IKKA Indian Dining & Mixology Bar opens in Huntington

Next time you're walking around Huntington Village thinking about what to eat for dinner, may we suggest going to IKKA to see the biryani in a tube ... It's rather dark inside the new restaurant, but when a server comes out carrying a half-charred tube made from bamboo, pay attention, because they're about to pour the steaming rice from its cooking vessel into a serving bowl. 

By the time we saw it, we'd already eaten our fill of coriander cakes and a deeply spiced goat curry served in a miniature pressure cooker that's cracked open at the table. But the Thalassery chicken bamboo biryani ($28) is just one of the many spectacles at this ambitious Indian restaurant and cocktail bar. 

IKKA is the latest highbrow Indian spot to open, after Banjara and Bhaijaan began to wow customers in the Indian food corridor of Hicksville-Bethpage. It opened April 30 on the heels of another similar concept, Kahani, which is just down the street in Huntington. The elevated but spare dining room at IKKA doesn't compare to the tapestry laden elegance of Kahani, but the food makes it a top pick of the moment for Huntington.

Run by four longtime friends from New Jersey, IKKA refers to the ace of spades in Hindi and Punjabi languages, says co-owner Harman Singh. The group — which also includes Sumeet Nayyar, Nitin Nayyar and chef Suraj Pawar — also own a high-end restaurant named Essence of Kesar in Englewood, New Jersey. Pawar hails from Mumbai and incorporates the flavors from the bustling port city into his menu, alongside fusion dishes and crowd pleasers from all over India.

The menu feels like it's doing a few things at once, with dishes like a paneer lasagna, or tuna tostadas tossed with Indian chatpati spices. But then there are elegant takes on homestyle Mumbai foods, like a classic Maharastrian snack, kothimbir vadi ($16). The name refers to steamed and then pan-fried cakes of chickpea flour and fresh cilantro, which give the dense cakes a dark green hue and a snappy flavor.

More satisfying yet, are the pav dishes, a famous Mumbai street food that involves a heady curry that's sopped up with piping hot house-made bread rolls, which were introduced to Mumbai by Portuguese traders. There's a thick vegetable curry that goes by the name pav bhaji fondue, although the cheese is barely present. And for ground meat eaters, the Bombay mutton keema pav ($22) hits all the comforting notes of a sloppy Joe, but with more compelling spices. 

Singh also touts the cocktail menu, which sports interesting mashups like the Sharabi Paan ($18), a riff on an old fashioned that incorporates the flavors of paan leaves into the mezcal. Each batch of infused mezcal takes two days to make, as the herbaceous leaves are ground and clarified before being mixed with the mezcal.

IKKA Indian Dining & Mixology Bar, 371 New York Ave., Huntington, 631-223-3644, ikkanewyork.com. Open noon to 3:30 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to midnight Saturday, noon to 11 p.m. Sunday.