Experience spice-infused cocktails and innovative dishes at this rule-breaking Indian bar and restaurant.
For most of us, Indian is a cuisine defined by curries and naan bread. But there are a few innovative dining spots challenging conventional Indian dishes in Sydney. You might have already dined at the boundary-pushing Indian restaurant Don’t Tell Aunty, serving inauthentic butter chicken and other creative dishes. And now, we’ve found another exciting new spot to add to your radar.
Meet Foreign Return, the rule-breaking Indian bar, and restaurant coming soon to Surry Hills. Founded by Javed Khan (from Newtown’s favourite Delhi ‘O’ Delhi), Gaurang Gahoi, and Kunal Patel, this new spot is set to swing open its doors in January 2021.
The vision for Foreign Return was to create an Indian bar and restaurant that didn’t conform to traditional expectations. The venue boldly refuses to typecast Indian food, instead choosing to recreate traditional dishes with a modern twist.
A big part of this is giving Sydneysiders a taste of regional Indian cuisine, rather than seeing Indian as a catch-all culinary experience. At the helm of the kitchen will be Head Chef, Siddharth Kalyanaraman (the official touring chef of the Australian Cricket Team). On the menu, expect dishes such as ‘Laal Maas’ (a slowly braised venison curry from Rajasthan), and ‘Forbidden Phirni’ which comes from the northeastern state of Manipur (a ceremonial rice pudding using ‘forbidden rice’).
As for drinks, mixologist Nitin Tewari has been consulting for the venue remotely from Gurugram, Northern India via Zoom to curate a region inspired cocktail menu. He uses iconic Western liquors to bring Indian flavours to the spotlight, such as the Northern ‘marigold sour’ – a light, gin-infused sour with crushed marigold flowers (the country’s ceremonial flower).
There’s also a Vegan Whiskey’ with almond milk and masala tea syrup and even a ‘Rhododendron Sherbet’ using a sweet syrup made from Burans flower mixed with gin, clove-cardamon syrup, and lemon.
Foreign Return restaurant and bar will be opening in Surry Hills in early 2021.