Babu Ji used to be a little hole in the wall in alphabet city. It was tumultuous and loud, although the Indian food was good, and the service was ok. I don’t remember them taking any reservations, although I could be wrong. The place was nothing you would recommend to people who were coming in from out of town. Today Babu Ji is a delightful, polished, lovely little restaurant on E. 13th St. near University Place. So pleasantly surprised when we pulled up. We were greeted by two amiable women who told us they were making up our table. There was a long bar along the right side of the restaurant. There were tables of twos opposite the bar. The drink I had, was gin and cucumber and a few other niceties mixed in, and it was so good that I ended up having two over the course of the evening. We were escorted to our table upstairs. On the wall, opposite our table was a huge photograph of Paul McCartney and George Harrison and their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi along with 20 other people. The photograph had to be taken in the early 70s. It was a magnificent piece. Along another large wall, a Bollywood movie being projected onto the wall itself. The colors and the costumes and the sheer humanity of it all was incredible to watch. Now let’s get to the food and the service. We were a party of four. The stipulation for a reservation was that we must order the tasting menu. Unbeknownst to me, one person was a vegetarian. We spoke to management and they could not have been more accommodating. He told us “We want you to enjoy your dinner. Order what you like.” And so we did.....I think we ordered everything on the menu. We ordered a great bottle of red wine at the waiter's recommendation. The food was incredible. We had a superb dinner. The waiter was accomplished. He could not have been more cheery. Management was visible all evening.
The consensus was WE CAN’T WAIT TO RETURN.