Chennai Garden (CLOSED)

The sparsely decorated Gramercy café won’t attract passersby with its looks, but it does have some of the tastiest South Indian food in Manhattan—and it’s kosher and vegetarian to boot. Channa chat, cold chickpeas in a yogurt and smoky-sweet tamarind sauce, and lentil chat, lentil flour fritters drenched in mustard-seed-and-chili yogurt, are among our new favorite comfort foods. Curries include undhiyu, an unusual combination of yam, eggplant and snow peas in a rich, mildly peppery butter sauce. The vanilla rice pudding is a tasty finale.