Tapori is the rowdiest, most exciting table on H Street right now

Tapori is the rowdiest, most exciting table on H Street right now

The word tapori translates roughly to 'vagabond' in Hindi. It describes a rowdy Mumbai street culture that became a kind of cinematic archetype in Bollywood films - the charming, untamed guy who doesn't follow the rules. When Dante Datta and chef Suresh Sundas named their second H Street restaurant after it, they meant every syllable. This is not a place that wants you to sit up straight.

Tapori opened in March 2025 at 600 H Street NE - the former Fancy Radish space - and it already has more accolades than most restaurants collect in years. Eater named it one of the best new restaurants in America in 2025. The Washington Post put it on its list of the twenty best new spring openings. And earlier this year, chef Sundas became a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, making Tapori the only D.C. restaurant in that category. Not bad for a place that wants its vibe to read as controlled chaos.

Datta and Sundas already had plenty to protect. Their first restaurant, Daru, sits a few blocks away on the same corridor and carries a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a 2022 New York Times nod as one of America's 50 best new restaurants, and a following so loyal that a Tuesday night can feel like Saturday. The obvious question with any sequel is whether the team stretched too thin. At Tapori, the answer is no - but the ambition is bigger and louder in ways that are genuinely their own.

What's on the menu

Sundas built the menu with Nepalese chef Baburam Sharma, his collaborator who reportedly landed in the United States and was in the kitchen two days later. The sourcing spans from the southern coast of Kerala up through Mumbai and into the Himalayan border region - not a single cuisine but a whole map of street food moments compressed into one room.

Nepalese snacks like bison momos and buffalo chili sit alongside Mumbai favorites like vada pav with spicy potato and mint chutney. Get the dosa. Sundas says to order the dosa filled with aloo masala - spiced potato - served with coconut and tomato chutneys. It arrives crisp and burnished, the kind of thing you pull apart at the table and immediately wish you'd ordered two.

Other standouts include wagyu dumplings in a broth that draws on Nepal, and the Tapori naan layered with nuts and served flat. Pani puri and Himalayan favorites like thukpa - a Tibetan noodle soup - round out a menu that keeps pulling in different directions without ever losing focus.

The cocktail program is where Datta really cuts loose. The bar leans on Indian spirits like Feni, an apple-based spirit from Goa, mixed with Himalayan botanicals - think dirty martinis with Indian pickling juice, guava mint swizzles, and a pornstar martini with chaat masala and jackfruit puree. At Daru, the approach was classical drinks given an Indian twist. Here, Datta says he wanted to take a more tropical approach. It works. The drinks are fun in a way that doesn't feel like a gimmick - each one actually tastes like it belongs to the food.

The room

The restaurant is designed to encourage conversation, with an open kitchen and a 22-person communal table at the center. Vintage mismatched tiles and colorful murals are meant to invoke the feeling of tapori culture - that rowdy Mumbai street energy. It is a loud room by design. If you come expecting the quieter, cozier atmosphere of Daru, recalibrate. This is a place to shout across the table, pass plates, and order another round.

It's not coincidental that Tapori took over the space where Fancy Radish was before. Like its predecessor, it's filled with plenty of vegan and vegetarian-friendly dishes. The street food format means the menu is genuinely navigable for non-meat-eaters in a way that South Asian restaurants in the city often aren't.

The H Street context

H Street has had a complicated decade. It got hot, then lost some of its anchors, then got complicated again. 2025 feels like a genuine renaissance - since January, the NE corridor has welcomed a wave of new dining and retail spots that are reshaping the street's identity. Tapori is the most-decorated arrival so far, but it has company. Dolcezza gelato arrived mid-March in the same cluster. Tapori is joined by other new neighbors like Henceforth and Dolcezza.

Datta and Sundas are well-known in the city as alums of Rasika as well as co-owners of Daru, a restaurant that has earned multiple nods from national media and a place on Michelin's Bib Gourmand list. That pedigree gives Tapori credibility from day one, but the restaurant earns it again on its own terms. The James Beard recognition for Sundas specifically - not for the restaurant as an institution but for the chef's own technical range - points to something more sustained than a hot opening.

Tapori takes reservations on Resy and is open Wednesday through Monday starting at 5 p.m., closed Tuesdays. On weekends, the communal table fills early.

Sources

• Tapori official website
• Washingtonian: 'Tapori Brings Playful Indian Street Food and Tropical Cocktails to H Street'
• City Cast DC: 'Tapori Brings South Asian Street Food To Washington DC'
• WTOP: 'Inside Tapori, H Street's new Nepalese-Indian restaurant'
• Resy Blog: 'Tapori Brings the Bold Flavors of the Subcontinent to D.C.'s H Street Corridor'
• Axios D.C.: 'Exclusive: Daru team to open new Indian street food restaurant and bar'
• H Street Herald: '2025: The Year of H Street?'
• 17° Cork by Northwest: Tapori review
• Wikipedia: Daru (restaurant)