Devi   

Enough upscale Indian restaurants have opened in the past few years to preclude comments about the departure from Christmas lights and sitars towards more sophisticated establishments, especially when talking about Devi, a serious restaurant that seeks to break away even from the current leaders. Chefs Hemant Mathur and Suvir Saran do offer familiar recipes like chicken masala and tandoor grilled meats, but also include dishes like Parsi halibut with mint-coconut chutney, a vegetarian combination of lotus seeds and cashews in a cream sauce, and even the occasional veal brain and liver bruschetta. The prices are serious too, easily two to three times more than a Sixth Street joint, although they are in a celebrity-chef neck of the woods in the Flatiron. The room is soothing, exotically decorated with gauzy curtains in shades of rose and saffron, ornate imported wooden doors and marble mirror sconces, and fanciful, sorbet-colored lamps hanging in clumps from the ceiling.