There are three places inside Chef Sujan Sarkar’s new British-Indian chophouse, Elder, in New York. There is India, where he grew up and learnt the instincts of a cook before he had the language to describe them. There is London, where he spent years working in professional kitchens and absorbed the rhythms of British cooking, including the old chophouses where chops, fish, puddings and vegetables have always had as much right to the table as a handsome piece of meat. And then there is America, where Sujan has spent the last nine years cooking, opening restaurants and watching Indian food move, slowly and sometimes awkwardly, from the category of the unfamiliar into something Americans are increasingly willing to claim as their own.
Elder brings these three strands together in a single room.
A Chophouse with Room for Spice
Opened in August 2026 on the ground floor of Henry Hall at 517 West 38th Street, near Hudson Yards, Elder is Sarkar’s interpretation of the classic London chophouse filtered through an Indian lens. He has described it as a British steakhouse with Indian influences. The format is familiar: dry-aged meats, chops, seafood, sides and puddings. The seasoning and techniques, however, draw on the spice cupboard and cooking traditions he carries from home.
The menu pairs substantial cuts with carefully applied spice. A Berkshire pork rib chop arrives with vindaloo masala. Lamb chops are finished with a dry burrah spice. A filet is treated with Tellicherry peppercorns, turning the idea of a classic pepper steak toward South Indian aromatics. Hanger steak appears as pathar kebab. Seafood is not neglected; Dover sole, for example, is served with a curry beurre blanc. These are not timid gestures. The Indian elements are present and intentional, yet they sit comfortably within the structure of a chophouse meal rather than overwhelming it.
Vegetarian cooking receives equal seriousness. Dishes such as beet Wellington, paneer lasagna and jackfruit cutlet demonstrate that the kitchen is not treating plant-based options as an afterthought. Samosas and other familiar forms appear in refined, sometimes playful versions that still respect their origins.
Design and Atmosphere
The 3,300-square-foot space seats about 100 guests across a dining room and a horseshoe bar. Designed by Mapa Mueller, the same firm that worked on Sarkar’s Indienne upstairs, the interior leans into a clubby, English elegance. Hunter green, marine blue and ochre form the colour palette. Carrara marble, dark wood, velvet and elderflower wallpaper add texture and quiet detail. The result feels polished without stiffness, the kind of room that invites both a focused dinner and a longer evening at the bar.
The name itself is deliberate. Elder refers to elderflower, an ingredient that appears in both British and South Asian cooking. It is a small but telling choice that signals the restaurant’s dual inheritance.
The Chef’s Path to This Room
Sarkar’s career has moved across cities and styles. After growing up in India and absorbing the fundamentals of cooking there, he worked in London kitchens, including a period as head chef at Automat. Those years left him with a clear sense of how British chophouses operate: straightforward, ingredient-driven, focused on quality meat and fish, and comfortable serving both substantial plates and simpler sides.
In the United States he has built a reputation for thoughtful Indian cooking that refuses to stay within expected boundaries. Indienne, his Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago, established him as a chef capable of precise, modern tasting-menu work. The New York outpost of Indienne opened earlier in 2026 in the same building as Elder. A third concept, the cocktail bar Apas, is planned for the upper level. Together the three spaces form a concentrated statement of his current interests.
Elder sits apart from the fine-dining intensity of Indienne. It is more direct, more centred on sharing plates of meat and seafood, and more openly conversational in its blending of traditions. The chophouse format gives him a clear structure; the Indian seasoning gives the food its distinctive character.
Cocktails, Desserts and the Full Experience
The beverage programme continues the conversation between London and the subcontinent. Gin-centric drinks and classic British-inspired cocktails appear alongside more modern combinations. The Elder Gibson and London Fog are among the named offerings that nod to English drinking culture while leaving room for unexpected flavours.
Desserts lean into the tableside tradition of British dining rooms. A dessert trolley is part of the experience, and individual plates may include items such as banana rum baba with banoffee Chantilly and elderflower, or a rasmalai trifle. These sweets close the meal with the same balance of familiarity and invention that runs through the savoury courses.
Why the Concept Resonates Now
Indian food in New York has expanded far beyond the older templates of regional restaurants and buffet-style dining. Chefs are exploring tasting menus, modern interpretations, regional depth and cross-cultural forms with increasing confidence. Sarkar’s decision to open a chophouse rather than another fine-dining Indian restaurant feels timely. It meets diners where many already feel comfortable—around a steak or a chop—and then expands the frame with spice, technique and memory.
The restaurant does not present itself as fusion for its own sake. Instead it treats the chophouse as a flexible, historically grounded format that can absorb new influences without losing its identity. Vindaloo on a pork chop, burrah spice on lamb, and paneer in a lasagna are not compromises; they are expressions of a cook who has lived and worked in more than one culinary world and sees no need to keep them separate.
A Room That Holds Three Places
Elder succeeds, at least in concept, because it allows those three places—India, London and America—to sit at the same table. The instincts formed in an Indian kitchen, the discipline and structure absorbed in London, and the experience of cooking for American diners over nearly a decade all shape the food and the room.
In Hudson Yards, inside a contemporary residential building, Sarkar has created a space that feels both specific and open. Diners can order a carefully aged chop, a plate of seafood, a vegetarian main or a dessert from the trolley and encounter, in each case, a quiet conversation between traditions. That conversation is the point of Elder: not a collision of cuisines, but a considered meeting of them under one roof.
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