Venue provided complimentary food and drinks during Sherika’s visit for this feature. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
Say “Indian food” to most people in the West, and a familiar picture comes to mind: takeout containers, a lot of oil, and a spice level that’s either “mild” or “regret.” It’s cheap, it’s convenient, and — the assumption goes — it’s basically all the same, just curry in different colours.
It couldn’t be further from the truth.
India isn’t one cuisine. It’s thousands of them. The country splits into broad geographic zones — north, south, east, west, and the northeast — and each one cooks with entirely different staple grains, techniques, and flavour profiles shaped by its own climate, history, and culture. Kashmiri rogan josh and Chennai-style chicken Madras have about as much in common as a Neapolitan pizza and a Swedish meatball — they’re both “Indian food” the way both those dishes are “European food,” which is to say, technically true and practically meaningless. Travel across the country and the menu changes completely: steamed momo (dumplings) in the northeast, pork with fermented soybean, tangy tamarind-and-coconut curries down south, delicate mustard-and-fish dishes in the east. It’s a tapestry, not a single dish repeated in different sauces.
This is exactly the reputation Vinoth Govind is working to change from his restaurant, Mad’Ras, on Piet Heinstraat. Walk into Mad’Ras and the first thing you notice is that it doesn’t look like most Indian restaurants you’ve been to. Blue ceramic plates are lined precisely along the tables, copper wine goblets catch the light behind the bar. It reads more like fine dining than the casual spots the cuisine usually gets slotted into — and that’s deliberate.
Vinoth never trained formally as a chef. He was, in his own words, always a foodie. While he grew up in Chennai, he visited his grandparents who had a small farm in Tamilnadu, where feeding anyone who walked through the door wasn’t optional, it was the rule. “If you weren’t going to eat here, don’t bother coming,” his grandparents used to say. That ethic of hospitality followed him into a corporate HR career, one that took him and his wife through Singapore, the Philippines, and other parts of Asia before they eventually settled in The Hague in 2022.
But HR is not the industry for someone who believes food is love. Vinoth spent years on the exhausting, emptying task of laying off hundreds of people at a time, and at some point the pull back toward the kitchen got too loud to ignore. He’d already opened restaurants before, in other countries, each time leaving behind a piece of his heart along with the business. He wasn’t planning on starting another one when his wife’s job brought them to the Netherlands. Then he got lost on a walk one day and stumbled onto Piet Heinstraat.
There, he struck up a friendship with Clarence, owner of the café then known as Bij Clarence, and found himself pulled back into the food world almost by accident. A space on the street had just come free — previously home to a Brazilian fusion restaurant run by João Proença — and after six months of work, it became Mad’Ras.
Vinoth is quick to credit the neighbourhood for what came next. Plenty of people doubted a new restaurant could survive in that spot; others had tried and closed before him. But Clarence and João, along with the wider street community, backed him from day one. He now counts them as family, and it’s part of why The Hague, a city he arrived in almost by chance, has stayed close to his heart.
Mad’Ras keeps its menu tight, but each dish carries its own regional identity rather than blending into one generic “Indian” flavour. The lamb rogan josh — Vinoth’s personal favourite — carries a rich, warming character, and the tandoori prawns arrive smoky and char-kissed, in the northern tradition. And the chicken Madras brings the fire and depth of the south.
Crucially, none of it has been dialled down for a Dutch palate. What lands on your table is what you’d be served in Chennai or Kashmir itself — spice included. That said, if heat isn’t your thing, there’s still plenty on the menu to give you an honest taste of the cuisine without watering it down into something unrecognisable. You will also find some iems unique to Mad’Ras, such as the truffle naan which was inspired by Vinoth’s 13 year old daughter – a combination I had doubts about as truffle is often overused in most restaurants or of poor quality – yet paired with dishes like the butter chicken, it was sensational.
Behind that consistency is a kitchen team of four, all trained in five-star hotels across India, and it shows in the precision of every plate. The drinks list carries the same care. The Mad’Ras Tadka cocktail — gin or whisky, lime, sugar, ginger ale, and chaat masala — is light and refreshing, built to stand up against the spiced food rather than disappear next to it. Vinoth’s own love of wine shows up here too, with bottles sourced from further afield than you’d expect, including Georgia and Lebanon, rounding out a drinks menu as considered as the food.
Mad’Ras is the kind of place you find yourself wanting to return to — and to bring everyone you know along with you. It’s comfort food, elevated without tipping into pretension, and Vinoth’s hospitality is evident from the moment you walk through the door. If you’ve been carrying around the wrong idea of what Indian food is, this is exactly where to go to have it corrected. I myself, am of South African-Indian heritage and this place tastes like a mothers embrace.
Vinoth has since moved back to India; however, he continues to operate the restaurant with his dedicated team. Soon, a new menu will be unveiled — one I’m eagerly anticipating.
Piet Heinstraat 97, The Hague
Open for dinner only, Tuesday to Sunday
Images: Sherika Rooplal-Clappers
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Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
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