Ettan opened in 2020 to great fanfare and reviews, including a Michelin nod and acclaim for its social-media worthy, Moorish-inspired ambience. While the restaurant is not yet open for lunch, the brunch and dinner menus offer selections designed to delight those seeking non-traditional Indian cuisine. The menu includes many vegan and gluten-free options and is peppered with gentle nods to Southern India’s many regional homestyle flavors including the heat from Beydgi chilies; the tenderness of a well made mor kulambu; or a kootu, a medley of vegetables and lentils from Southern India — all offering room for inquiry and conversation. If you’re new to these phrases, bringing a friend can help you appreciate these regional Indian flavors more. 

If your heart desires upscale progressive Indian dining, Rooh it is. With multiple locations across the country, the Bay Area boasts two — one in San Francisco and another in Palo Alto. The menu includes familiar dishes like makhani chicken and daal makhani, alongside non-traditional dishes like avocado and green chickpea bhel tostada and tandoori mushroom with a polenta upma. While the Ayurveda-inspired cocktail menu simply borrows rasa concepts without offering substantive guidance to an unsuspecting diner, the buzz-free beverages including teas and tisanes are better suited to provide holistic mind-body-spirit balance. The restaurant is currently operating in limited capacity, so call before your visit. 

Only the best chefs can boast a tenure at multiple locations of the Taj Group of Hotels, India’s ultimate luxury hospitality group, and Aurum chef Manish Tyagi is among them. Having honed his skills at many top-notch establishments across the country, Tyagi now calls Palo Alto home, and the city is lucky to have his playful yet on-point cuisine. Aurum showcases the diversity of regional India, enriching the dining experience with options like crab varuval, a fried crab dish from the Chettinad region; pithi, a bread from Bihar; and rajathani laal maas, lamb cooked with the regionally preferred Mathania chiles. Go hungry and save room for ghevar, a decadent dessert from Rajasthan.

Another restaurant with multiple locations in the Bay Area, Zareen’s is great if you’ve never had Indian food before. Since its opening in 2014, this restaurant remains easy on the pocketbook even after being included in the 2020 Michelin Guide. Zareen’s menu includes many options including a pre-fixe thali, traditional a la carte Indian meals, as well as Indian flavors in burgers. The flavor-packed dishes are mostly from Northern India and Pakistan. They have a robust capacity to cater to corporate clients, and with a casual ambiance, keep the ‘Indian college canteen’ feel. 

A simple establishment with multiple locations across the Bay Area, Chaat House offers another selection of quick and delightful snacks. Stop in to sample one of many griddle fried breads stuffed with radish greens, paneer, or onions; the seasonal makkai roti made with corn; and sarsoon saag made with mustard greens. The restaurant also offers a pre-fixe style thali to make easy work of picking through the large menu. 

Set in an office park complex with an innocuous storefront, Puranpoli delivers flavorful and robust eats from Western India. Two siblings, Roshan and Sheetal, bring the best flavors of heartwarming Maharashtrian comfort foods for an unforgettable feast. As a vegetarian restaurant, Puranpoli offers plenty of choices for diners with dietary restrictions. Plan to include bharli vangi, or stuffed baby eggplants in a rich tamarind-peanut sauce; zunka-bhakar, a classic pairing of rice flour bread with an entree of seasoned steamed chickpea flour; modak, traditional rice dumplings filled with a jaggery-coconut stuffing; and of course, puranpoli, a griddle-fried, stuffed sweet bread. Pick up a side of thecha, a condiment that can perk up any meal. Takeout only.

This international restaurant chain, with one location in a shopping mall in Milpitas and another in Santa Clara, serves classic dishes from the Chettinad region of India. While its menu includes dishes from both Northern and Southern India, stop in to sample steamed rice preparations like aapam and idiyappam with your choice of protein; king fish; ceylon porota, an Indian dish with Sri Lankan influence; ennai kathirikkai, or eggplants cooked in sesame oil; and poondu kuzhambu, a side dish made exclusively with garlic cloves. With branches across South East Asia, they have a large selection of Indo-Chinese dishes as well.