Malai Marke - a new Indian on (gasp!) 6th St.

[Bob Martinez]

Another month, another good new Indian restaurant. Last month I wrote about Chote Nawab, an Indian restaurant which opened last summer.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/885389

In researching the place I learned that the owner, Shiva Naratjan, had just opened yet another restaurant on 6th St., Malai Marke.

Yes, 6th St.

This strip of Indian restaurants has been there since the late 1970s. The food was never stellar but most of us eating there didn’t know any better. They were our introduction to Indian cuisine.

As time went on a lot of us gradually outgrew them. In my case frequent trips to London opened up whole new vistas of Indian dining. With occasional exceptions most of the 6th St. places were barely acceptable. They were also very much alike – the long standing joke was that they shared a common kitchen. Over time the center of gravity for Indian restaurants moved north to Curry Hill. The old strip seemed like it was caught in a time warp; mediocre food served in a fusty atmosphere.

But sometimes things change. We’ve liked Dhaba and Chote Nawab, Naratjan’s other places, so we figured we’d give Malai Marke a try. It worked out nicely.

Like Naratjan’s other restaurants MM has a nice contemporary glossiness about it.

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The menu had plenty of familiar things on it as well of plenty of dishes that were new to us. We mixed and matched and ordered too much food because, well, that’s what we do.

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Patiala Lamb Kabab spiced - pan grilled lamb patties. This was new to us. Not overwhelmingly lamby but certainly more assertive than a chicken patty. Juicy and nicely spiced. Dishes like this are why I go to Indian restaurants.

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Ragara Patties - spiced potato patties with chickpeas, yogurt and chutnies. This was served at room temperature. A classic side dish, relatively mild and made for offsetting the spicier options on the menu. It would have been nice if the menu had mentioned the temperature. I still would have ordered it but my mouth was expecting a hot dish.

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Chicken Achari. We’ve had this before but I can’t remember a better version. This was suitably moist with mid range heat. Very good indeed.

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Garlic nan, because we always order it. Greasy in a very good way.

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Seekh Kabab - skewered lamb rolls. The best version I’ve ever had of this dish was served at the Delhi Brasserie in London’s Soho, a 10 out of 10. I try not to think about it too often because I’ve been disappointed by versions served in New York. Malai Marke’s version was really pretty good, juicier than others. I marked it down a bit because the spicing wasn’t as complex as renditions I’ve had in London but really, their’s is very good.

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Chicken Tikka Masala. A perennial favorite of my GF’s. MM’s iteration was very good indeed, rich in a good way. I’ve never had a better version.

We later learned that Malai Marke had only opened the previous week. Had we known we would have held off our visit for at least 3 or 4 weeks in order to give the kitchen a chance to settle down and to let the serving staff find their stride. I attribute the unusual smoothness of our meal to Naratjan’s professionalism. He’s been in this business for awhile and he knows how to open a restaurant that hits on all cylinders from the start. I also suspect that owning multiple restaurants is an advantage. He probably switches seasoned staff around to avoid staffing a new restaurant with people who’ve never worked with each other.

All of that worked in our favor. Our meal was first rate and we look forward to getting back and working our way through the menu.

You know who the only people around who probably aren’t very happy about Malai Marke? The owners of those tired and mediocre places on 6th St. They’re going to have to get better fast or have their business take a real hit. MM has raised the bar.

Malai Marke
318 E 6th St
(between 1st Ave & 2nd Ave
)Manhattan, NY 10003

[phone]

http://www.malaimarke.com

[rrems]

So for someone who has not been to Malai Marke, Chote Nawab and Dhaba, which would you recommend trying? Our favorite Indian restaurants are Moti Mahal, Tulsi and Junoon, if that gives you some idea of our tastes.

[rrems]

Well, since no one replied, we decided to just go ahead and try Malai Marke, as it is in walking distance for us. We had a very good meal. The appetizers, chicken achari and Patiala lamb kebab, were good, and nicely spicy, but the chicken was oversalted and both could have used a sauce of some kind to add a bit of moisture and complexity. The main courses were exemplary. We had shrimp caldeen, goat curry, punjabi cabbage and lemon rice. It was a lot of food, seriously delicious, and spicy. For dessert we shared a rice pudding, nothing earth-shattering but a really good example of comfort food that we polished off in a minute. Sixpoint Bengali Tiger was an excellent accompaniment to the food. We liked this at least as much as Moti Mahal, maybe a bit better.

[Pan]

Thanks a lot for the report! What time of night were you there, and how crowded was it? I ask because I'm wondering whether I'm likely to have luck just showing up as a single diner.

[rrems]

We had an 8:30 res. It was not crowded, so you definitely could walk in,but Opentable allows a reservation for 1, so why take a chance?

[Pan]

Because I'm in the neighborhood and like to be impulsive. :-)

[rottyguy]

Went here last night and had a great time. Ordered 3 appetizers (actually 2 but they sent the wrong one and gave it to us for free), a beer, lassi, chicken saag, chicken tikka massala, nan, and rice.

Firstly, I find places that charge for rice to be despicable. That said, for all that food, the entire meal was around $60 (w/o tip) so I won't complain too loudly. CTM was fantastic, the chicken saag was good but a little heavy on the salt. That said, we're happy that a good indian place in EV is here. The space is a little strange. It's narrow and split down the middle as it's two store front that straddles and apartment entrance. Hopefully their success will offer them some mobility options to relo at some point.

[rottyguy]

I dearly hope this is true. Living in EV and traveling to Curry Hill has never been convenient. I love indian and love EV but the two have been mutally exclusive to my dismay. Will check it out soon!. Thanks!

[Peter Cuce]

!

[howdini]

Banjara, on the corner of 1st Av. and 6th St., is very good.

