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In Hippo’s Best of 2024 readers’ poll, we asked readers to vote for the “Restaurant That Brings The Heat.” Looking to spice up your dining routine? Here are the top 11 winners in that category.

Destination India Restaurant and Bar

14 E. Broadway, Unit A, in Derry, destinationindianh.com, 552-3469

Destination India won “best of the best” in the heat category. Indian food has a reputation for being hotter than most New Englanders are used to. Destination India, for instance, has three levels of spiciness on the menu: “Mild,” “Medium” and “Indian.”

According to Destination India Chef and owner Navi Avhad, there is a nuance to spiciness that many don’t appreciate; it’s not so much a matter of being “hot” or “mild.” One of the critical factors in how good a spicy dish is, he said, has to do with the flavors the chiles bring along with the heat.

“We never use powdered chiles,” Avhad said. “We only use fresh, organic green chiles. It’s more expensive for us, but it means we can serve a higher-quality food.” He said that the most dependably high-quality chiles that he can get from his distributor are small “Thai” chiles, which he feels are healthier to eat than powdered red ones.

“Some people complain that hot food makes their stomachs hurt; that doesn’t happen with good-quality, fresh chiles,” he said.

Hottest dish: Vindaloo (chicken, lamb, goat or shrimp), $16. Vindaloos come from Goa, on India’s west coast. They are curries made with a vinegar-based sauce, which complements the green chiles with its sharpness. Chef Avhad said that regulars usually start with a “mild” level of heat. “It’s a spice level that lets customers appreciate the actual flavor. Later on they can build up the spiciness,” Avhad said.

Daw Kun Thai

93 S. Maple St., No. 4, in Manchester, dawkunthai.com, 232-0699

Desmond Holman, the co-owner of Daw Kun Thai, agrees that spiciness isn’t binary — either hot or mild.

“Thai food isn’t just hot,” he said. “It allows you to taste all other flavors as well.” With that said, there’s no denying that Thai cuisine can be extremely spicy. “Spicy food usually comes from tropical parts of the world,” he said, “and Thailand is tropical.”

Holman said that getting customers used to Thai levels of spice was challenging initially. “People who grew up in New England like me are very cautious at first,” he said. “They don’t have a lot of experience with spices, but they’re learning.”

Hottest dish: Pad Ped Kai (spicy chicken stir-fry), $17.75

Holman said this dish — a stir-fry of curry paste (a version sometimes called “Thai Jungle Sauce”) with chicken, eggplant and bamboo shoots — is far and away the spiciest dish Daw Kun Thai makes; nothing else is even close.

“It’s two times as hot as anything else we have on our menu,” he said with enthusiasm. “It’s the only item that has two stars. And that’s its mild version. We have maybe five or six people who can order it ‘Thai Hot’ — that’s eight times as hot as the mild version. It’s so hot that I have to caution people who’ve never been in the restaurant before. It’s really too hot for some people, even at its mildest.”

Curry Leaf

6 Pleasant St. in Concord, 715-5746, curryleafus.com

Inder Saini, the Chef and owner of Curry Leaf, is pretty sure most of his customers come into his restaurant looking for a little heat.

“I believe,” he said, “that it’s because of the spices. American food is good but a little bland. During cold weather, spicy food opens up your body.”

Hottest dish: Karahi (chicken, lamb or goat), $19.95

Karahi — which is named after the wok-like pan it is cooked in — is a South Asian curry that is an important part of North Indian, Afghan and Pakistani cuisine. According to Chef Saini, the chicken version is made with all dark meat, onions and peppers. “The customer can pick any meat,” he said, but the sauce is the same. Like dishes at many of the restaurants on this list, the heat comes from fresh green chiles.

A Lot of Thai

360 Daniel Webster Hwy., Unit 121, Merrimack, 429-8888, alotofthainh.com

According to the staff at A Lot of Thai, there are several spicy dishes on their menu — Drunken Noodles and Curry Chicken Basil, for instance — but their recommendation is for the spicy dipping sauce that comes with many of the dishes and allows each customer to adjust their level of heat.

Kashmir Indian Cuisine

396 S. Broadway in Salem, 898-3455, kashmirindianfood.com

Kashmir doesn’t fool around when it comes to spice. According to server/host Khem, even some of the Indian staff often order their food “medium.” Like many of the restaurants on this list, Kashmir depends on green Thai chiles for much of its heat.

Hottest dish: Vindaloo, $16.95 (chicken or lamb), $17.95 (shrimp)

Unlike most of the dishes at most of these restaurants, the vindaloo at Kashmir only comes in one level of heat: “hot.” It is cooked in a traditional style, with a paste made of dried red chiles, fresh herbs and vinegar.

Kathmandu Spice

379 S. Willow St. in Manchester, ktmspice.com, 782-3911

Kaji Maharjan, the manager of Kathmandu Spice, said that Nepalese food isn’t actually very spicy. “Well, it is,” he said, “but not Indian-spicy.” Kathmandu Spice clearly isn’t afraid of serving spicy food but Maharjan said there is a different framework of flavors behind the Indian food the restaurant makes and the Nepalese.

“Indian cooking uses a lot of spices and chiles,” he said. “Nepalese food is much lighter. We don’t use nearly as much dairy or chilies.”

He gives the example of Saag, which is on both sides of the menu. “Our Indian Saag is made with spinach,” he said, “but we make our Nepalese Rayo Ko Saag with mustard greens.” It’s also made with mustard seeds and fried in mustard seed oil, each of which carries a different level of horseradish-like heat that is felt in the nose and sinuses as much as it is in the mouth. “We also put some chile seeds in it,” he said with a grin.

