San Francisco’s Indian Restaurant Week Celebrates Culinary Diversity With Diwali Edition - indica News

By Ritu Jha-

The second annual Diwali edition of Indian Restaurant Week will run Nov. 1-14 across San Francisco, bringing together six of the city’s leading Indian restaurants to celebrate the diversity of Indian cuisine through specially curated menus.

Organized in partnership with the Consulate General of India in San Francisco, the event is spearheaded by Ranjan Dey, founder of New Delhi Restaurant, one of the city’s oldest Indian dining establishments.

This year’s participating restaurants are New Delhi Restaurant, ROOH, Tiya, Bombay Brasserie, Amber India and Copra. Led by chefs Ranjan Dey, Ashish Tiwari, Pujan Sarkar, Thomas George, Shibiraj Saha and Srijith Gopinathan, the establishments will offer special multicourse menus featuring regional Indian traditions alongside contemporary interpretations of the cuisine.

The partnership between the Indian Consulate and San Francisco’s fine-dining community also positions food as a form of cultural diplomacy, using India’s culinary heritage to introduce the broader Bay Area community to the country’s regional diversity and evolving food culture.

“The idea is to represent the best of India to our friends and the wider community in San Francisco,” said Satish Sivan, India’s consul general in San Francisco, in an interview with indica. “Diwali is a place where your gastronomic adventure goes for a high-speed ride.”

Sivan said the specially curated menus would give diners an opportunity to experience a broad range of Indian cuisine during the two-week celebration.

“I’m sure everybody who tries this menu during these two weeks is in for a thrilling ride,” he said. “I welcome every member of the wider community in San Francisco to experience the best of what India has to offer.”

The participating restaurants reflect the evolution of Indian dining in Northern California, bringing together established institutions that have helped shape the local restaurant industry and newer concepts that have developed their own followings.

“Some of these restaurants are iconic. They have been here for many decades. And some of them are new kids on the block, but they have established a reputation for themselves,” Sivan said. He added that the chefs had consciously designed their menus to showcase the breadth of Indian cuisine.

Beyond cultural programming, Sivan said his role in San Francisco also involves understanding the opportunities for collaboration between India and the Bay Area’s technology sector. He pointed to the contributions of Indian professionals in artificial intelligence and information technology.

“San Francisco is where the whole world’s focus is, with the kind of technology that shapes the whole world coming out of this place,” he said. “And Indian talent is a big part of that.”

Sivan said he is working to understand the region’s technology ecosystem and identify opportunities for greater cooperation between Silicon Valley, the broader Bay Area and India.

Copra Highlights Coastal South Indian Cuisine

For Srijith Gopinathan, executive chef and partner at Copra, Indian Restaurant Week provides an opportunity to give the cuisine additional visibility, even as Indian food continues to gain acceptance in the American culinary mainstream.

“Indian food is already in the mainstream, so you don’t need a separate one,” Gopinathan told indica. “But we decided to do it separately because we want to showcase Indian food a bit more than it has been showcased right now.”

Gopinathan, whose upscale restaurant focuses on the flavors of coastal South India and Sri Lanka, said the dedicated celebration was overdue for San Francisco’s Indian restaurant community.

“It was long overdue,” he said. “But this time around, Ranjan pushed for it, and we decided to join hands with him and became founding members of this particular celebration.”

For the Diwali edition, Copra has created a four-course menu that will be available alongside its regular a la carte offerings. The menu, priced at $90 per person, will include additional touches and an optional wine pairing.

Gopinathan described the offering as a “four-course meal with some little frills around it.” The extended two-week format also gives diners more opportunities to experience the restaurant’s special festive menu.

Tiya Combines French and Indian Influences

Chef Pujan Sarkar, co-founder of Tiya, said the celebration grew out of a conversation with Dey and developed into a collaborative effort among the participating restaurants.

“This is the second year we are celebrating Indian Restaurant Week,” Sarkar told indica. “We always participate in San Francisco Restaurant Week.”

Born in Kolkata, Sarkar said San Francisco has become his home and continues to influence his culinary perspective.

“I was born in Kolkata, but now I live in San Francisco; this is my home now,” he said.

At the launch preview, Sarkar highlighted dishes that combine French and Indian culinary influences, along with preparations inspired by his childhood in Bengal. One featured item was a vegan jackfruit lollipop, a dish that draws on memories of his grandmother’s cooking.

“We showcase the French and Indian collaboration and how it’s done,” Sarkar said. “We have a jackfruit lollipop that is a vegan dish. This dish reminds me of my childhood and how my grandma used to cook green jackfruit.”

Sarkar also discussed the opportunities for Indian restaurants in the United States, saying that a strong product and a clear business vision can create room for growth.

