Crab lovers, prepare to get your hands dirty. Passerine in NYC is serving up “The Crab Experience,” a seafood-focused feast that gives its modern Indian cuisine a seriously luxurious oceanic upgrade.
Located at 36 East 20th Street in the Flatiron District, Passerine is known for chef Chetan Shetty’s contemporary take on Indian cuisine, combining Indian spices and techniques with seasonal ingredients and unexpected global influences.
Now, the restaurant is turning its attention to crab.
“The Crab Experience” is exactly the kind of special dining experience that sounds like a good idea before you remember that eating crab is inherently messy—and that’s precisely the point. This is not the meal for your clean white shirt or anyone who believes dinner should remain entirely above the table.
Passerine has built its reputation around dishes that rethink familiar Indian flavors rather than simply reproducing them. Shetty, who previously led kitchens at Indian Accent in New York and New Delhi and was executive chef at Michelin-starred Rania in Washington, D.C., uses spice blends sourced from his family in Pune as part of the restaurant’s culinary vocabulary.
That approach makes The Crab Experience NYC particularly intriguing for diners looking for something beyond the city’s traditional seafood restaurants. Passerine’s menu has previously featured seafood dishes including grilled oysters with ajwain masala hollandaise, shrimp Koliwada and dayboat scallops with coconut moilee.
The restaurant itself is equally designed for a night out, with a moody dining room, lounge-style Drawing Room and serious cocktail and wine programs.
For anyone searching for Passerine NYC, The Crab Experience, crab in NYC, Indian seafood in Manhattan or unique dining experiences in NYC, this is one feast worth putting on the radar.
Bring an appetite. Maybe skip the white shirt. And definitely embrace the crab.
