Indian bars open in Sydney including Bazaar & Bar in Brookvale and Rasa House in Rose Bay

July 6, 2025
8:39 pm

The snacky, spicy nature of Indian food is being embraced by a new generation of bar owners, who are pairing it with wines, cocktails and even beer.

Are Indian wine bars Sydney’s unexpected hospitality trend for winter 2025? With new venues opening on the northern beaches and eastern suburbs, you wouldn’t bet against it.

Bazaar & Bar opened this week among the distilleries and craft breweries of Brookvale – the north side’s answer to Marrickville – while down by the harbour at Rose Bay, Rasa House has started pouring lychee margaritas and aromatic white wines that can meet a curry head-on.

But why Indian, and why now? The owner of Bazaar & Bar, Kabir Arora, concedes his wine bar start-up hasn’t grown out of a culture built on matching wine with food. “Hard liquor,” Arora said, when asked about the drink of choice in India. “But wine is slowly making its way in.”

Arora is instead taking his lead from the growing number of winemakers in Australia with Indian heritage. He points to Rojer Rathod at Majama Wines in the Hunter Valley: “His nero d’avola pairs well with our goat.” And he stocks the Sanskrit Pinot Gris made by Domaine Simha, a Tasmanian winery owned and operated by winemaker Navneet Singh.

The pinot gris, Arora said, pairs nicely with grilled spatchcock in kali mirch butter, a dish on the opening menu crafted by head chef Adwait Jagtap, who worked at Kolkata Social in Newtown, and Raja, the short-lived hatted Indian restaurant at Potts Point.

“We’re also in the works to source the pinot noir from Paramdeep Ghumman at Nazaaray Estate Winery, on the Mornington Peninsula,” Arora said.

The Brookvale start-up also brings an Indian flavour to its cocktail list. There’s a garam masala negroni, Smoked Jaggery Old-Fashioned, and a Curry Leaf Gimlet. Bazaar is also working with a brewery on a cardamom-flavoured beer.

Inspired by Sydney’s wine bar movement, Arora believes the Indian spin-off is a natural progression. “They have great food, and a lot of it you eat with your hands.” He also argues that wine bars serve a community purpose as a gathering spot for locals.

It’s a sentiment shared by Rasa House owner Vinay Matta, a screenwriter who grew up in and around his parents’ restaurant, Jewel on the Bay, next door to Rasa House on New South Head Road.

“There’s no cool place to eat a couple of plates and have a glass of wine around here,” Matta said. He describes Rasa House as a neighbourhood wine bar with the flexibility to be a restaurant if you want to settle in.

“Everyone thinks Rose Bay is geriatric, it really isn’t,” he said. Matta has done his research on the 25- to 40-year-old demographic and has kept a large portion of the wine list in the more affordable price range. He’s also selected wines with food in mind. Rasa’s menu mixes Indian cooking with “Afghan-Indian” and even the occasional Indonesian dish. “You don’t want them ambushing the food [and vice versa]. Aromatic whites and lighter style reds work best,” Matta said.

Justin Narayan, the 2021 winner of MasterChef Australia, has long wanted to transpose the food of his Fijian-Indian upbringing to a wine bar setting. “I did some pop-ups to test the Indian wine bar [concept],” Narayan said.

He said there’s a generation of Indian-Australians who grew up surrounded by wine culture, an interest he’s parlayed into a role blending and choosing varietals for local business Acceptable Wine.

When correctly paired, there were some “magical combos” of Indian food with wine, Narayan said. He cites the Fijian-Indian dish of kingfish in lime juice with the “palate cleansing” qualities of riesling.

The snacky, spicy nature of Indian food is also ideal for a wine bar setting. “Rather than putting down a huge plate of food,” Narayan said tastes were moving to small hits of flavour.

Narayan, who recently came close to transporting his Indian wine bar idea into a permanent bricks-and-mortar site in Balmain, remains on the hunt.

And India continues to provide plenty of inspiration, both on the food and beverage fronts. Narayan had a “wow” moment in India when he tried a deconstructed hot toddy.

“It had all the same spice and flavour as a hot toddy, but it was a cold spritzer.”