The Ezra team backed up with a buddy venue just one door down on Pott's Point's buzzing Kellett Street with Raja. This contemporary Indian eatery delivers a menu of flavour-packed eats that go above and beyond your expectations of the cuisine, and is fast becoming a contender for one of Sydney's best Indian restaurants.
Former Firedoor chef Ahana Dutt leads the kitchen, bringing over the celebrated restaurant's passion for produce-driven cooking. Raja works closely with a serious list of dynamite local producers (including The Gourmet Goat Lady, Newcastle Greens and CopperTree Farms) in creating a menu that pulls the best seasonal ingredients into the foreground.
Dutt has teamed up with Ezra and Raja co-owners Nick and Kirk Mathews-Bowden to conceptualise this celebration of some of the tastiest dishes you've probably never tried — yet.
There's galho, a northeast Indian rice soup that shares more similarities to Chinese cooking than your typical Indian affair; albacore 'toast' featuring pathrado, a bread generally found on the Konkani coast that Dutt perfected while working in Mumbai for three years; and goat riblets which are perfectly paired with the Raja Cutter cocktail.
The cocktails have been curated with help from PS40's Michael Chiem, resulting in a list that continues the through-line of Indian spices from the food — with creations like the aforementioned Cutter and a jackfruit Old Fashioned.
"I'm Indian and I feel a lot of pride in being about to showcase that food," Dutt told Concrete Playground. "I think there is a lot of food that goes underrepresented — not just here but even in India because it is such a big country it's just not actually possible to know everything."
Raja is offering up your very best opportunity to expand your horizons.
Images: Nikki To