I first heard of Inday All Day before it even opened. Literally, I heard about it from the owner. I was walking around Williamsburg eavesdropping on a conversation between two guys talking about the restaurants along North 4th Street. The strip from Bedford to Driggs is filled with fast casual takeout chains, a point that was important because it meant, at least to the two men, that they had found a great spot.

I’m fairly certain Basu Ratnam, owner of Inday, was giving a tour to a potential investor that afternoon that I had overheard the conversation. At the time, there were already two locations in Manhattan. But that was about to change with the new building at the corner of Metropolitan and Driggs.

The stretch of Metropolitan Ave from Bedford Avenue to Havemeyer had recently sprouted a bevy of new luxury rental buildings, of which Inday All Day was occupying a ground floor, corner unit. What had been for years a bohemian hipster paradise has transformed into the new SoHo, an international destination lined with the monoculture of European sophisticates. It’s the perfect spot for an upscale casual restaurant, particularly in the era of Seamless and delivery apps that rush food to the desks of well-paid white collar workers.

Ratnam has racked up some incredible press in places like Bon Appétit, Well + Good, and Great Jones. Give that comms team a bonus.

Ratnam intends Inday to become the next hit national fast casual chain, initially modeled on Chipotle, at least until the CEO of Chipotle warned him against the aging restaurant model. Inday expanded literally overnight this past spring when it bought up the remaining Beatnic restaurants. The 6 vegan shops were the remains of Chloe, which had been rebranded after filing for bankruptcy.

Ironically, one of these Chloe locations was across the street from the current Williamsburg flagship, Inday All Day, a larger, more formal format with a more expansive menu.

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Inday All Day looked like a fun place to eat. We lucked into an afternoon this fall when we rolled up with a sleeping toddler and immediately found a table. The first thing that struck me about the restaurant was how big it was, a huge format for Williamsburg where rent is astronomical. There was plenty of space between tables too, and we had no problem parking the stroller with sleeping beauty.

The front of the restaurant is segregated from a bar and coffee shop by a series of archways, which gives the illusion of more space, and allows for a healthy coffee-tea-bar scene. There are plenty of fancy cocktails like any other Brooklyn restaurant these days, but this front area is clearly designed to sell coffees and juices. If I was to guess, this is capitalising on the trend for central Asian coffee houses that have opened across the city in recent months. When we were there between typical lunch and dinner hours, the bar area was crowded with people just there for drinks.

The restaurant was both cozy on a cooler November day, and festive with bright colors and plenty of plants to decorate the space.

We had arrived just a few minutes too late for brunch, but the all-day menu was available (ergo, the name). One look at the menu and I knew I wanted to come back because there was more to order than two adults could eat in a single sitting. I am in fact looking at you, Butter Chicken Parm.

We started off with a Masala flatbread. It was sweet with honey like a desert. And the labne was especially delicious. Sweet, savory, and all the delicious Asian spices, it was certainly a good start to the meal.

The samosa were light and filled with flavor. The mint chutney had strong flavor of freshness, especially against the fried samosa

We also placed an order of Samosa. Too often a samosa is treated merely as a fried pocket of filling without any strong flavors, but these had some real spices inside. The mint chutney served with it had a strong flavor of freshness, which was probably just citric acid, but that’s sort of exactly what you want with fried food.

The tamarind chutney had a nice balance of sweetness to it. Usually I enjoy using both together, although the notes each didn’t quite come together as they might at a more traditional Indian-American restaurant. Separately though, they were both delicious.

The Bombay Hot Chicken combines Indian flavor with a fried chicken sandwich common at Brooklyn restaurants.

We split the Bombay Hot Honey Chicken Sandwich. I really was tempted to order the butter chicken parm, but my wife was more inclined to split the hot chicken. Ultimately this was a great decision because it was good, but it also created a point of comparison to other Brooklyn restaurants.

This Bombay Hot Honey is exactly what I like about Inday All Day. It brings Indian flavors to Brooklyn dishes. It exists around the corner from places like The Commodore and Pies -n- Thighs, two restaurants instrumental in bringing friend chicken sandwiches to the borough, but brings new flavors to the dish. While delicious, the Pies -n- Thighs biscuit sandwich hasn’t changed since the restaurant opened, and while there have been fads like the Nashville hot chicken craze, there’s not much variety.

Inday All Day has found a new way of elevating this sandwich. A hot honey chicken sandwich on the menu may not seem particularly Indian, but it is especially Brooklyn, or as I like to say, très Brooklyn in a mocking French accent.

The Brussel Sprout Caesar had a great mix of flavor and the fried kale leaves were a delight

We also ended up splitting the Brussel sprout caesar salad. The Caesar salad is one of those dishes that has made a comeback in recent years with very good examples of the trend at Rolo’s, Leo, and Bernie’s. So I was definitely excited to try the Indian-influence version, and they nailed it.

The Brussel Cesar Chaat was made from shredded sprouts, pickled chilis, and fried kale leaf. It since appears to have been removed from the menu, but undeservedly so. It was a great dish.

We didn’t have desserts, but we did have coffees which tasted like they had a hint of spice to them as well. Overall this was one of the more exciting restaurants in recent years because of how the menu expressed the flavors of both Indian cuisine and of Brooklyn. This was not rehashing dishes that have been common in New York City, but reinventing those dishes with new flavors.

I’m going to have to come back one afternoon for that butter chicken parm.

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