Refined Indian dining, and saucy Nepali dumplings, at two new spots in Williamsburg and Chesapeake

Crisis breeds invention, perhaps. During the pandemic, two new restaurants — one Indian and one Nepali — have opened that are unlike any others in the region. Each is attuned to pandemic realities, eschewing the buffet model ubiquitous for Indian restaurants in Virginia. And though they both draw from the subcontinent, they couldn’t be more different.

In Williamsburg, Amiraj is an exercise in high-end Indian dining and delicate flavors, taking on the broadly syncretic history of regional food in India while adopting a distinctly Chesapeakean affinity for local crab and scallop.

In Chesapeake, Momo Kitchen is a takeout-friendly spot devoted to every version of the Nepalese momo dumpling — a fast-ish casual home to brothy and sauce-slathered depth charges of flavor.

The restaurants continue a welcome trend in Hampton Roads dining of the past six years, an expansion of what subcontinental dining can mean locally. That has included chutney-slathered chaat snacks at Tamarind in Norfolk; fiery South Indian plates at Biryani Hub and Swagath Plaza in Norfolk’s Military Circle; and widely disparate takes on Nepali dining at Chulo in Norfolk, and at Aago and VedEAT in Newport News.

Here’s what we found at the new spots.

Amiraj

204 Monticello Ave., Williamsburg, 757-565-3200, amiraj.com. 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m (3 p.m. weekends), and 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Takeout, delivery apps, and indoor dining. Brunch, $19 prix-fixe; lunch entrees, $11-$20; dinner entrees, $14-$26.

Alongside Rajput’s Paul Chhabra, the Nawab restaurant chain’s managing partner Ashok Arora is perhaps as responsible as anyone in southeastern Virginia for establishing the model of Indian restaurant most familiar to diners in Hampton Roads — an all-you-can-eat lunch smorgasbord centered on curries and scattered regional classics and northern Punjabi favorites such as clay-oven tandoori meats.

But as local diners’ tastes in Indian food have gotten more sophisticated, so have the restaurants Arora has opened — including what may be the most accomplished Indian restaurant in Virginia, the innovative and refined (and Beard-nominated) Lehja in Richmond.

When the pandemic shut down dining in Hampton Roads and made buffet eating untenable, Arora took the opportunity to re-imagine his Williamsburg location as a much more modern restaurant.

He rebranded the restaurant as Amiraj, removed the buffet, installed shimmering dividers and more low-hanging fixtures than an Alexander Calder mobile, and added an expansive cocktail and wine list. He also refigured the menu into a panoply of well-tended proteins and lesser-seen flavors.

The chef, Narinder Kumar, came to Amiraj after a stint at high-end Raleigh Indian spot Azitra. The menu at the revamped restaurant, which opened in September next to the Earth Fare grocery store, is a rainbow of bites with delicate and unlikely saucing: shrimp soaked in saffron-pomegranate marinade, Continentally influenced lamb chops rubbed with garlic, and Mediterranean octopus sauced in a tadka made by simmering an onion reduction with aromatic spice.

That octopus arrives as two meaty tendrils flavored with of coconutty sambar masala, punctuated by fresh-ground clove and black peppercorns that crack gently beneath your teeth. A voluminous pair of malai kofta, the fried potato-paneer gnocchi of India, swim in a thick cashew-pomegranate sauce of surprising complexity.

Where Amiraj has excelled most on two visits is in its attendance to the textures of scallop and shrimp, seared to a light edge and woundingly tender within. Indeed, two of the best-executed scallop dishes I’ve eaten recently have come from Amiraj. One was part of a brunchtime seafood medley doused in a lightly sweet curry from Portuguese-influenced Goa, on India’s southwestern coast.

But my favorite was a dish inspired by the Nilgiri region of India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, with generous lumps of crab — general manager Nitesh Arora says they source locally whenever possible — mixed with U10 scallops that yielded like butter to a curious fork. The sauce was a deceptively simple blend of coconut milk and fresh cilantro and curry leaves, a citric and gently nutty accent that still allowed the whisper-delicate proteins to express themselves.

Not everything was so successful: A couple of the chicken dishes, made with breast, came on a little dry. A turmeric-rich lentil soup was less subtle than dull. And while a non-alcoholic lychee ginger drink was a wonder of sweetness and light bite, a ginger-spiked mezcal cocktail was hot and astringent.

But if the restaurant has not attained the heights of sister restaurant Lehja, its devotion to subtlety and balance makes it a singular addition to Indian dining locally — though not a cheap one, at $18-$26 for meat entrees at dinner.

Diners who’d like to try an assortment of dishes at lower cost should take advantage of brunch from noon to 3 p.m. on weekends, where a three-course meal with a beer or white wine spritz clocks in at $19. Order the chaat snack of the day as a first course, and a lamb or Goan seafood curry entree, then fill up on freshly baked naan and aromatic basmati rice. You’ll find it’s one of the better brunch deals, and experiences, in the region.

The restaurant will steer diners to a la carte items for takeout — the multi-course brunch is more “experiential,” says Nitesh Arora — but brunch can also be had to go.

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Momo Kitchen

473 Kempsville Road, Chesapeake, 757-335-4949 momokitchenus.com. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. Takeout, delivery apps, and reservation-only indoor dining. $8-$11 dumpling plates and bowls.

On the opposite end of the dining spectrum, Chesapeake’s Momo Kitchen is built for comfort and fast-casual convenience. Kathmandu-born Suman Pandey and Kumud Joshi, along with partner Jason Rollins, had originally intended to open last March as an ode to the many versions of the famous Himalayan momo dumpling.

But as construction and inspection delays made opening restaurants last year into a Byzantine endeavor, the restaurant had to wait until November. The dumpling menu is also a little more streamlined than originally announced.

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And yet, the options still seem endless.

Dumplings arrive with a mix-and-match of customizable styles and flavors, each one a branch on an endless decision tree. Your momo dumplings may be filled with earthy chicken, or with gentle vegetable. They may come steamed or fried, pan-seared in the Kothey style, or as a lettuce wrap for the gluten-avoidant.

You may choose to take your dumplings naked — dippable in your choice of cilantro or tomato-chutney or sesame sauces, each one available at your desired level of spice. (Note: Spicing is mostly gentle here, and even the highest heat level is no more painful than the salsa that arrives with tortilla chips at Plaza Azteca.) Or, you may take your momos with deconstructed pizza ingredients, or doused in sweet-hot Nepalese chilli sauce. At Momo Kitchen, the world is your dumpling.

No momos here, it should be said, contain the mouth-gushing brothiness and herbal wallop found in the excellent versions served at Chulo in Norfolk’s JANAF shopping complex — and the fried dumplings at Momo Kitchen can have a dauntingly tough shell. The noodle and rice bowls can also feel like a work in progress.

It’s really the modular color wheel of flavors that makes Momo Kitchen a fun addition to the local Nepali landscape: the sheer chutzpah of pizza dumplings, the addition of thick yogurt sauce that makes its chilli-doused momos feel like sweet-spicy pierogi, and the comforting earthiness of the chicken-stuffed dumplings in particular. And if sweet is your huckleberry, the Chinese-influenced Manchurian sauce is a sugary, tangy blanket for momo.

Get the steamed or pan-seared versions — with the tomato-based sauce in particular — and the Kitchen’s momos are an addictive junk food that might even be healthy. Note, however, that wait times are long for the moment: Chesapeake has come out in force for these dumplings, so plan ahead accordingly.

Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com