Red flags to watch for at a high-end Indian restaurant

• Chef Akshay Bhardwaj shared red flags to look out for when trying out a new high-end Indian restaurant.
• Skip places that “Westernize” the food excessively or use expensive ingredients for no reason.
• Ask if the spices are freshly ground and check if the toilets are well maintained.

When it comes to fine Indian cuisine, chef Akshay Bhardwaj understands the challenge Indian chefs face when balancing authenticity with American palettes.

He has been the executive chef at the acclaimed Indian restaurant Junoon in NYC since 2016, which under his leadership has earned a Michelin star for three consecutive years, continuing a winning streak that began in 2011.

He is also the executive chef at specialty street food outlet Jazba, which is celebrating its first anniversary on October 4-6 with a three-day food pop-up in collaboration with Jamun – a renowned Indian restaurant in Goa. India.

“Indian fine dining as a concept is a relatively recent phenomenon that has taken off in the last 10 to 15 years, particularly in America,” Bhardwaj told Business Insider.

This is in part because when Indians immigrated to the US, many came from humble backgrounds and did not have the means to spend money on fine dining.

This is no longer the case. American Indians have built their wealth and are ready to spend on luxury dining.

It’s no longer uncommon to see a mix of high-end and mid-range Indian restaurants popping up in New York, with Bloomberg reporting that the city’s Indian restaurants are “becoming a strong dining scene.”

Bhardwaj told Business Insider that his first piece of advice for anyone wanting to try modernized Indian items is to “come with an open mind and try.”

As someone who has worked closely on developing menus and reimagining traditional Indian flavors with a global twist, he knows when something isn’t quite right and shared the top five red flags he looks for when wanting an upscale Indian meal.

Here’s how you – like him – can distinguish the genuine from the superficial.