INDU’s curries and cocktails spicing up CBD

INDU serves up curries and cocktails, dosas and daal to a soundtrack of Dylan and The Doors.

Egg hoppers at Indu PIC Arianna Leggiero

The request came through from the supremefoodboss in Sydney: where would I recommend for a VIP in Melbourne on a Monday night?

Prepandemic, it wasn’t too hard to find a fancy feed in Melbourne any night of the week, but today, as the CBD slowly awakens from its COVID coma – and it is definitely rousing, if not getting rowdy by the week’s end – it’s a somewhat slimmer buffet of options, especially on a Monday.

But to that mix we can now add INDU, a modern Sri Lankan/Indian restaurant hidden on Collins St that’s doing dosas to a soundtrack of Dylan and the Doors for lunch and dinner weekdaily.

And though it’s pretty quiet this Monday night, I can imagine it gets quite a buzz about it, especially when the Kingfisher beers start flowing and the curries and cocktails fly from the kitchen and bar.

The smoked goat dosa is a must-try dish at Indu

Having late last year transformed the rear of the Collins Quarter building into a bustling taqueria, Mejico, Ian Hicks and Sam Prince have now turned the front of the space into sister restaurant INDU, an evolution of the original INDU that opened in Sydney in 2015.

A long, narrow, dark hallway filled with ceramic bowls bursting with dried chillies, cinnamon and other spices, does a good job of quickly transporting from tram-dinging Collins St to Hippy Trail subcontinent (hence Dylan, Beatles et al on repeat), the room opening into the dining room that has private booths behind sheer grey curtains and bar seating by the kitchen on show behind clear glass.

It’s a stylish makeover of what was in spirit a pub, and puts the focus more squarely on dining.

Not that the drinking’s shabby.

There’s a nice line in gins and tonic with fancy garnishes - from a grilled pineapple-adorned Archie Rose from NSW through an English Sipsmith with smoking cassia bark – along with a Four Pillars tasting flight, with suitably spicy cocktails giving a Kaffir lime and chilli-infused twist to classics.

Indu Melbourne Dishes include Amma’s dahl (centre) and paratha

Indu’s egg hopper is a modern twist on the traditional Sri Lankan breakfast dish. Picture: Arianna Leggiero

Fresh young coconuts simply served with a straw, tamarind sodas and mango lassis zero point zero with style, while the tight wine list filled with food-friendly fragrant whites and juicy, light-to-medium bodied reds keeps its focus fairly close to home at fairly fair CBD prices – around $15 a glass and $70 a bottle.

Discovering egg hoppers for breakfast was a definite highlight of a trip to Sri Lanka years back, the bowl-shaped pancake nesting a cooked egg and topped to taste with various sambols was a sure-fire way to start each day.

Here, the egg hopper is given a modern twist, the crisp-edged rice flour and coconut milk pancake served with its condiments on top – there’s a super-hot onion pickle, a lovely, mild eggplant pickle, coconut sambol, goat’s curd and pomegranate seeds. Mix and match to taste and devour ($15).

The dosa was even better.

Covering a large aluminium plate, this crisp crepe from South India comes with a mound of fantastically smoky goat meat, a bright yoghurt-and-zucchini raita, chewy chunks of bacon “jam” and more pops of pomegranate. Super tasty and satisfying ($18).

Potato curry is a win for the vegetarians, while the pork belly curry is for carnivore cravings.

Four shatteringly crisp fenugreek-speckled roti fingers with sweet oven-roasted tomatoes, radish and sour cream-bitey paneer cheese are pinky-up pretty finger food ($16), while the fabulously flaky paratha is butterly brilliant and good enough to eat on its own ($6).

But it’s more likely to be commandeered on dunking duties for the pork belly curry, which, when you overlook the diabolically bad “crispy crackling” that’s more like sad dried-out cardboard on top, is great.

Generous with excellent cubes of Mount Mercer pork, the meat is firm and flavoursome, the coconut-based gravy and fresh chilli fire providing sweet and heat to brilliant effect ($32).

A side of co-owner Sam Prince’s mum’s red lentil daal is also good, and what it lacks in the outrageous rich depth you’ll find at fellow mod Indians Mrs Singh and Daughter In Law around the corner, it makes up for with fried curry leaf crunch and mustard seed fragrance ($12).

The main dining room with bar seating by the open kitchen behind clear glass.

Staff are friendly and well-drilled on the menu, and there’s a bit you’ll likely want to ask about, including, should I really order a curry leaf ice cream?

The answer was, and is, yes, and not just for novelty’s sake.

Bright green, subtle but moreishly savoury, its served with piped carrot halva and coconut cream and while needing a crunch factor is a fine way to finish ($12).

It takes fair fortitude to transform a CBD drinking den into a subcontinental restaurant during a pandemic, but INDU has hit the ground running.

It’s a welcome addition to the city – and not just for a Monday night.

INDU

86a Collins St, Melbourne

Open Mon-Fri from noon; Sat from 5pm

indudining.com.au