Chintan Pandya, Roni Mazumdar and Vijay Kumar Aren’t Apologizing for Indian Food
Observer ·
The restaurateurs behind Semma, Dhamaka and Adda and 2026 Nightlife & Dining Power List honorees, talk about regional Indian cuisine, growing their nine-concept group and the limits of pleasing diners.
Unapologetic Foods built its business around a simple premise: Indian food doesn’t need to be toned down to find an audience. The group’s co-founders, Roni Mazumdar and executive chef Chintan Pandya, opened Adda in Long Island City in 2018. The name Unapologetic Foods came a few months later, after a guest told Pandya he owed her an apology because the food was too spicy. He disagreed.
Since then, the group has grown to nine concepts, including Dhamaka, Rowdy Rooster and Masalawala & Sons, averaging 5,000 covers per week across its restaurants. Semma, the West Village restaurant led by chef Vijay Kumar and the group’s hottest table, holds a Michelin star and was ranked No. 9 on The New York Times’ 100 Best Restaurants in New York City for 2026, following a No. 1 finish the year before. It also ranked No. 41 on North America’s 50 Best Restaurants while Dhamaka placed No. 66 on the Times list.
Today, the group’s ambitions are reaching beyond Indian cuisine. With Filipino chef-partner and former chef de cuisine at Dhamaka Eric Valdez, Mazumdar and Pandya opened Naks, their first restaurant outside Indian cuisine, and later launched Sanwits, a 10-seat Filipino sandwich shop. They are also preparing to bring Adda to Philadelphia this winter, expanding Unapologetic Foods beyond the five boroughs while keeping the group’s hands-on approach to hospitality.
The philosophy behind the group’s growth is rooted in their commitment to regional cuisines, the people who cook them and the diners willing to discover something new. As Unapologetic Foods expands its footprint and restaurant portfolio, its founders are betting that their distinctive point of view can be their competitive advantage.
Mazumdar, Pandya and Kumar, 2026 Nightlife & Dining Power List honorees, talked to Observer about staying true to regional Indian cuisine, expanding Unapologetic Foods beyond its roots and why New York diners were never the problem.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Roni Mazumdar: The word was with us from the start. Chintan wanted to call Adda “Unapologetic Indian,” and we landed on “Indian Canteen” instead. Then, a few months after we opened in Long Island City in 2018, a guest told Chintan he owed her an apology because the food was too spicy. His answer was: “That’s the point, that’s how this food is supposed to taste.” That’s when we knew the word was ours. But it was never just about spice. It’s about eating with our hands, serving meat on the bone, a whole head of garlic, pots blackened from years over the flame. For too long, we’d been shrinking the flavor, the regions, the stories, ourselves, trying to fit a Eurocentric idea of what a restaurant should be. We were done with that. Being unapologetic isn’t defiance; it’s being exactly who you are and trusting that’s enough.
Vijay Kumar : Last year was unreal. My first thought was my team, then every home cook in Tamil Nadu. That No. 1 belonged to everyone who’d been told this food was too rustic, too spicy, too much. This year, I felt proud. Of course, you notice when the number changes, but for us, it was never about a ranking because we never thought we belonged on these lists at all, so we’re grateful for every bit of recognition that comes our way. The list changes every year, what matters is that the door we pushed open is staying open, and our integrity doesn’t change.
Vijay Kumar : The nathai pirattal, our snails. As a kid, I spent vacations at my grandparents’ place in the countryside, foraging snails in the paddy fields and eating them right there, which in India was a food of rural poverty, something you didn’t talk about. Then I went to culinary school and learned about escargot, and suddenly the thing I’d been ashamed of my whole life was a delicacy. When I told Roni and Chintan that story, they said it had to go on the menu. I honestly didn’t think New York would order it, but it sells out most nights. The dish I used to hide is the one people know us for.
Chintan Pandya: New York has never been the problem. They ate goat testicles from Meghalaya when everyone told us they wouldn’t. If something’s not on the menu, it’s because I’m not ready.
Roni Mazumdar: We’re nine concepts now, from full-service dining rooms to fast casuals that run on delivery, and we needed one platform that could support all of it. The question has also changed from “how do we fill tables” to “how do we actually know our guests.” Someone who eats at Semma on Friday might grab Rowdy Rooster on Tuesday and bring their family to Adda for a birthday. Having all of that under one roof lets us understand the whole person and own that relationship directly, so we can talk to them like people who know them. For a group like ours, that’s not a tech decision, it’s a hospitality decision.
Roni Mazumdar: Philly has a dining scene full of people taking real chances, and that’s who we want to be around, and it’s also close enough that Chintan and I can be on the floor, not running it from a distance. But the real reason is in the name. An adda is a gathering, the place people come to talk for hours. Philadelphia has an incredibly diverse community with its own markets and gathering spaces. Adda Philly isn’t a copy of New York, but it’s that same soul, built around the city’s people.
Roni Mazumdar: Eric has been with us from the beginning of our journey, eventually becoming chef de cuisine at Dhamaka. One day, he came to us and said he wanted to cook the food of the Philippines with the same respect we give Indian food. That became Naks. Sanwits is the next step. Everybody understands a sandwich, and Eric uses it to open the door: lechon, bagoong, caldereta, flavors from Manila on a hero roll, two blocks from Naks. Somebody comes in for lunch and leaves curious about the whole cuisine. For us, it’s the whole point of UAF [Unapologetic Foods], it’s not about myself and Chintan, it’s a platform for other people to feel proud to share their story.
The one thing we’ll never say yes to? “Can you make it less spicy?”
See all of Observer’s 2026 Nightlife & Dining Power List honorees.