[Pan]

Yeah, I like it, too. And they will make food very spicy for you if you ask. I sometimes get lamb vindaloo there and ask for it to be not sweet but very sour and very spicy, and it's great!

[howdini]

Oo, l gotta try that, thanks for the rec! Usually l order stuff that l don't see at other lndian places [the pot pies, dumpakht, are terrific], but all of the standard fare is nice, too. l'm a sucker for navratan korma, and they do a great version of it.

[Pan]

Yes they do. I order that, too, sometimes. The dumpakht is very rich, but that's authentic, as I understand.

[Peter Cuce]

I hadn't been to Banjara in about 10 years, but gave it a go the other day based on these recs, and have to say, I remember why I hadn't been back. I got the vindaloo, asked for it as above, and found it just as one-dimensional as most Manhattan Indian food, tomato-y, vinegary base, with lots of hot spice but no depth or breadth of flavor.

[Pan]

Ah well.

[comiendosiempre]

Ironically, had we not been able to get into Malai Marke we would have gone to -- Chote Nawab. We have not tried it yet and it looks interesting.

[albinoni]

Loved the intro to your review. I (we) lived on 6th St. in the early to mid '70's, when there were only three Indian places--Shah Bagh was our go-to joint, probably because we could get out for about 50 cents less than the other places. Once we left the nabe for Brooklyn, we returned to the block a few times, but eventually the Jackson Diner stole our affections. They relocated and went downhill about the same time we moved to Jersey. We now live just a short drive from Oak Tree Road in Edison, where our general impression is overpriced food that can be OK, but not good enough to get us back. This sentiment seems to be borne out by posts on CH's New Jersey board, where no single place has garnered a critical mass of favorable comments, and the consensus seems to be that downhill slides are so predictable, no review is valid more than six months after it is published.

[NYJewboy]

Aah, the Shah Bagh days. Thanks for reminding me of my mis-spent youth.

[Peter Cuce]

I went three times in the first month it was open and was disappointed because not only wasn't it as good as Dhaba, it wasn't better than any other average Indian place in town. None of the food had much depth of spice or flavor and tomato seemed to be over-used. But I trust your taste - it must have gotten better.

[Bob Martinez]

Wow. I'm sorry about that. I've been to MM 3 times and it was good to very good each time.

Based on my rec. a number of people from another food board went there in the first 6 weeks. Some of them are huge PITAs (in a good way, of course) and they all liked it. Believe me, these folks wouldn't be shy in voicing their disappointment.

Maybe there's a difference in what we ordered? I didn't have anything that contained tomato. Do you remember what you had?

Dhaba's been our benchmark for years. We've also had a couple of good meals at Chote Nawab, Dhaba's sister restaurant. I've thought MM was comparable although a bit different. These places aren't chains - their menus overlap a bit but they have their own personalities.

Anyway, I'm sorry for your bad meals. That happens to me occasionally at other restaurants and I take that type of thing personally.

[Peter Cuce]

Didn't take any particular note of food eaten due to aforementioned disenchantment, but what I was trying to indicate was that shortcut a lot of Indian restaurants take when creating dishes. They're not hewing necessarily to the recipe but instead making some generic base and using it for many dishes. Anyway, I'm in the area every Thursday so will try to hit it next week. If it's good I am happy about it - I never want to have bad meals of course.

[Bob Martinez]

You're a brave guy. I don't know if I'd give them another chance after 3 bad meals.

On my last trip I had a dish which I liked a lot - Chicken Xacuti. If you're feeling lucky give it a try.

[comiendosiempre]

We went to Malai Marke on a recent Saturday night. We had an excellent meal.

Plainly the restaurant has been "discovered." We did not have a reservation and at a little before 9 p.m. we waited about 15 mins for a table in the "main" room. As we waited quite a number of other folks showed up; some with reservations, some without. There did seem to be an issue as to whether reservations were properly taken down. Some diners showed up claiming a reservation and none was there. We were told that by ten p.m. you can walk right in. I would call in advance. Lunch is much calmer.

In any event, we had generally good service. The kitchen is open as you walk in to the back of the restaurant and you can see the chefs are flying and, to my eye (I cook a bunch of Indian at home) were well on their game. They have a number of wine and beer options. The bengali sixpoint was good, and I have not much seen it in other spots.

We had an excellent spicy sauteed paneer appetizer. With onions, a few peppers. Perhaps a bit like a chicken 65 sauce. Spicy. Really very very good. Addictive; we enjoyed it very much. The much talked about okra was also very good. Both our chicken and lamb dishes were excellent. The lamb spicier than the chicken. Very good lemon rice and an outstanding garlic naan. We did watch the chef make a very interesting looking shrimp dish as we were waiting, in a light coriander sauce; it looked great. We will try it next time. Currently, it is our favorite Indian in NYC and prefer it over Dhaba and Mohti Mahal. Cheers.

[Pan]

Thanks for the report.

[Bob Martinez]

ComiedoS, thanks for the report. I'm glad you liked it.

Malai Marke is on OpenTable. I just checked and as of now, Friday at 7:45AM, they have tables for two available at 8:00PM on Saturday.

OpenTable is the way to go.

[Pan]

Thanks for the good and surprising news. I'll be sure to check the place out.

[Dave Feldman]

Thanks for the review (and great photos). How would you compare the quality to Dhaba?

[Bob Martinez]

It's premature to compare Malai Marke with Dhaba since I've only had one meal. At least for that one, however, the quality was comparable. I was planning on going back the past weekend but the snow crossed up my plans. I'll post about my next meal.

FWIW I've eaten twice at Chote Nawab, Natarajan's other NY restaurant (besides Chola), and the food quality there was certainly comparable with Dhaba's.