Chandler Dining Review: Feringhee Modern Indian Cuisine

Rising chef Karan Mittal brings destination dining to Chandler with faintingly delicious Modern Indian cooking.

If you like Indian food, you will absolutely love Feringhee, a charming Chandler restaurant putting a modern spin on an ancient cuisine. Every colorful, carefully composed plate suggests fine dining, and each elegant meal is a reminder that Indian cuisine is among the world’s greats – diverse, complex and surprisingly subtle.

Feringhee, a word which translates (somewhat derogatively, evidently) to “foreigner” in Hindi, is the brainchild of local entrepreneur Madhavi Reddy and co-founder Sujan Sarkar, an Indian chef who has successfully created similarly high-end concepts (ROOH, BAAR) around the world. Early clues that we’re in for something special? A blinged-out bar and cloche-covered cocktails billowing smoke.

But the stunning food created by head chef Karan Mittal (named a Rising Star by Food & Wine in 2018) presents the most compelling evidence. Mittal buys locally (Chula Seafood, Steadfast Farm) and cooks globally, incorporating shishitos and huckleberries while making foams à la Ferran Adrià.

I love everything, beginning with a dish called chaat, Mittal’s sumptuous spin on Indian street food. It’s a flavor explosion of potato patties, crispy chickpea flour noodles, tamarind and mint chutneys, yogurt mousse foam (dusted with dried raspberry powder), and crunchy, fried shiso leaf. Mind-blowing and terrifically fun to eat.

Ghee roast mutton (buttery baby goat leg), served under an edible cone of thin, crispy rice crêpe (thick enough to rip apart and wrap up the the meat like a tortilla) is every bit as swoon-inducing. The rich, spicy goat gets an extra flavor pop from pickled shallots and peanut chutney.

Pork belly, slow-roasted to crispiness, is glazed with amsol (a tangy tropical fruit), then spooned in colorful rows with golden pineapple kut (dry-roasted spice mix), green garlic chimichurri and red pomegranate.

Coastal scallops from Hokkaido, pan-seared in brown butter until they’re crisp-edged, are set atop an impossibly rich, spicy-sweet sauce made with raw green mango and coconut milk. Its heat is a subtle backbeat.

Parsi lamb keema is a bit like a deconstructed sloppy Joe: a bowl of curried ground lamb covered with green pea and potato foam and a crispy snarl of potato slivers. Squirted with lime and eaten with ultra-buttery griddled bread rolls, it’s comfort food, Indian-style.

I’ve barely scratched the surface, but hurry to Feringhee. It slays.

Feringhee Modern Indian Cuisine

Contact: 3491 W. Frye Rd., Chandler, 480-534-7178, feringhee.com
Hours: Su, Tu-Th 5-10 p.m.; F-Sa 5-11 p.m.
Highlights: Chaat ($14); ghee roast mutton ($18); coastal scallops ($21); Parsi lamb keema ($18)