Pappe - Chef-Owner Sanjay Manhaiya's Northern Indian on 14th and N Street, Logan Circle

[chinarider]

Had dinner here last night. Overall a nice Indian option in a neighborhood that doesn't have many.

Upscale modern vibe. Some good beer options and lots of (very expensive) indian whiskeys that I didn't try. I did have two of the happy hour cocktails, and found them both too sweet...

Menu is pretty traditional indian restaurant fare, nothing very outside the box. 

We tried the aloo papdi chaat, tandoori gobi, and vegetable uttapam for starters. All solid, with good flavors.

For mains we had allepey fish curry, lamb vindaloo, chicken kesari tikka with sides of dal makhani, baingan bartha, and aloo gobi. The lamb vindaloo was the highlight - not too hot but with a good amount of kick, as was the fish curry. Chicken tikka was OK but a little under-spiced. The baingan bartha was an excellent smokey eggplant dish. I didn't enjoy the dal, it tasted too sweet and buttery and was therefore generally unpleasant. The accompanying nan were fine, if not quite as billowy as one might hope.

It is not cheap, and portions of meat are not large, but I would be happy to go back. Certainly not a destination restaurant like Rasika though.

[rhefter]

Agree with the OP, decent meal, ordered a lot of the menu with our group of 4 but the service was pretty bad, the waiter just losing track of the time between starters and mains and not checking in with getting refills of drinks. Manager actually apologized and gave us 20% off, so at least they realized they messed up. 

[Tweaked]

We had lunch at Pappe over the weekend, overall we enjoyed the place.  The food is primarily North Indian with a smattering of well known dishes from other areas of the country, think vindaloo and malabar curry.  While I'll agree, they are not break new ground, I thought Pappe does a good job, and I would go back if seeking Indian food in the area.   

I enjoyed the nicely fried samosas.  The baingan bartha was probably the best dish of the meal with a great smokey char flavor.  Shahi paneer was also another rich winner, the menu does state the paneer is crumbled, but it would have been nice to have some larger chunks in the mix.  A surprise winner was the jackfruit and pineapple in a coconut curry.  

Unfortunately the barra lamb kabab featured some tough grisly pieces and the butter naan was fairly average.

In Sietsema's recent review he stated that Pappe brings the heat, but everything we had was pretty mild.  Some of the chutneys and pickles add a nice building tingle.  Maybe they toned things down for us, or we missed the hot dishes.

Apparently the space used to be a Popeye's Chicken (?) and they have done a nice job with the restaurant design.  Some exposed brick, nice tile work, a good long bar, and along the ceiling a row of fabric canopy.  A large mural dominates a front area wall.  Pappe felt dressed up, while still maintaining a casual vibe.         

[petercarrjones]

On 3/27/2020 at 4:22 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Thought it might give each other ideas based on where and what you're ordering for take-out or delivery.  

We got Pappe tonight. Wife and I were in general bad moods, and couldn't decide on a takeout choice. This arrived and everything was delicious, so totally turned our night around. Salmon entree and yellow daal plus garlic naan. All so good. The Gobi Manchurian was excellent and the surprise standout. Well, the salmon was the standout, but the Gobi was as good as Bombay Street Food, which was a surpise.

We got on doordash with no issues around 8 on a Saturday (superhero level).

[saf]

Takeout from here last Friday, eaten at the bar at Crown and Crow (directly downstairs, and WHY is there no thread for it?)

It was tasty - our usual 4, so 4 entrees, and a shared bread basket and sides of raita and chutney. Even the chili heads thought the vindaloo was overly hot! But the paneer I had was delicious, and the lamb that the 4th had was appreciated. We have only dined in there once, years ago, but it sure is convenient for food when drinking downstairs.  Prices are not bad for takeout.