Call it the Semma effect. You can now get a good sampling of coastal South Indian food in Manhattan at places like Kanyakumari and Lungi, which adds on Sri Lankan food, too. But we’ve been waiting for an NYC restaurant to do proper justice to the cuisine of Kerala—specifically to the state’s toddy shops, where you sit at a plastic table, drink tumblers of rapidly fermenting palm sap toddy out of tumblers, and eat masala-crusted fish, and chunks of beef sauteed with peppercorns, fried curry leaves, coconut, and shredded shallots.

photo credit: Alex Staniloff

photo credit: Alex Staniloff

Chatti in Midtown comes closest in spirit with its “touchings” menu: two dozen tapas-style dishes neatly pictured on placemats for the uninitiated. Their Malabar mutton and various crunchy cutlets are musts, and their toddy shop beef fry and Calicut mussels pair perfectly with a cold beer. Chatti’s mains—though good—are a little expensive for the portion size. We’d sooner send you here for a drinks-and-snacks dinner in the clubby back room rather than a three-course meal.

The food might follow the toddy shop model, but the 37th Street restaurant is far from a backwater shack. Everyone starts the meal off with a tamarind amuse bouche, the walls are made of glass bricks, and the bar is stocked with whiskey rather than actual palm toddy (we can dream). They do have good cocktails, though. Try a sambhar vodka concoction with all the complexity of the South Indian soup, just in clarified form and poured over clear ice. It tastes a little like a spicy marg.

photo credit: Alex Staniloff