You already know the drill. You've smelled the cardamom, seen the murals of mustachioed men and busted the cap off your own beer from the self-service fridge at Piquancy's St Kilda sibling, Babu Ji.

That mod-casual Punjabi canteen, started by Jessi and Jennifer Singh, now owned by Mani Waraich and Ranjit Singh, worked Indian cuisine into Melbourne's dining consciousness. Tonka did the heavy lifting on the finer dining front, but here was tandoori chicken beneath glowing neon signs with craft beers and decor more Fitzroy cafe than spice market.

Now, all of this has come to Hawthorn East where it's all blonde tables, black Bentwood chairs and hanging plants. The smell is less the full frontal assault of the spice cabinet, more a wall of perfume.

There's heat on the menu if you look, but what you'll notice more is a rainbow of sweetness from pineapple, corn and figs, making the rich, grilled and vegetable-based dishes of the north strangely refreshing.

Starting with the batata vada, turmeric-stained lentil and potato parcels are crowned with grated radish and a yoghurt-based sauce swirled with pineapple and mint which is almost like a sweeter version of Mexican verdita.

Paneer, the world's easiest DIY cheese of compressed milk solids, is marinated in a bloody beetroot sauce spiked with ginger and garlic. Squares are charred in the tandoor, sandwiched around a little pickled 'slaw and drenched in a fresh batch of the lurid purple sauce to make strange little bites that are by parts, mild, soupy, chewy and tart.

There's the odd tendency to gild the lily that doesn't always work. Four fat king prawns, flashed in the clay oven are carefully arranged around ochre-coloured schmears of garlicky corn puree, which you can see being delicious were the shells more roasted than singed and acrid. But it's mostly classic technique beneath the thatches of micro herbs.

Beyond the palak paneer (creamed spinach with cubes of the curd cheese), butter chicken and their stout samosas the size of a clenched fist, you'll get a luxurious fish curry. Big hunks of blue grenadier are napped in a thick saffron-coloured coconut, mustard seed and turmeric curry, cooled with slices of fresh tomato and rags of young coconut.

A vegetarian curry, containing firm, mild cashew dumplings and figs pings with cardamom. It's best heaped over crisp and fluffy garlic naan for extra savour. Cauliflower rice can substitute carbs, though the basmati is the aged and particularly fragrant variety.

Being one of the original menus designed for sharing, the optimal group size is probably three plus. There's a tasting menu of four dishes for couples, but the banquet requires a trio. You at least want to split a bottle of 2014 Louis Michel chablis, or Farr Rising shiraz from a tight-but-solid wine list.

For those dining solo, there are consolation help-yourself Kingfisher and Bridge Road Brewing beers in the fridge, take away containers for your extras and maybe a complimentary kulfi pop – sticky condensed milk ice-cream in a stick studded with pistachios and cardamom. They're friendly like that, here.