is the famous one and deserves to be, but the real move is ordering what you've never seen and trusting the kitchen completely. A small room and a hard reservation, and worth every bit of the effort.

Best for: A serious, region-specific Indian dinner