THEDRUNKENMUNKEY
Press & recognition
Since 2013, The Drunken Munkey has been the Upper East Side’s home for craft cocktails and Indian cooking. A few of the places that have written about us.
The Wall Street Journal · Condé Nast Traveler · Time Out New York · Gothamist · Tasting Table · FSR Magazine · NYC Tourism · The Whiskey Lifestyle · Manhattan Sideways
Everything for your piece
Boilerplate, a founder bio, the house history, a fact sheet and a photography contact — written for direct use, below.
Boilerplate
100 words
The Drunken Munkey is an Indian restaurant and craft cocktail bar at 338 East 92nd Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Arun Mirchandani opened it in 2013 as the neighborhood’s first dedicated craft-cocktail bar with a full Indian kitchen. The room takes after the cafés and bistros of old Bombay — the Leopolds and Britannias — candlelit, with old films running silently through dinner. The kitchen cooks family recipes carried from Sindh at Partition and kept four generations on, alongside the cooking of Indian Army messes and gymkhanas. Every night at 10pm it serves the Munkey Meal, free to anyone in need.
300 words
The Drunken Munkey is an Indian restaurant and craft cocktail bar at 338 East 92nd Street, between First and Second Avenues on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Arun Mirchandani opened it in 2013 with his childhood friend Chirag Chaman. It was the neighborhood’s first dedicated craft-cocktail bar with a full Indian kitchen.
Both men grew up in Army families, where some of the best meals were the ones served in the mess hall — generous, unfussy, made to feed everyone at the table. That is the register of the cooking here. Bombay café food: small plates, tandoor grills, proper curries and biryanis, rooted in the kitchens of old Bombay and in the Indian Army messes and gymkhanas of pre-Partition India. Many of the recipes were created by Arun’s grandmother, who carried them from Sindh to India at Partition. Four generations on, they are made the way she intended. Many of the vegetarian dishes come from Arun’s mother, who lives close by and still spot-checks the kitchen, a decade in.
The bar rests on a straightforward historical point: the cocktail traces back to India. Punch was born there in the early 17th century, and the English word is a loan from Hindi — paanch, five, after its five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water and spice. The Munkey House Paanch is poured by the glass or in a bowl that serves twelve, alongside the Indian Spiced Old Fashioned, the Lady Mountbatten and a full list of classics.
The dining room is candlelit, with old films playing silently and cricket showing when a major match is on. Every night from 10pm the restaurant serves the Munkey Meal, a hot dinner for anyone in need — a practice kept since 2020, past 21,000 meals, which guests sustain by sponsoring a plate for $7. Reservations are taken through Resy.
Founder bio — Arun Mirchandani
Short version · 66 words
Arun Mirchandani is the founder of The Drunken Munkey, which he opened on East 92nd Street in 2013 with his childhood friend Chirag Chaman. He grew up in an Army family, and he built the restaurant around his own family’s recipes — his grandmother’s, carried from Sindh at Partition, and his mother’s vegetarian cooking. He is a collector of bar craft and of the histories behind drinks.
Long version · 162 words
Arun Mirchandani is the founder of The Drunken Munkey. He and Chirag Chaman grew up together in Army families, where some of the best meals came out of the mess hall — generous, unfussy, cooked to feed everyone at the table. In 2013 he opened The Drunken Munkey on East 92nd Street, the Upper East Side’s first dedicated craft-cocktail bar with a full Indian kitchen, in what was already his own backyard.
The menu is his family’s. Many of the recipes were created by his grandmother, who carried them from Sindh to India at Partition; four generations later they are still made the way she envisioned. Many of the vegetarian dishes come from his mother, who lives close by and still spot-checks the kitchen — a decade in.
Behind the bar he is a collector of the craft, from vintage bar tools to the story behind a given drink, and he built the list around the fact that the cocktail traces back to India.
“We serve the food we grew up on — the way we grew up eating it.”
Arun Mirchandani · Founder
The heritage story, in five bullets
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Old Bombay, not old England. The room takes its cue from the cafés and bistros of old Bombay — the Leopolds and the Britannias, where the city gathered over food, drink and conversation. Candlelight, dark wood, old films running with the sound off.
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Mess halls and gymkhanas. Both founders grew up in Army families. The cooking is drawn from the kitchens of old Bombay and from the Indian Army messes and gymkhana clubs of pre-Partition India — Indian cooks, feeding a full table, in institutions the empire took credit for and Indian kitchens actually ran.
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A recipe box that crossed a border. Many of the dishes were created by Arun’s grandmother, who carried her recipes from Sindh to India at Partition. Four generations on, the kitchen still makes them the way she envisioned them. The Gajar Halwa on the dessert menu is Dadi’s recipe, fourth-generation Sindhi.
