INDAY

Shredded Tofu Go Salad

Grass-fed Steak and Not Rice

If you're jonesing for the oil-slicked, steam-table gut-bombs of cheap Indian food, best head east to Curry Hill.  Inday, a Flatiron newcomer, celebrates instead the vibrant, salubrious elements of Indian cuisine, so far succeeding wildly to establish itself as a front-runner in the neighborhood's competitive lunch circles. It does so with a flight of well-seasoned bowls, constructed in a Chipotle-esque fashion, customizing proteins and bases.  Pair warm, fluffy cauliflower "Not Rice" with red spice-marinated grass-fed steak ($12), whose chunks have a fair amount of marbling.  But being grass-fed, the fat is sweet and unctuous instead of gristly and off-putting.  If that still doesn't appeal to you, you can keep in the Mahatma's good graces with a vegan hash of delightfully shredded smoked tofu ($12) over "Go Salad", a gingery slaw garnished with sesame-flecked carrots and beets. 

Grilled Chicken and The Roots

The grilled chicken, on the other hand,  is really dry...  a tragedy, really, given that they're using good quality, free-range birds.  Better off with the turkey, which is stewed in a onion confit to retain some juiciness.  For extra flavor, dab on some of the house-made sauce and amp up the Scovilles.  The zesty red is milder though still peppery; the green yogurt's pale color belies its fiery oomph.  Don't let that stop you- it's addictively good.  There's also a soothing yogurt raita to calm your palate if things get too frisky- because even invigorating juice drinks are spiked with cayenne.  There's a Arnold Karma that riffs on the Palmer with ginger, tumeric and cayenne, and a red lemonade with more of the same.

Aside from bowls, dinnertime avails Dosa Waffles not offered at lunchtime. A chewy, toasty crackerbread is a combination of sugar and waffle cones but nary a hint of sweetness.  Top it with Russ & Daughters' supple Norwegian smoked salmon and a thick lemony yogurt "shmear", or go heartier with hand-pulled bbq steak bolstered with tomato chutney.   They are said to be pushing more into dinner territory, their website flaunting Moong Dal flatbreads that appear to incorporate an entire meal.  But for the time, everything is served in compostible paper bowls with disposable plastic utensils, so it doesn't really feel like a dinner destination.  Plus, there's no liquor license (another aspect they are working on).  They are, however, expanding with other locations, and hoping to get the infrastructure down for a more dinner-friendly experience, so keep an eye out.

(Don't laugh.  It's pudding.)

Desserts tend virtuous, as well, in keeping with the rest of the menu.  A chocolate-avocado pudding would probably appeal more to the raw/vegan set than those who can experience the real thing.  To me, it still tasted really healthy.  There's also a little cup of  cardamom yogurt dressed with berry compote, but if that seems to breakfasty, opt for cozy cacao-chai tea, which comes with two little cocoa-date-coconut truffles, although these again fall into the health-food-tasting category to me. But they're tasty enough, and this is all in good keeping with
 Inday's philosophy:  "Good Karma Served Daily", which is literally written on the wall.  I mean, with the added bonus of circulating good energy into the universe and a potentially favorable afterlife, Inday is pretty much a win-win.

1133 Broadway
(at 26th St)