Manhattan
Murray Hill
Curry Hill on Lexington Avenue: dosas, thalis, and a spice shop open since 1944.
Murray Hill is quieter than its Midtown neighbors, a district of brownstones, carriage houses, and pre-war apartment buildings between Madison Avenue and the East River. Its grandest relic is the Morgan Library, J. P. Morgan's private collection and the Renaissance palazzo he built to hold it. Its liveliest block runs along Lexington Avenue, a few streets south.
That stretch of Lexington, roughly from 26th to 30th Street, is Curry Hill. It began with an Armenian spice merchant in 1944 and grew, as South Asian immigration rose from the late 1960s, into Manhattan's most concentrated Indian dining strip: South Indian vegetarian kitchens folding paper dosas and serving idli and vada, Gujarati and Punjabi thali houses, sweet shops with barfi and jalebi, and groceries with whole aisles of lentils and spice.
Lunch is the time to come, when the buffets and thali counters fill with office workers and the spice shops are at their busiest. Walk north afterward through the quiet brownstone blocks of the 30s, then spend the afternoon among illuminated manuscripts at the Morgan. Koreatown, a few blocks west on 32nd Street, is there for dinner.
Lexington Avenue's dosa counters and thali houses
Spice shops with aisles of lentils, chilies, and rice
Quiet brownstone blocks and carriage houses in the 30s
A Renaissance-style library built for a private collection
Local notes
Kalustyan's
Founded in 1944 by Kerope Kalustyan, an Armenian from Istanbul, at 123 Lexington Avenue, and now one of the most famous specialty food shops in the country. Thousands of spices, rices, lentils, teas, and condiments from India, the Middle East, and beyond, with a prepared-food counter upstairs. The store that made Curry Hill.
Curry Hill on Lexington
From about 26th to 30th Street, Lexington Avenue holds a dense run of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi restaurants, sweet shops, and groceries. South Indian vegetarian dosa houses and lunchtime buffets are the neighborhood's strength.
The Morgan Library & Museum
J. P. Morgan's library on Madison Avenue at 36th Street, designed by McKim, Mead & White and opened to the public as a museum in 1924. Medieval manuscripts, master drawings, and Morgan's own study and library rooms, with a glass-walled modern addition by Renzo Piano.
Through the lens
Curry Hill's storefronts glow at dusk, when the restaurant signs come on along Lexington. Kalustyan's shelves are a color study — ask before shooting inside. The brownstone side streets in the East 30s are calm subjects in morning light.
Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 13, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.