Yugal Sharma cooks black lentils overnight before they reach the table with the creamy, earthy, buttery pull that slow heat gives Punjab's black lentils. At Ikara Atlantic Station, the newly opened Indian restaurant in the former Allora space at the Twelve Hotel, Sharma and the team from Pippal in Emeryville, California, have built a menu that moves through regional flavors rather than holding to one narrow lane.
The $22 Ikara Dal is the kind of patience Sharma learned at ITC Grand Bharat, the high-end resort in Gurgaon, in the National Capital Region (NCR), where he cooked before coming to Atlanta. That lineage, California group and Indian resort kitchen, gives Ikara its working approach: abundance drawn from across India, paced for celebration, with bread and cocktails holding the structure together.
Sharma and the Pippal Team Open in the Former Allora Space
The opening move is scale. The dining room carries gold-lantern backdrops fit for a Karan Johar music video; the menu gives it structure, and Sharma's cooking gives it grounding.
That frame matters for the way to eat here. Richness needs bread. Slow-cooked meat needs pacing. A room designed for celebration still depends on the sequence of the meal: texture first, weight at the center, refreshment in the glass, and a finish that brings the palate back.
Sharma Cooks Punjab, Lucknow, and Goa With Resort-Kitchen Technique
The team comes from Pippal in Emeryville, California, and Sharma was formerly at the renowned ITC Grand Bharat resort in Gurgaon, in the National Capital Region (NCR). Those two points give Ikara its working lineage: a group arriving from California, and a chef shaped by a high-end Indian resort kitchen.
Sharma's Nihari Gosht, from Lucknow, is a $32 goat shank served on the bone and slow-cooked with mace, nutmeg, and fennel until the meat begins to fall apart. The value is in the portion and in the time required to stew goat into softness.
The $24 Pomfret Rawa Fry, semolina-crusted and shallow-fried, is caked in dried spices, ginger, and garlic, then fried in coconut oil until flaky. With rice and raita, it can carry a meal on its own.
The Team Paces Regional Cooking in a Wedding-Scale Room
Punjab, Lucknow, and Goa all show up through specific technique: lentils cooked down overnight, goat taken slowly to tenderness, fish fried crisp. The room may announce celebration first, but the more useful reading is practical: each dish Sharma sends out asks for a different pace at the table.
Order bread early. Onion Kulcha is $8, and Roomali Roti, the handkerchief-style bread, is $10. Tear, fold, drag, pause; the bread is how the spices stay balanced.
The Cocktail Program Carries the Celebration
The drinks menu leans heavily on cocktails. Aamras Ritu is a $16 vodka-based drink with Alphonso mangoes, cantaloupe, jaggery, and egg white foam. Dill brings lift; the texture is creamy, the memory is close to Frooti, and the drink lands as Indian nostalgia rather than a neutral hotel pour.
The Last Local Home, at $18, uses paan-infused vermouth with Scotch and bitters. Paan, the popular Indian digestif of stuffed betel leaf and rose jam, gives the drink its finishing logic.
A theatrical rose-burning cocktail is a tableside showpiece, as much for the room as the menu. It brings more theater than flavor.
What to Know Before Booking Sharma's Table
Come for a celebratory Indian meal with cocktails at the center of the experience, and order with pacing in mind: crispness, bread, slow cooking, then a digestif-leaning close.
The nine-course tasting menu is now served nightly in the blue tasting room (priced roughly $125-$150). The patio will open soon, too.
