The Monk's — Restaurant in Carmel

NB upfront: first visit, stuck to south Asian (Desi) dishes…

The website makes the space look more glamorous than it is. If that’s your thing only, don’t bother. If you like south Asian cooking, keep reading.

The menu looks and is all over the place, from (way) south through the north (momo is not Nepalese, necessarily). and moves into the eastern variations according to the menu with apparent flavors of Xinjian. I did not go into the dishes inspired by that region, on this visit, but the menu seems to tap all of that. The cuisine and three chefs are from southern India… punjab (?) to the NWFP (?) and western China.

On sitting down I thought no restaurant can possibly span this and be even adequate, and I can’t say that still having stuck to the subcontinent on this first visit. I can say, however, that the tandoori paneer momos were not the momos you might expect in Nepal, not momos at all, really, but were absolutely delicious and had a complex heat that would be alien in the north. Perhaps not regionally exact, but they were good. Very good.

Chaats again followed a southern profile, so expect that. Would have liked a brighter more tart curd, however, and more of it.

No Nihari, which I would have liked to see in a pan-s-Asian spot like this, but so be it.

They seem to be able to source the essential ingredients for a wide, an impossibly wide, culinary region, which is the strength with the abilities of the multiple chefs.

If you want an introduction to south Asian variety, this is a good spot (with the caveat that it takes a lifetime to learn just one region).

The product is well prepared, and as thoughtful as possible for a menu so complex. The service excellent, with thanks to Mr. Adi’s professionalism in particular.

Having traveled and eaten through South Asia from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka etc (and many pretentious places in eastern and western capitals) I am pleasantly surprised to find this in Carmel, Indiana. Given the opportunity it would be great to go through the menu one at a time and taste everything. I expect some will be better than others, but if anyone is curious, start...

Food was great lets not forget that, I will say they should include how many pieces of food come in a app when ordering. We had ordered 3 Somosa apps which they combined into 2 plates but never mentioned it so we just assumed they forgot one. We told our server and they proceeded to give us another order on the house (Fantastic solution). The service on the other hand was on a whole different level. My party of 5 proceed to be sat in the back of the restaurant while there is plenty of seating in the front. We emptied out our water pitcher so we place it to the side to have the server refill it right. Server takes away the water pitcher to never be seen again. We actually have to request more water once they come back to deliver us our entrees. After we eat our food we then sat waiting for someone to check up on us or to at least see how the food was for 20 long mins. My gf then got up and walked up to a server and requested for some to go containers and this is the servers reply "I'm getting there". Now imagine this but now include a table who walks in after you, and sat down, gets constant service, and gets to go packaging and checks out before you do. I will say they had a large party in the back of the restaurant behind closed doors, but that doesn't justify the bad service, especially if the table after us who walked in was served A+ service. You could even say its due to them sitting us in the back where they may have forgotten about us, still unjustifiable. I'm telling you the table that sat down after us was I'd say 8-10 feet away. The server would serve them and practically almost purposely not look in our direction as if they were avoiding eye contact of any sort (we tried to wave them down even). We were courteous and nice, didn't say anything negative, but I hope they step of their hospitality game in the future. My party & I will more than likely not be returning anytime soon if at all. They mentioned being new to the location and even had the audacity to mentioned rating them on google when we checked out. Needless to say this rating was already up...

You have to eat here!! I live in DC and am very picky about food and Indian food especially as it's gotta be fresh and scratch-made with depth of flavor...Everything was so fresh, flavorful and delicious!!! Fluffy rice. Big portions. Fresh and acutal naan... Great chicken momos, sauces, lamb biryani and another chicken dish I forget which (geluga?)....chicken was moist, not fatty, and sauce had great flavor. Service was perfect but had to ask to please clear plates as dessert was served. They are good at suggesting items. Also they gave us spicy when they asked our spice level preferences and we indicated we liked spicy. They recommended dishes based on us liking spicy food and our protein of choice. They offer veg, panner, chicken, goat, and lamb and maybe also shrimp. No beef as expected (cows are holy in Hinduism and not consumed).

Wasn't planning on writing a review so didn't take any photos, sorry!

The menu is extensive and it includes tandoor items which is cool; I only tried the chicken tandoori momos (dumplings) which were crispy and had ground chicken mixture with herbs and onions and served with two sauces. The owners are from south India so you will see that featured on the menu but not exclusively! I did not try any of the fusion dishes.

Ras malai is also very good; it's my go-to Indian dessert and it is milky if that's your thing (if not, your loss! ;)). Would love some more pistachio bits and also some saffron flavor and more cardamom flavor...but that's me being picky about the ras malai :).

Will definitely be back. Happy to see Carmel/Indy area with a proper Indian restaurant (I just don't know many here; to be fair, I haven't tried any here in a long time here and come here often to see family)!

Several members of my family also came here in May and also had an...