Kuldip Sangha grew up in Budhlada in the Punjab and wrote these recipes. The spices come from the family's Indian grocery next door. Everything is made on site, with no MSG and nothing frozen. 116 Beaumont Street, Hamilton, open 7 days.
Every Indian shop in the country says the word, so here is the evidence instead. One Punjabi cook, the same recipes since the counter opened in 1998, ingredients bought from the family's own grocery a few metres away, and a menu built out of what customers asked for from home rather than copied from a template.
Most kitchens order their spices through a food service supplier. Ours walk in from Raj's Spice and Groceries, the family's Indian grocery on the same stretch of Beaumont Street. That is the whole supply chain, and it is why the cooking has not drifted over twenty five years.
Fresh meat and vegetables are bought in. Samosa pastry is rolled here, naan dough is made here, and the dips and sauces are made here every day. No MSG goes into any dish and nothing comes out of a freezer.
You can see the same method in the butter chicken, which went out on the first day of trade and has never been changed: marinated overnight in yoghurt and spices, skewered, cooked in the tandoor, then folded into a slow cooked gravy.
Kuldip and Sylvia Sangha opened Flavours of North India in Coogee in 1991 and grew it to several Sydney stores, all of it proper North Indian cooking sold over a counter at a weeknight price. Those stores were later sold. The Hamilton menu came out of that decade of customer feedback.
Curries, tandoor breads, biryani, tikka masala, korma and rogan josh. The Punjabi side of the kitchen, and the food Kuldip grew up eating.
Dosa cooked to order on the griddle, sambar, coconut, curry leaf and tamarind sitting alongside the cream and cashew of the north. Two cuisines from one kitchen, which is not how most Indian shops in Australia are run. Read more about the dosa we cook to order.
Dishes went on the board because a customer asked for something from home, and they stayed because other people kept asking for them.
Vegetarian mains are $10.90, $14.90 or $16.90. Meat and seafood mains are $11.90, $17.90 or $19.90. Biryani runs $17.90 to $18.90, plain naan is $4.50 and combos start at $9.90.
Every dish carries its dietary codes, GF gluten free, NF nut free, DF dairy free and V vegan, so you can order without a conversation about ingredients.
Dosas, Utthapam and Idli Sambar come off the griddle until 8:30pm. Everything else runs to 10:00pm, seven days a week.
Order ahead and pick it up on Beaumont Street, eat in the dining room, or have it delivered free after 5:00pm within 5km.
Kuldip was born in Budhlada in the Punjab and developed the recipes. Sylvia was born in Australia. Between them they have more than thirty years cooking Indian food, starting in Coogee in 1991. Their story is on our about us page.
Sylvia turned down franchising and told the Newcastle Herald it was "about doing it properly". The Herald covered the shop in 2017 and again in 2018, when customers reported driving from as far as Tamworth.
Paramjit manages Hamilton and comes from the same part of India as Kuldip, so the seasoning gets checked by someone who grew up on it.
The recipes were developed by Kuldip Sangha, who was born in Budhlada in the Punjab region of northern India, and they have not been changed since the counter opened in 1998. The spices and groceries come from Raj's Spice and Groceries, the family's Indian grocery next door on Beaumont Street. Samosa pastry, naan dough, dips and sauces are made on site every day, and the butter chicken is still marinated overnight, cooked in the tandoor and folded into a slow cooked gravy the same way it was on the first day of trade.
Kuldip Sangha developed the recipes and Sylvia Sangha runs the business with him. Together they have more than thirty years cooking Indian food, beginning with Flavours of North India in Coogee in 1991, which grew to several Sydney stores before they were sold. Paramjit Atwal manages the Hamilton shop and comes from the same part of India as Kuldip.
The menu runs from mild to hot and Beef Vindaloo is the only dish marked hot, so most of the board sits in the middle by design rather than by compromise. If you want a dish cooked hotter or milder than it is marked, ask when you order and we will cook it that way.
No MSG goes into any dish and nothing is frozen. Meat and vegetables are bought fresh, and the samosa pastry, naan dough, dips and sauces are made on site every day. There are twenty two curries on display at the counter and around twenty more made to order.
Vegetarian mains are $10.90, $14.90 or $16.90 depending on size, and meat and seafood mains are $11.90, $17.90 or $19.90. Biryani is $17.90 to $18.90, a plain naan is $4.50 and combos start at $9.90. That pricing has been the point since the Coogee days: proper North Indian cooking sold over a counter at a weeknight price.
The dining room was added in 2011, so you can sit down, order at the counter for pick up, or have dinner delivered. The Indian grocery that supplies the kitchen is next door.
