Photos By Jonny Grave, Words By Brandon Wetherbee
All you need to know is Rasika’s executive chef has a new room. Bindaas, opening Wednesday, August 10, should please the high end Indian food lover that doesn’t always want to spend high end prices. The name of the restaurant is Indian slang meaning independent, cool and carefree. With menu items from $4 to $16, diners should be carefree in this Cleveland Park restaurant.
The 3309 Connecticut Avenue NW space says goodbye Bardeo and hello to bindaas. The restaurant will feature dishes by Executive Chef Vikram Sunderman and the bar will specialize in Indian liquors and beers.
The opening of bindaas was in our Your Best August feature. Here’s what we wrote:
Ardeo and Bardeo, long-time stalwarts of the Cleveland Park dining scene and (along with Rasika and Bombay Club) pieces of Ashok Bajaj’s Knightsbridge Restaurant Group empire, are being combined to make room for his newest concept: bindaas, which will feature innovative, street food Indian dishes under the direction of Group Executive Chef Vikram Sunderman.
All of that is true. What we didn’t expect is the lightness. We don’t tend to associate street food with healthy, but the dishes at bindaas are. The rice pancake with sweet corn and the salmon kabob was great on a 90 degree day. You’re not going to find heavy curries or typical Indian dishes at bindaas. It’s more about the basics at reasonable prices.
