The team behind leading Indian restaurant group, Unapologetic Foods, is currently working on debuting their newest concept Naks in the East Village soon. This will be the team’s first Filipino restaurant.
The team has hired Manila-born Chef Eric Valdez, who has served as chef de cuisine at Unapologetic Food’s Dhamaka for the past two years, to helm the kitchen. Naks, a Tagalog slang expression of surprise and admiration, is slated to serve regional dishes a la carte and a tasting menu known as kamayan, a Filipino tradition of serving food family style on banana leaves and eating by hand. The concept will be housed in the space formerly occupied by Jeepney, also a Filipino gastropub, that closed after nine-years of service in Sept. 2021.
The space was initially supposed to house a second outpost of Unapologetic Food’s Adda, however just four days before starting construction the team changed their minds. This plan, the team thought, would better showcase Valdez’s native cuisine.
“I want to serve dishes that are not talked about,” Valdez told Grub Street.
Unapologetic Foods was established by Roni Mazumdar and Chef Chintan Pandya in 2011. The group also owns and operates Seema, Dhamaka, Adda Indian Canteen, Masalawala & Sons formerly Masalawala, Rowdy Rooster, Kebabwala and Biryani Bol.
