Little India: Where to find the best Indian street food in Sydney
COTTAGE restaurants, clouds of spice and sweets so bright you’ll need sunglasses. Harris Park’s Little India is bursting at the seams with the best Indian street food in Sydney.
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DON’T expect butter chicken or rogan josh when dining out in Sydney’s little India.
You’ll get something better — authentic Indian street food.
Puri are puffed breads filled with everything from rice to peanuts and served with fragrant chutneys, dahi vada are lentil doughnuts soaked in sweet chilled yoghurt and chloe tikki are fried potato cutlets topped with chickpea curry.
Food journalist and former Good Food Guide editor, Joanna Savill, believes western Sydney’s food scene is world-class.
“Sydney’s diverse population means you can have different authentic experiences, it’s as easy as hopping on a train and you’re almost in another world,” she said.
“I think everybody really likes to explore, you just need someone to point you in the right direction.”
While Parramatta is a well-known foodie hub, she nominates Harris Park as a hidden gem worth discovering.
She believes the small cottages in the heritage-style suburb are home to the best Indian food in Sydney.
“It’s a really authentic little pocket and it’s great value,” she said.
“You can get to Parramatta in 25 minutes from Central and it’s a five-minute walk from the station along this bland city road and then you get hit with a cloud of spice. You literally smell Harris Park before you see it.
“Go for lunch on the weekend and you’ll be part of this whole South-East Asian community. Shop in those Indian groceries stores and buy saris, bangles and sandals and make a day of it.”
Ms Saville’s secret samosa spot is Taj restaurant.
“I’ve been going since they first started 15 years ago, it was one of the first vegetarian street food restaurants,” she said.
“The samosas are really fresh, the dough isn’t greasy or flabby and the filling has a lot of flavour. They’re served with raita and tamarind sauce so you get that little tangy sweet and sour condiment.
“Or get a thali of the day, either north or south Indian, whatever the curries of the day are with rice, pickles, yoghurt and a tiny sweet and you’ve got your perfectly balanced meal — because that always includes dessert — for about $11.”
Chatkazz and Billu restaurants are her other top picks for a taste of Indian street food.
Chatkazz owner, Dharmesh Rangparia, trained as an accountant but he missed the cuisine of Mumbai so much he opened his restaurant in 2013.
“The menu is street food from each and every part of India. Pav bhaji, made from mixed vegetables, is just like you’d get in Mumbai.”
Most of the restaurants in the area are vegetarian and Mr Rangparia knows how to deal with carnivorous western palates.
“Indian people don’t expect butter chicken, but other people look at our menu and say ‘It’s just vegetables, we don’t want to try.’ We ask them to try it once, if you don’t like it we don’t charge you,” he said.
“Once they try, they keep coming back and bring their friends and family.”
Originally published as Little India: Where to find the best Indian street food in Sydney
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