Syracuse, NYIndian

A Westcott-neighborhood Indian kitchen This is CNY singled out as much for its hospitality as its food, with servers surprising diners with complimentary kulfi. Jacob Pucci and the paper's food writers praised the lamb shank masala, a bone-in cut that comes meltingly tender in a tikka masala sauce balancing tang, spice and cream. Order the lamb shank masala, the papri chaat, and the tandoori mixed grill, and dine in rather than take out.

The one restaurant in Central New York that This is CNY's Jacob Pucci says specializes in South Indian cooking, filling a long-vacant Armory Square storefront and bringing Indian food downtown. The butter chicken sits in a rich pool of mildly spiced, luxuriously creamy sauce, and the Chettinad lamb curry brings the heat of the south. Order the samosa chaat, the butter chicken, and the Chettinad lamb curry.

An Indian-American fusion bar and grill on the third floor of Destiny USA that This is CNY's Danielle Benjamin called a genuinely unusual concept for the area. She named the build-your-own bowl with lamb, pickled onions and roasted curry jalapenos one of the most flavorful things on the menu, and the samosas turn up in the paper's best-appetizers picks for Mama Patel's cinnamon-spiced apple butter sauce. Order the BYO Bowl with lamb, the samosas, and the tandoori Caesar wrap.