You’ve probably heard of Detroit-style pizza, Chicago deep-dish, and of course, the classic New York slice — but what about an Indian-inspired pizza?

On the corner of First Avenue and East 13th Street — a few blocks away from Palladium Residence Hall and Third Avenue North — The Onion Tree Pizza Co. entered the East Village restaurant scene last April. Owned by Jay Jadeja, the self-described “Gourmet Indian Chef,” and his wife Raquel Wolf-Jadeja, the restaurant aims to bring Indian spices to American tables in a warm, vibrant atmosphere.

“We’ve been in the vicinity of NYU for the last 20 years,” Wolf-Jadeja said in an interview with WSN. “It’s been our goal for a long time to expand back into the city — our first restaurant that we owned together was actually in the [East] Village.”

The Onion Tree Pizza Co., one of about 30 food establishments near campus that accepts NYU Campus Cash, has seen its fair share of NYU customers in its first six months — including Indian and Indian American students, according to Wolf-Jadeja.

“It was really refreshing because they were just so happy to taste the flavors and have that sense of home,” she said. “Maybe not in a traditional curry sense, but it still brought them back to home. That was really rewarding for us.”

The couple initially opened their Long Island restaurant, simply called The Onion Tree, just a few days before the pandemic shutdown in 2020.

“We had to pivot and do something very different there,” Jadeja said. “We were doing pizza before, but that’s how we … [started] doing more Indian toppings on pizzas while keeping the integrity of the Italian-style dough.”

The chicken tikka masala pizza, one of the restaurant’s signatures, incorporates a rainbow of rich spices with sweet onions, tender chicken and spicy fried chiles, all on top of a fresh, fluffy dough. Each pizza is also served with its own pair of pizza-cutting scissors — practical for the kitchen and fun for the customer.

The restaurant’s menu features a variety of comfort foods with Indian flare, including crispy dosa-battered onion rings with a tadka hollandaise, hearty Parsi fried chicken and pillowy masala margherita pizza — dishes that pay homage to Jadeja’s Indian roots and incorporate new culinary techniques he has learned through his travels.

“I’ve had the privilege of traveling a lot and living in a few countries before I came here,” Jadeja said. “I was always fascinated by different cultures and then as I got older I missed the spices. You want comfort as you get older and what I find comforting is pizza, my spicy curries and my spicy food.”

While many of Jadeja’s menu items have evolved over the years, one standout has stayed true to its roots: the Bombay gumbo. Jadeja mixes chicken, prawns and merguez  — a spicy North African sausage — with a rich chicken broth, seasoned with cayenne, cumin and other Indian spices. Dishes like these exemplify The Onion Tree Pizza Co.’s mission — combining different cuisines to create an innovative experience and celebrate culinary diversity.

“To us, this is home,” Jadeja said. “We love New York City and our restaurants have always been a labor of love.”

Contact Lauren Aragon at [email protected].