Vinod and Rahman grew up with their Ammamma’s dishes, worked in their father’s restaurants, switched gears to Wall Street and consulting gigs in New York, then finally yielded to their food destiny to learn everything in the restaurant business back in Washington (including chopping onions for hours). Intimidation of any sort is left to the owners’ psyche. But let’s be frank.

The dishes are available for delivery from GrubHub, UberEats, Caviar and Doordash.Įven for those shy of Indian food, the simple menu and optional build-your-own approach-as fellow District-based fast casual restaurants CAVA and Sweetgreen have perfected - make the guest experience savory.

Half the fun of RASA is sampling a range of their bold, flavorful bowls with peppy, punny names like “Tikka Chance on Me,”“Caul Me Maybe” or “Aloo Need is Love,” that range in price from $9.86 to $12.59. “She’ll come from time to time and go around and taste the stuff to see if we’re living up to her,”Vinod says.“So far, so good she’s a tough critic … It does make me sweat a little bit when she’s coming in, trying everything.”Īpart from the unnerving factor, she has a good strategy. It’s one thing to impress this Indian foodie brood Ammamma also intimidates.

Grandma, or “Ammamma,” immigrated to the Washington area from Irinjalakuda, Kerala in 1988 and prepared authentic, southern Indian dishes, first for her son, chef K.N.Vinod, who co-owns Indique and Bombay Bistro with his partner Surfy Rahman, and then for her American-born grandson, Rahul Vinod, who now co-owns the fast casual Indian restaurant RASA with lifelong friend Sahil Rahman, Surfy’s son.

Rasa crystal city