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Mum still checks the kitchen. Many of the vegetarian dishes come from Arun’s mother, who lives close by and spot-checks the kitchen regularly — a decade in. Mum’s Lemon Daal is on the menu under her name.
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India gave the world the cocktail party. Punch was born in India in the early 17th century. The English word is a loan from Hindi — paanch, five, for its five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water and spice or tea. Long before “cocktail” entered the language, it was ladled from a communal bowl and shared. The Munkey House Paanch is poured that way still: by the glass, or in a bowl that serves twelve.
The Munkey Meal
Every night from 10pm, The Drunken Munkey serves a hot meal to anyone in need — vegetarian or non-vegetarian, no questions, just ask the host. The restaurant started the practice in 2020, in the worst of that year, and has kept it up every night since. It has served more than 21,000 meals.
The rule behind it is one line long: everyone eats. It comes from the same mess hall the rest of the restaurant comes from, where the table was laid for whoever turned up.
Guests keep it going. Every visit funds it, sponsored or not, and anyone can sponsor a plate for $7 at drunkenmunkey.com/sponsor-meal — sponsor one today and it goes out tonight.
Quotable block for press
Every night at 10pm, The Drunken Munkey serves a hot meal to anyone in need. It began in 2020 and has not missed a night since — more than 21,000 meals, paid forward by guests at $7 a plate. The founders grew up in Army families, where the mess hall fed whoever turned up. The kitchen has never seen a reason to run it any other way.
Fact sheet
- Name
- The Drunken Munkey
- What it is
- Indian restaurant and craft cocktail bar
- Address
- 338 East 92nd Street, New York, NY 10128
- Neighborhood
- Upper East Side (Yorkville), between First and Second Avenues
- Opened
- 2013
- Founder
- Arun Mirchandani, who opened the restaurant with childhood friend Chirag Chaman
- Distinction
- The Upper East Side’s first dedicated craft-cocktail bar with a full Indian kitchen
- Cuisine
- Bombay café cooking: small plates, tandoor grills, proper curries and biryanis. Family recipes rooted in the kitchens of old Bombay and the Indian Army messes and gymkhanas of pre-Partition India
- Hours
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- Monday–Thursday: 4:00pm–12:00am
- Friday: 4:00pm–1:00am
- Saturday: 11:00am–1:00am
- Sunday: 11:00am–12:00am
- Brunch
- Saturday and Sunday, 11:00am–3:30pm
- Happy Hour
- Daily, 4:00–6:00pm, five select cocktails
- Bar
- Ten seats, full menu served at the bar
- Private events
- Seated dinner for up to 32, plus ten more at the bar. Standing reception for 50 to 55 with passed hors d’oeuvres. Full buyouts available. Every private event gets a personalized printed menu at no charge, the occasion in script across the top
- Off-site catering
- Homes and offices across New York, 15 to 50 guests, three days’ notice
- Signature dishes
- 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)
- Signature drinks
- Munkey House Paanch (by the glass, or a bowl for twelve) · Indian Spiced Old Fashioned · Lady Mountbatten
- Dietary
- Vegetarian dishes marked (v), nuts flagged (n); a full allergy menu is published at drunkenmunkey.com/allergy-menu. Chicken and lamb are halal; the menu also carries pork, so the kitchen is not fully halal
- Accessibility
- Wheelchair accessible
- Nearest subway
- Q at 96th Street–Second Avenue, about five minutes on foot (the 94th Street entrance is closest). The 6 at 96th and Lexington, about ten
- Reservations
- Resy, at drunkenmunkey.com/visit. Parties of nine or more: KingKong@drunkenmunkey.com
- Private events and catering
- Events@drunkenmunkey.com, or the planning form at drunkenmunkey.com/events
- Delivery and takeout
- Uber Eats, at drunkenmunkey.com/order
- Gift cards
- drunkenmunkey.com/giftcard
- Sponsor a Munkey Meal
- drunkenmunkey.com/sponsor-meal
- Website
- drunkenmunkey.com
- Social
- Instagram @drunkenmunkeynyc · Facebook /drunkenmunkeynyc
- Selected coverage
- The Wall Street Journal (2014) · Condé Nast Traveler (2025) · Gothamist (2013) · Tasting Table (2013, launch) · Time Out New York · FSR Magazine · Manhattan Sideways · The Whiskey Lifestyle (2019, Bar of the Week) · NYC Tourism (official city guide)
Photography
Hi-res photography — the room, the bar, the food, and the founder — is sent on request. Write to KingKong@drunkenmunkey.com with your publication, your deadline and the orientation you need, and a selection cut for it will come back the same way. Shot lists welcome.
Press contact
Press and media enquiries — KingKong@drunkenmunkey.com
Interview requests with founder Arun Mirchandani, photography, menus, fact checks and reservations for press visits all go to the same address. Event and catering enquiries: Events@drunkenmunkey.com.