“If your product is good, and you have a clear vision about what you are doing, the United States has lots of opportunities,” he said.

His restaurant group operates across several U.S. markets, including San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Barbados and Phoenix. The group operates seven restaurants in the United States, including Indienne in Chicago, which has earned a Michelin star. Sarkar also mentioned the group’s international presence and said it was preparing to expand into Abu Dhabi, with an opening planned for the end of the following month.

ROOH Brings Festival Flavors to the Table

At ROOH San Francisco, Executive Chef Ashish Tiwari sees Indian Restaurant Week as an opportunity to celebrate food as a shared cultural experience.

Drawing on his international hospitality background, which includes work with the Oberoi, Fairmont and Kempinski hotel groups, as well as restaurants in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Indonesia, Tiwari combines global techniques with traditional Indian preparations.

“This Indian Restaurant Week is all about festival food, Indian food culture and togetherness,” Tiwari said.

Among the dishes featured at the launch preview were Himalayan momos, one of ROOH’s signature offerings, and a lamb tart prepared using a technique known as velveting. Tiwari said the restaurant sells nearly 20 portions of the momos daily and uses specially sourced flour from Thailand.

He described velveting as a preparation technique that helps produce a particularly tender texture in the lamb.

“The unique part about this lamb tart is our process called velveting,” he said. “We velvet the lamb so that it is mouth-melting.”

Tiwari said his experience working across several countries has helped shape his approach to presenting Indian food through contemporary techniques while retaining its traditional character.

Amber India Celebrates Three Decades in San Francisco

Amber India, which has been part of San Francisco’s fine-dining scene for 30 years, is using the 14-day celebration to present a special prix fixe menu distinct from its regular offerings.

Executive Chef Shibiraj Saha said the restaurant’s $85 menu will feature multicourse selections, including South Indian-inspired preparations, vegetarian specialties and contemporary combinations.

“Amber India has been here for the last 30 years in San Francisco,” Saha told indica. “We are working on the Diwali festival menu.”

Among the featured dishes are mini uttapam served with Mangalore chicken roast and a vegetarian combination of tandoori plum and tandoori paneer with cheese fondue.

The restaurant will offer two vegetarian and two nonvegetarian appetizer options, along with main courses and dessert. Saha said the dishes will be individually plated by the kitchen team throughout the celebration.

Bombay Brasserie Looks Beyond Familiar Indian Dishes

Executive Chef Thomas George of Bombay Brasserie at Taj Campton Place said Indian Restaurant Week aims to broaden American diners’ understanding of Indian cuisine beyond the dishes most commonly associated with Indian restaurants.

“We do it two times a year. One is around Diwali and the second is around Holi,” George told indica. “One is fall and winter, and another is more like spring and summer, six months apart.”

The Diwali edition is part of a broader effort to introduce diners to the country’s regional culinary traditions, he said.

“The whole effort is to promote Indian food, because still for most people, Indian food is butter chicken and naan,” George said. “But Indian food is much more than that. That is what we want to get across.”

For the festival preview, George presented dishes including shrimp vada and beet tikki. His own South Indian background influences his cooking, although he said Bombay Brasserie aims to represent the country’s cuisine more broadly.

“I’m from the South, so my food or style of cooking leans toward South India,” he said. “But then we do Indian cuisine, because I always feel nobody represents the cuisine of India more than the Taj Group.”

Indian Spirits Add Another Dimension to the Celebration

The Diwali edition also brings an Indian spirits component to the dining experience through Sam Filmus, president of ImpEx Beverages, who presented single-malt whisky and rum produced by Piccadilly Distillery in Haryana, India.

Filmus said pairing Indian spirits with the participating restaurants’ menus offers another way to introduce diners to contemporary Indian culture.

“Indian culture has a special place in my heart,” Filmus said. “I just visited the distillery and the country and fell in love with it. My favorite food is Indian, and I think that the tradition of Indian culture brought through the cuisine is the best way to get people hooked.”

The featured selections include Indri single-malt whisky and Kamikara rum, made from pure cane juice. Filmus said the distillery’s rum production represents a distinctive offering in India’s spirits industry.

He described the single malt as a product gaining recognition among American consumers who traditionally favor Scotch whisky, bourbon and cognac.

“There is a demand for Indian whisky in the U.S.,” Filmus said. “People who like single-malt Scotch whisky, bourbon or cognac enjoy it. It’s a very special, unique taste.”

With six restaurants, a range of regional and contemporary menus, and an emphasis on food and spirits as expressions of cultural identity, the second annual Indian Restaurant Week aims to make Diwali a broader culinary celebration across San Francisco. The event also underscores the growing presence of Indian cuisine in the city’s fine-dining landscape and the role local chefs play in introducing its diversity to new audiences.