Hottest dish: Indian Curry (chicken or lamb), $17.95

Like every restaurant on this list, Kathmandu Spice will make any dish at any level of spice, but even its “Medium” level is on the hot side. Maharjan said one of the reasons the food at Kathmandu has such a vibrant flavor is how the staff processes the ingredients. “We grind all our spices here,” he said. “We don’t buy anything pre-ground.”

Hermanos Cocina Mexicana

11 Hills Ave. in Concord, 224-5669, hermanosmexican.com

Every dish at Hermanos Cocina can be customized for different tastes, but according to General Manager Melissa Thompson one of the restaurant’s spiciest offerings is a surprising one.

Hottest dish: house infused pineapple/habañero tequila, $11

“We’re a scratch kitchen,” Thompson said, “so any of our dishes can be spicy, especially our enchiladas or our pastor de avocado, but our house infused tequilas are something special.” Hermanos infuses Lunazul blanco tequila with either jalapeños or pineapple and habañeros.

“It depends on what is available and seasonal,” Thompson said, adding that most customers have it in a margarita.

Puerto Vallarta Mexican Grill

865 Second St. in Manchester, 935-9182, vallartamexiannh.com

Puerto Vallarta is another restaurant that prides itself on its heat flexibility. Many of the dishes on its menu are fairly mild even by New England standards, but according to bartender and manager Christobal that is easily remedied.

“Customers come in all the time and ask us to make one of our regular dishes extra spicy,” he said.

Hottest item: Hot Tomatillo Salsa, $2.99

There are several dishes at Puerto Vallarta that are spicy to begin with — Camarones Endiablados (Shrimp Diablo), Aguachile, and Burritos Caliente (literally “hot burritos”) — but none of them packs the punch of its house-made tomatillo salsa. Unlike many tomatillo salsas, it isn’t green, but a red color. It is pureed, but not so finely that there aren’t tiny bits of chiles and vegetables. It is extremely hot, but with a lovely, fresh herbal flavor that puts in a quick appearance before the heat comes crashing down.

“A lot of our customers who want their food extra spicy get a side of this, and mix it into whatever they’ve ordered,” Christobal said, “so they can customize it just the way they like it.”

Smoke Shack Cafe

226 Rockingham Road in Londonderry, 404-2178, smokeshackcafe.com

The key to the Smoke Shack’s spiciest food, said owner and manager Melissa Lafontaine, is in its sauces. “It’s the real deal,” she said. “We are a scratch kitchen, so we reduce habañeros [one of the spiciest chiles in the world], then run them through the mill and use it in our sauces. For instance, our cornflake fried chicken isn’t very spicy on its own, but our sauces are, like our Habañero Honey.” She said that even she has trouble with her restaurant’s hottest sauces. “Me personally?” she said, “I can’t handle it. I’m good with heat up to the jalapeňo level, but the habañero is too much for me. But people love it.”

Hottest dish: Habañero Melt, $11.99

The Smoke Shack’s menu describes this as “Smoked brisket on grilled Texas toast with mayo, habañero bbq sauce, sautéed peppers and onion, and smoked Gouda cheese.” “It’s our No. 1 selling sandwich,” Melissa Lafontaine said.

Bangkok Thai Food

44 Nashua Road in Londonderry, 426-5162, bangkokthaifood.biz

The staff at Bangkok Thai Food wants to make it very clear that not all Thai food is hot.

“We have many things on our menu that aren’t hot at all,” said spokesperson An, translating for her mother, the owner and chef. “Most Thai dishes are a mixture of hot, sweet, salty and sour.” With that said, many of the dishes at Bangkok are hot, and can be made even hotter at a customer’s request.

“We use green Thai chiles,” An said. “That’s the authentic Bangkok style.” Her favorite dish to have extra-spicy is Noodle Coconut Tom Yum, a creamy coconut soup with noodles, shrimp paste and scallions.

Hottest dish: Green Curry, $15

Described on Bangkok Thai’s menu as a “choice of meat, eggplants, bamboo shoot, bell peppers and basil leaves in green curry with coconut milk,” the Green Curry comes with 15 choices of meat, including crispy pork, shrimp, duck, seafood, and ground chicken, and comes in “medium,” “hot” or “very hot” levels of intensity. “Mild” is not an option.

Thai Food Connection

1069 Elm St. in Manchester, 935-7257, thaifoodconnection.com

Reige, a server and bartender at Thai Food Connection, said they have customers along the entire spectrum of heat-tolerance.

“I don’t feel like we have any spice seekers,” she said, “just everyday people who want something different, then they keep coming back.” She said that she has noticed a change in recent years of area diners’ attitudes toward foods and cuisines that might have been intimidating even a few years ago.

“I think it has to do with changing demographics,” she said. “The Manchester area has become a real melting pot. As this part of the state becomes more of a suburb of Boston, there’s been an uptick of different cultures. I think that being a college town helps, too.”

Hottest dish: Kua Gling (an occasional off-menu special)

Reige says it’s hard to pick out one particular spiciest dish at her restaurant.

“Everything can be made spiciest,” she said. “Probably, the hottest everyday dish that we make is krapow.” Thai Food Connection’s menu describes this as “stir-fried choice of ground chicken or tofu (substitute beef +$2, shrimp +$3 , crispy chicken +$3) with garlic, fresh chili, onion, bell pepper and Thai basil seasoned with hot basil sauce (fried egg on top +$2).” The base cost of the dish is $13.99. But the run-away hottest dish that the restaurant serves is Kua Gling, a dry southern Thai dish made with ground chicken, aromatics like lemon grass and lots of chiles.