Pondicheri

Pondicheri built its name on breakfast and lunch, and that's still the case worth making. The all-day Indian menu leans into street food built with color and craft — chicken and black bean samosas with cilantro chutney, carrot parathas stuffed with spiced cauliflower — plus a bakery program strong enough to earn its own room upstairs. In daylight, with the dining room sunny and open, this is the version of Pondicheri worth seeking out.

Dinner is a different, lesser restaurant wearing the same menu. The lamb keema and other evening dishes are tasty, sometimes excellent, but the room goes cavernous and harshly lit after dark, and the kitchen doesn't bring enough urgency to justify the shift. Go for lunch. Skip the dinner reservation.

The recognition backs up the daytime case rather than the whole operation — a Best New Restaurant nod early on, three Best Chef nominations in the years since, plus local press attention that's tracked the place from the start. That's a kitchen with real sustained talent. It just hasn't figured out how to carry that talent into the evening hours.