In 2015, INDAY opened to offer New Yorkers a fast-casual dining experience centered around reimagined Indian cuisine for modern life. Ten years later, founder Basu Ratnam has expanded the concept into nine New York City locations, including INDAY, which focuses on modern fast-casual dining, and INDAY All Day, a full-service sit-down restaurant.
Regardless of location, each delivers energizing, flavorful dishes made with seasonal, thoughtfully sourced produce and proteins. The spaces are designed to be welcoming and provide a place to recharge, and each plate pulls from Ratnam’s upbringing in an Indian-American household. Whitewall spoke with Ratnam to hear how balances creating great food and staying true to his values in the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.
INDAY is Where Heritage Meets Everyday Life
Courtesy of INDAY.
Courtesy of INDAY.
WHITEWALL: You’ve described INDAY as “Indian food for everyone.” How did you approach balancing authenticity with accessibility when introducing traditional Indian flavors to a fast-casual audience?
BASU RATNAM: At INDAY, we believe Indian food should be something you can enjoy every day. Since the beginning, our mission has been to reimagine Indian cuisine through a modern lens, bringing together vibrant spices, nourishing ingredients, and age-old traditions in a way that feels effortless and energizing.
We stay true to the roots, but present them in a format that fits the rhythm of busy lives. In doing so, we’ve helped shift the perception that Indian food is heavy or indulgent. The reality is, Indian cuisine is deeply diverse and rooted in balance, wellness, and joy. INDAY brings that to life in every bowl: food that feels good, tastes bold, and reflects the energy we want to carry into the world.
“Making Indian food feel joyful, energizing, and effortless for every day,”
Basu Ratnam
WW: Growing up as a native New Yorker and Indian-American, how did your personal experiences shape the vision and philosophy behind INDAY?
BR: I was raised in a multicultural home shaped by my mother’s Kolkata roots and my father’s heritage from Hyderabad, where food was always more than just nourishment. It was a ritual, a connector, a form of care. From a young age, I was surrounded by the principles of Ayurveda, which taught me that what we eat directly impacts how we feel, move, and show up in the world. That mindset became a foundation for INDAY.
As I entered the business world, I realized I wanted to build something that reflected both where I came from and where I was headed, a brand rooted in heritage, but designed for the pace of modern life. That’s how INDAY came to life: an expression of balance, vibrancy, and accessibility, grounded in our guiding belief of good karma served daily. Every part of the experience, from the mindful cooking to the welcoming spaces, is built to reflect that energy. INDAY is where tradition and modernity meet. Making Indian food feel joyful, energizing, and effortless for every day.
Courtesy of INDAY.
WW: “Good karma served daily” is a core belief at INDAY. How does this philosophy translate into day-to-day operations—both in the kitchen and in how you lead your team?
BR: At INDAY, “good karma served daily” is more than a mantra, it’s a mindset that touches everything we do. It starts with how we source: from hand-raised, halal-certified proteins to anti-inflammatory ingredients like turmeric and pickled vegetables, and spices sourced directly from India. But it’s just as much about how we prepare and serve that food.
In the kitchen, we train our chefs in mindful cooking, an approach that goes beyond recipes to emphasize presence, intention, and joy in the act of making food. That same care extends to how we lead our team. Every shift begins with breathwork or gratitude practice. Our managers are trained in wellness techniques, and our staff receive benefits that prioritize physical and emotional well-being.
When our people feel grounded and supported, that energy shows up in every interaction, with each other, and with our guests. It’s about creating a ripple effect of care, from farm to kitchen to table.
Basu Ratnam Brings Nourishment Beyond the Plate
Courtesy of INDAY.
WW: INDAY emphasizes not just good food, but also positive energy and space. What was your vision behind the design of INDAY’s physical locations, and how do they support the overall mission?
BR: For us, eating well is about more than just the food, it’s about how you feel while you’re enjoying it. We designed INDAY’s spaces to reflect that energy. Each location is bright, inviting, and intentionally crafted to help guests reset and recharge. Whether you’re grabbing a quick lunch or lingering over a chai, the space is meant to feel like a moment of calm in a busy day.
From the lighting and textures to the music and hospitality, everything is designed to carry the same spirit as our philosophy: good karma served daily. We want every interaction to deliver a sense of ease, warmth, and positive energy. That’s what makes the full experience feel nourishing, not just the meal itself.
“For us, eating well is about more than just the food, it’s about how you feel while you’re enjoying it,”
Basu Ratnam
WW: What are some specific ways INDAY differentiates itself from other fast-casual concepts—not just in cuisine, but in sourcing, preparation, or customer experience?
BR: INDAY isn’t just about fast-casual dining, it’s about reimagining what that category can feel like. We take a holistic approach rooted in Indian hospitality, where food, space, and service are all expressions of care. From responsibly sourced, anti-inflammatory ingredients like turmeric and pickled vegetables to our practice of mindful cooking, every detail is considered to support well-being and deliver positive energy.
That intention carries through to the guest experience. We want people to feel seen and cared for, even in the middle of a busy day. You’ll notice fresh flowers, artwork from my childhood, lemon in the water, subtle gestures that bring warmth and presence into the space. Guests are welcomed personally, not just processed. At its heart, INDAY is about rebuilding a sense of connection.
Courtesy of INDAY.
WW: INDAY focuses on seasonal, responsibly sourced ingredients. What challenges have you faced in maintaining those standards while scaling, and how have you overcome them?
BR: From day one, we knew that staying true to our sourcing values would be one of our biggest challenges and also our biggest opportunities to lead. We launched with a tight, seasonal menu that enabled us to build strong relationships with top-tier producers, providing us with access to ingredients that rarely make it into the fast-casual space.
Our paneer is a great example; crafted from the highest quality, organic, pasture-based, cow’s milk sourced from small family-owned dairies in Northern California through our partners at Sach Food. We pay nearly four times more for our paneer than we do for chicken. That’s the price of staying aligned with our values.
We also believe it is our responsibility to create space for fellow Indian culinary innovators and entrepreneurs. That is why we partnered with Khalo, a brand that brings ancient Ayurvedic wisdom into modern kitchens through thoughtfully crafted plant‑based cooking pastes. We are the first restaurant to feature Khalo’s pastes as the foundation of our quinoa and lentil base.
Scaling while maintaining that level of quality has taken discipline, intention, and creativity it’s also what makes INDAY different. Our growth proves that fast-casual can still be thoughtful.
WW: Where do you see Indian food going in the next five to 10 years in America, and how do you hope INDAY will continue to influence that evolution?
BR: I think we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of how Indian cuisine can show up in American food culture. In the next 5 to 10 years, I hope it becomes something people turn to naturally because it’s comforting, flavorful, and feels good to eat. For a long time, Indian food in the U.S. has been boxed into a handful of familiar dishes or seen as something reserved for special occasions, but there’s so much more to it, more variety, more vibrancy, more everyday nourishment.
When we opened INDAY in 2015, there weren’t many fast-casual Indian options. Ingredients were hard to find. But we believed in the idea that Indian food could be reimagined for how people live and eat today. It’s been amazing to see a new wave of Indian chefs, makers, and creatives helping move that vision forward in their own ways.
I hope INDAY continues to be part of that momentum, not by trying to speak for the cuisine as a whole, but by inviting more people in. Our goal has always been to create something that feels familiar and fresh at the same time.Indian food that fits into everyday life.
Courtesy of INDAY.
