Vegetarian Indian Restaurant from Female Chef Stays Strong: Besharam, Dogpatch
In the sleepy (at night)-but-special Dogpatch — next door to multi-room Minnesota Street Project art galleries, which sustains local artists — is Besharam, one of San Francisco’s best modern Indian restaurants. Excellent as Copra, TIYA, ROOH (below) or newcomers like Bombay Brasserie may be, none have a female chef and none are full vegetarian. Chef Heena Patel has been quietly and powerfully holding down at Besharam, not just with inspired, regional modern Indian cooking, but a menu that is 100% vegetarian.
Patel has stayed loyal to her original vision, which she told me about back in 2018 when I interviewed her as part of a Time Out print cover story on Daniel Patterson’s Alta Restaurant Group. I was touched by the La Cocina alum’s focus, sincerity and humility and have appreciated her restaurant ever since. Upon my return this October 2024, her shining silver hair glowed from the open kitchen in the inviting, industrial dining room warmed up by a Bollywood-worthy mural from artist Maria Qamar. In August 2021, Patel went full vegetarian as she said she would. You won’t miss the meat.
Heena’s family hails from the state of Gujarat in western India, while she grew up in Mumbai (then named Bombay). Her menu is a hyper-regional journey through Mumbai and two Gujarat cities: Ahmedabad and Surat, each section offering three to four small plates and the same number of larger plates. There’s also a reasonable $85 tasting menu to get a cross-section of dishes and a shorter lunch menu only on Saturdays.
Chef Patel’s nourishing and inspired cooking gifts are apparent tasting an array of chutneys and “pickle” alone. There are a good 12 of them, from vibrant lime pickle to a cool ginger cilantro-laced coconut chutney. Fresh, pickled turmeric wows, as does chundo, or mango pickle with black mustard asafetida (read of this fascinating resin unceremoniously called “devil’s dung” here).
Diving first in the city of Ahmedabad, highlights include a Manila mango salad that goes beyond many mango salads: mango tossed with endive, radicchio, lettuces and bhel puffed rice in a white miso sesame dressing. Since the early days, dahi wada, or urad dal (black gram lentils) fritters drizzled in yogurt and chutneys like tamarind and mint cilantro, remains one of Patel’s most gratifying dishes. Her dhokli dish has evolved over the years and is currently a bowl filled with lentil dal, local Hodo Foods organic yuba sheets and chickpea noodles. Historically, the yuba noodles were excessive, but not now. The textural stew comforts in layers of texture and flavors.
Moving to the Surat menu section, dabeli paratha delights: it’s three peanut bhel and spiced potato cakes dotted with micro greens and red chutney. Among larger plates, two impress for different reasons. First, the balanced heat and soft texture of ringna no olo, a bowl of chipotle garlic confit, fire-charred eggplant. Secondly, coconut moilee, a beauty of a curry packed with bitter melon stir fry, masala peanuts and lemongrass sauce. All this is ideal scooped up with her breads, like coconut-cumin-whole wheat roti or cheesy (mozzarella) garlic naan, studded with pine nuts and sunflower seeds.
Finishing in Mumbai, this section is packed with goodness, like hearty malai koftas, or mild paneer cheese patties, swimming in cashew cream sauce. All three small plates gratify, starting with Patel’s unique Paresh’s paratha, named after her husband. Unforgettably, her unleavened wheat flatbreads are marked by Point Reyes blue cheese and raspberry compote. Visually striking kachori dumplings are filled with spiced pigeon peas in ginger jaggery sauce, contrasted by a broth of sesame rasam.
With a solid wine list and beers on draft from Harmonic Brewing just around the corner, cocktails aren’t as balanced as they were in some visits past. Tasting three different cocktails, Winter Formal particularly called to me because it featured kummel, a German cumin liqueur I‘ve long loved and is perfect with Indian food. This Pelotón Mezcal cocktail is appropriately icy-cool with kummel and chili reduction but was too sweet. Toning it down on the sweetness could make this a simple but unusual, cumin-forward sipper unforgettable. It works beautifully with the food.
A couple desserts end strong, namely a caramelized carrot and cashew halwa, a not-too-sweet “paste” or mash of flour, butter, saffron, rosewater, turmeric, sugar and nutmeg.
Patel retains her comfort food mastery yet keeps things current and interesting, continuing what I have loved in the past, while evolving and adding to her winning “you won’t miss the meat” vegetarian menu. Her graciousness centers the place and makes this edge-of-town neighborhood worth heading to for a nurturing Indian feast.
// 1275 Minnesota Street, https://besharamrestaurant.com
New Chef from Delhi at ROOH, SoMa
Since it opened in 2017, I’ve been visiting and writing about Good Times Restaurants’ Vikram and Anu Bhambri’s ROOH San Francisco, the original ROOH (locally, there is also one in Palo Alto). Much of its appeal was thanks to the skilled cooking of chef brothers Sujan and Pujan Sarkar, who went on to open TIYA in SF in May 2024.
I appreciate that the Bhambris took their time bringing on a new chef. From my initial visit to try the new chef’s fall menu, which just launched October 20, 2024, it seems apparent they made the right choice. They hired Valice Francis, who hails from Delhi, and has cooked at acclaimed restaurants like Trident DKC and Masala Library in Mumbai, Daarukhana in Hong Kong and Indian Accent in New Delhi and NYC. Chatting with Francis over our meal, I appreciated that he seems like a dedicated family man, pulling on his global cooking experience but (rightly) invigorated by our unparalleled NorCal ingredients.
ROOH’s narrow, lofty, colorful space is much the same as it always was and isn’t my draw here. Thankfully, despite the talented Sarkars moving on to TIYA, ROOH’s number one draw remains the food under chef Francis’ direction. His chaat, or “street food” bites, are elevated and interesting, especially the likes of a potato tikki in fried potato cakes, almost hashbrown-like form, lush with yogurt, mint chutney and tangy tamarind sauce. Or irresistible dahi puri semolina puffs filled with yogurt mousse, avocado, tamarind, raspberry and mint, all melding brightly in one bite. He goes blessedly different with black garlic naan instead of ubiquitous garlic naan, which is also on-menu. Or the likes of chili paneer and cotija cheese puffs, marrying Indian flavors with California’s Mexico roots.
Show-stealers are unexpectedly Kashmiri nandru, or lotus stem chips irresistibly caramelized in chili sauce with walnuts and radish chutney. It’s ideal drinking food with cocktails like Bloody Smash, a Brazilian cachaça and amaro cocktail bright with blood orange, lime, serrano bitters and a welcome, food-friendly hit of savory cumin.
Another winner is tamarind-glazed Scottish langoustines and snow peas in coconut curry. The shrimp are plump and juicy, the curry creamy-soothing, all of it one harmonious whole. But chili garlic crab teeming in a spicy garlic sauce with soft pao bread aromatic with makrut lime to scoop it up is my number one dish. I started craving it as soon as I finished it. It’s enough to leave me intrigued by chef Francis’ palate, as dishes like the chile crab would be right at home in international Singapore, home of chili crab, but are decidedly Indian.
While the cocktails and wine list are solid but not a draw on their own, Francis’ cooking is. It’s lively and bold yet also homey and comforting. Thankfully, it seems he’ll bring ROOH into its next era, deliciousness intact.
// 333 Brannan Street, www.roohsf.com