# The Drunken Munkey The Drunken Munkey is an Indian restaurant and craft cocktail bar at 338 East 92nd Street, between First and Second Avenues on New York City's Upper East Side. Founded in 2013 by Arun Mirchandani with Chirag Chaman, it is a little Old Bombay on 92nd Street: a candlelit room serving family recipes rooted in the kitchens of Old Bombay and the Indian Army messes and gymkhanas of pre-Partition India, alongside proper craft cocktails. Open Monday to Thursday 4:00pm-12:00am, Friday 4:00pm-1:00am, Saturday 11:00am-1:00am and Sunday 11:00am-12:00am, with the kitchen closing an hour before close; brunch is served Saturday and Sunday 11:00am-3:30pm, and Happy Hour runs daily 4:00-6:00pm. Phone (646) 846-8986. Parties of nine or more: KingKong@drunkenmunkey.com. Events and catering: Events@drunkenmunkey.com. ## Pages - https://drunkenmunkey.com/ : Home - Indian cooking and craft cocktails on the Upper East Side, hours, location and highlights. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/menu : Food menu - small plates, tandoor grills, proper curries, biryanis and the signature Butter Chicken Tikka Masala. (v) vegetarian, (n) nuts. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/bar : Bar - cocktails, signature tipples, the Munkey House Paanch, wine, beer and zero-proof drinks. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/events : Private dining & events — seated up to 32 (+10 bar), standing 50–55, buyouts, off-site catering 15–50 with 3 days' notice; personalized printed menu for every event. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/events/ : Eight occasion pages off the events hub — birthday brunch, birthday dinner, corporate dinner, engagement/rehearsal dinner, wedding reception (over 50 hosted, with cake, flowers and decoration coordinated), anniversary dinner, holiday party, and group brunch buyout — each detailing that occasion's package. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/faq : FAQ - hours, halal (chicken and lamb are halal; the menu also includes pork, so the kitchen is not fully halal), spice levels, dietary questions, accessibility, brunch, reservations, private events and the Munkey Meal. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/allergy-menu : Allergy menu - every dish with the allergens it carries (dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts, shellfish), vegan dishes marked, dishes the kitchen can make without an ingredient noted, and an explanation of how ghee is made and why it suits many lactose-intolerant guests. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/journal/ : The Munkey Times - the restaurant's journal, written in-house: notes from the kitchen and the bar, food history, and the occasional argument about ice. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/journal/butter-chicken-vs-chicken-tikka-masala : Butter chicken vs chicken tikka masala - butter chicken is milder and sweeter (tandoori chicken in tomato, butter and cream, invented in Delhi in the 1950s); chicken tikka masala is spicier (the same tandoor-fired tikka in an onion-tomato masala, most likely standardised in Britain). The Drunken Munkey serves both in one dish. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/journal/railway-curry-mess-halls-gymkhanas : Railway curry, mess halls & gymkhanas - the Indian cuisine with no regional name: railway curry from Indian Railways dining cars, bada khana from Army mess halls, and club cooking from gymkhanas built by Indians after Bombay Gymkhana barred them. Most of The Drunken Munkey's menu comes from this tradition. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/journal/why-punch-is-called-punch : Why punch is called punch - punch almost certainly takes its name from paanch, the Hindi and Marathi word for five, for the drink's five parts (spirit, sugar, citrus, water, spice). This is the leading account, not a settled one: the word is first attested in a letter written from India in 1632, but the five-ingredient explanation comes from a single witness, the physician John Fryer, who offered a four-ingredient alternative in the same sentence. Also covers arrack and the Indian, Bengali and Javanese distillers who made it, the punch bowl as a shared drink, and the Munkey House Paanch. <<<<<<< HEAD - https://drunkenmunkey.com/journal/the-recipes-she-carried : The recipes my grandmother carried - a memoir by founder Arun Mirchandani of his grandmother Savitri 'Dadima' Mirchandani (1922-2026), who left Karachi by ship in 1947 with two children, a suitcase and a heavy brass hamam dasta (mortar and pestle) hidden in her luggage by a maid, so she could set up a kitchen wherever she landed. Covers her Sindhi cooking and what police and intelligence postings across India, Sri Lanka and Egypt added to it; the base sauces of onion and tomato cooked from scratch with ginger, garlic and masalas; a 1978 gajar halwa made the slow Sindhi way in Amritsar; and which dishes on the menu are hers - Mum's Lemon Daal (her recipe combined with Arun's mother Vasanti's), Chilli Cheese Toast, First-Class Railway Chicken, Roasted Gobi Cauliflower, pork vindaloo and a Sindhi fish curry that runs once a year at Diwali. She was at the restaurant on its first night in 2013 with her prayer book and celebrated her 100th birthday there. Draws on Maya Mirchandani's Partition memoir in The Wire. ======= - https://drunkenmunkey.com/journal/chicken-tikka-masala-nyc : Chicken tikka masala in New York - five places Arun Mirchandani has eaten at and would send you to, with the conflict of interest declared up front: Junoon (Madison Square Park), Bungalow (East Village), INDN (Midtown), Dhamaka (Downtown) and Masala Times (Greenwich Village), which is a quick-service counter and affordable. A personal account rather than a ranking, and the omissions are omissions rather than verdicts. The Drunken Munkey's own version is a Butter Chicken Tikka Masala, six hours most days. >>>>>>> origin/main - https://drunkenmunkey.com/dishes/ : Signature dishes & drinks - a page per dish and per signature cocktail, each with its origin, technique and dietary detail: Butter Chicken Tikka Masala, 'Portu-Goan' Pork Vindaloo, Mum's Lemon Daal, Lamb Shank Rogan Josh, Chicken Biryani, Malabar-Coast Shrimp Ruby, Crispy Okra Chips, Paani Puri, Biryani Breakfast Bowl (weekend brunch), and from the bar the Munkey House Paanch, the Indian Spiced Old Fashioned and the Lady Mountbatten. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/about : Our Story - how the restaurant began in 2013, the founders, and the family recipes behind the menu. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/press : Press - reviews, mentions and coverage. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/contact : Contact - where to send what: Resy for tables, KingKong@drunkenmunkey.com for groups and general questions, Events@drunkenmunkey.com for events and catering; address, hours and closest subway. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/privacy : Privacy policy and messaging terms. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/visit : Reserve a table (Resy). - https://drunkenmunkey.com/order : Delivery and takeout (Uber Eats). - https://drunkenmunkey.com/giftcard : Gift cards. - https://drunkenmunkey.com/sponsor-meal : Sponsor a Munkey Meal - a hot meal served nightly from 10pm to anyone in need, sponsorable for $7; over 21,000 served since 2020.