Northern Virginia Will Soon Have Its Own Luxury Indian Restaurant

Northern Virginia is getting its own ornate Indian dining room just a month after D.C. welcomed the ultra-extravagant Punjab Grill.

New Delhi native Rajiv Chopra, the chef and entrepreneur who has three locations of fast-casual Punjabi By Nature in Northern Virginia, plans to open Bombay Velvet next week. Chopra’s first upscale restaurant opens for lunch and dinner on Monday, April 15, in Reston Town Center West (12100 Sunset Hills Road). The 100-seat restaurant features a small outdoor patio area and eight-seat bar.

Recipes showcase five different regions of India: north, south, east, west, and coastal. The food also reflects the influence of foreign powers in the subcontinent, including the Mughals, Turks, Persians, Afghans, French, Portuguese, Armenians, and the British.

An ornate look draws inspiration from both 1970s Bombay and American households during ‘30s and ‘40s. True to the restaurant’s name, there are velvet chesterfield sofas, colorful Indian chairs, copper-tinted mirrors, and a massive chandelier comprised of 380 lights. Orders come plated in handpicked, elegant crockery.

A finalized menu, including pricing information, won’t be available until later this week.

Bombay Velvet/official photo

Bombay Velvet/official photo

Bombay Velvet/official photo

An onyx-lit bar will serve wines imported from India and rose-infused vodka. Cocktails will rely on Indian regional spices. The Dhuyaan, surrounded with a billowing cloud of roasted coriander smoke, is filled with bourbon, fenugreek, and orange peel-infused barley water.

Bombay Velvet/official photo

Chopra, who also owns Indian sweets store Evergreen Sweets in Chantilly, is big on desserts. The Khosla Ka Ghosla, for example, has a sweet vermicelli nest, along with dates and rabdi, a type of sweetened, condensed milk.

Bombay Velvet/official photo

D.C.’s Indian dining scene has heated up in the past year: Pappe debuted on 14th Street NW last summer, Bombay Street Food opened in November, and Punjab Grill landed in Penn Quarter just last month. Chopra has plans to scale the Bombay Velvet brand across the region, starting with a downtown D.C. location next year.

Bombay Velvet is projected to operate Sunday to Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to midnight.

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