The Gandhi family has won many hearts in Melbourne over nearly 35 years by serving brightly spiced and lovingly cooked Indian food, first at Bombay by Night and then at Cafe Southall. Now they’re set to charm more diners, moving Southall from St Kilda, open since 2017, to a bigger, brighter space in Hampton.

Ravnish Gandhi, whose parents founded Bombay by Night in Caulfield South in 1990, felt Southall had outgrown its 35-seat digs two years ago, but needed that much time to find a new home for the much-loved eatery. A sunny corner in Melbourne bayside suburb Hampton was irresistible.

“There’s something about being five minutes from the beach,” says Gandhi, who grew up nearby. “It’s done something to me. It’s made me more excited again.”

Cafe Southall gained a following not just because of the Gandhi pedigree, but for its exciting brunch menu putting Indian flavours into Melbourne mornings, and its celebration of British Indian cooking alongside more traditional recipes.

Gandhi’s renewed enthusiasm has led to several new dishes at Hampton including a peppery and cardamom-fragrant lamb shank rezala and keema naan, in which the bread is generously filled with spiced lamb mince. The keema naan joins a gruyere-filled naan which, in an earlier iteration, The Age restaurant critic Dani Valent said earned “a gold medal in the so-wrong-it’s-right category”.

There’s also a sour Goan-style fish curry featuring kokum (dried skin of a fruit similar to tamarind) and Manchurian cauliflower, a popular Indian-Chinese dish that’s sticky, sweet and crunchy.

‘I wanted something a bit more fancy, a bit more celebratory.’

Ravnish Gandhi, owner.

Long-time fans from the Caulfield South and St Kilda days have been travelling to Hampton for the trademark biryani, onion bhaji, prawn balti and batata wada: turmeric-hued potato croquettes.

“We were booked out for our first four weeks,” says Gandhi, who got the doors open at the new restaurant in early January.

With 70 seats across a crisply decorated dining room and a rear courtyard, it’s not only easier to book a table (theoretically, anyway), the site also comes with a function room upstairs and a bigger kitchen.

“I wanted something a bit more fancy, a bit more celebratory,” says Gandhi. “St Kilda was too small to do anything more. If we wanted to expand our menu or be a bit more creative, it was too small.”

Open Tue-Sat 5.30pm-9pm.

400 Hampton Street, Hampton, 03 9537 3496, cafesouthall.com