Food Network Champ’s New Houston Restaurant Is More Than Kitchen Rumors — Indian Food That’s Already Beloved

The trio that makes up the fast-growing restaurant consortium Kahini Social Group — chef Jassi Bindra, along with brothers Surpreet and Preetpaul Singh — is bringing its inspired take on Indian food that drew raves in The Woodlands to a new fine casual restaurant in Houston dubbed Kitchen Rumors. These are the culinary powers behind the critically acclaimed Amrina restaurant in The Woodlands, two fast-casual restaurants in Midtown — Pok Pok Po, a fried halal chicken joint, and the adjoining Bol, where you can build your own, well, bowls —and now the newly opened Kitchen Rumors.

You can find it a stone’s throw from Sawyer Yards off Washington Avenue. Kitchen Rumors is poised at 2310 Decatur Street in the former home of Christine Ha’s Vietnamese restaurant Xin Chao.

The space has been reimagined by the brothers in collaboration with CH Design. Inside, the decor is cheeky and colorful with splashes of pink and green and a trompe l’oeil wall covering that looks like a collection of grandmama’s lace doilies. Outside, four-legged friends are welcome on a dog-friendly patio.

The name Kitchen Rumors, according to chef Bindra, refers to the popularity of Indian cuisine, which has spread quickly across the globe, as fast as a rumor can fly. And like in Indian restaurants in every metropolitan city — from Tokyo to Mexico City to London — that has embraced this regionally diverse, aromatic and spiced food, the menu at Kitchen Rumors borrows ingredients from points all across the world too.

Diving Into the Kitchen Rumors Menu

Bindra, the award-winning executive chef who can claim a win on the Food Network show Chopped, is joined behind the line by chef de cuisine Nadeem Qureshi and pastry chef Sachin Kumar. The ingredient-driven Kitchen Rumors menu includes starters you won’t want to miss such as the Asian-inspired steamed lobster dumplings ($24). Each dumpling is topped with a small dollop of caviar before it is placed on a pool of creamy malabar curry.

Other must-try dishes? The blue cheese-stuffed chicken kebab ($16) served sans skewer is sprinkled with garlic butter and masala-spiced panko crumbs, and beneath lies an unctuous cheese fondue. Diners can also go green with the crispy kale and wasabi-seasoned white peas ($15), where oven-dried kale leaves conceal a fried layered potato patty inside.

One of North India’s most popular exports butter chicken is reimagined here as butter chicken ramen ($24). Tender slices of chicken breast, a soft-boiled egg and ramen noodles are brought together in a lightened tomato and chicken stock broth. I encourage you to order the goat biryani ($26), small chunks of bone-in goat meat are scattered through the aged basmati rice, topped with dried slivered onions. By its side, you get a cool yogurt sauce.

A signature dish of chef Bindra is his whole roasted chicken in a sealed dough crust ($58). Next visit, I’ll indulge in this slow-roasted bird with its succulent juices sealed within a golden crust and opened tableside to reveal a puff of steam and the alluring scent of aromatic Indian spices.

House made single serving Indian-style breads are available and include a chili cheese kulcha ($4) and garlic naan ($3). The spicy sides — including the addictive Sichuan fried eggplant ($12), crispy cauliflower seasoned with tajin ($10) and a chick pea curry ($8) — are also worth adding on.

Desserts are a beautiful send-off and include a deep, rich chocolate cardamon mousse ($14) shaped like a ganache-coated Hershey’s kiss as well as the Howdy Gulab Jamun ($14), its base a pecan pie bar topped with a cylindrical gulab jamun (a soft spongy, deep-fried sweet) topped with pucker-worthy lemon curd.

Kitchen Rumors is open from 4 pm to 10 pm Tuesdays through Thursdays, 4 pm to 11 pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 pm to 10 pm on Sundays. It is closed on Mondays.