Butter Chicken Goes VIP While Philly Pigs Feast Like Royalty
Imagine paying $42 just to watch a chef smoke your butter chicken tableside at Adda, NYC’s East Village Indian hotspot where butter chicken is no longer a dish but a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" reserved for six lucky tables per night. The experience includes choosing from smoked chile, fenugreek, or pickle tomato butters and sipping a smoky salted-cream cocktail that sounds like your hipster uncle’s attempt at mixology. Meanwhile, in Philly, Little Walter’s is doubling down on Polish pig products with a $500 prepay for two weekly golonka dinners featuring six types of pierogi, six Żubr beers, and a vodka-fueled pickle martini—because nothing screams exclusivity like half a pig morphed into a $500 feast on a red velvet couch. Even Houston’s Sanjh limits its Punjabi atta chicken to three orders per day, a labor of love cooked in a banana leaf and wheat crust, flambéed tableside—because in 2025, dining out is less meal, more immersive drama with a side of existential crisis. Chef Chintan Pandya sums it up best: 'Everybody who eats butter chicken might eat a different one every day,' so why not charge double to make it an elaborate performance piece?
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Butter chicken no longer just dinner in NYC; it’s a $42 smoke show with a salted-cream cocktail, while Philly’s doing $500 pig feasts on velvet couches. Welcome to 2025 where eating out is less food, more wristbanded backstage pass.
Butter chicken experiences in NYC are like Coachella wristbands but for your taste buds — exclusive, overhyped, and you still might get hungry. Meanwhile, Philly’s serving half a pig for $500 like it's a luxury apocalypse survival kit.
Pay $42 for a chicken that gets smoked theatrically like it’s auditioning for Hamilton, then fly to Philly to drop $500 on a pig with six varieties of pierogi and beer. Dining out is now performance art with carbs.
Source: Eater | Published: 11/4/2025 | Author: Bettina Makalintal
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