Pukka
Toronto, ON M6C 1B6
In opening a new Indian restaurant on St. Clair Ave. West, business partners Harsh Chawla and Derek Valleau didn’t want to settle for the status quo. So they enlisted the talents of three former Amaya chefs to take care of the food, and they took on renowned sommelier Peter Boyd to handle the wine. The result is Pukka, which opened in mid-October.
Pukka (pronounced “puck-a”) sticks to classical Indian cuisine in a number of ways: the kitchen is equipped with a clay tandoor oven, and chefs make use of house-made curries and chutneys. But the menu is peppered with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, and the cooking is less dependent on cream and salt than tradition dictates.
The wine list, too, is more thorough than one would expect from an Indian restaurant. Twenty-five labels from around the world are currently on offer, and the plan is to grow that selection into 70-100 labels.
“Indian food is complex, and it’s difficult to match with wine,” says Chawla. “But we’ve taken on this challenge very well.”
Like the far-reaching wine selection, Pukka’s menu finds inspiration from across the Indian sub-continent. Samosas ($6.90) are stuffed with butternut squash, while Ontario pickerel ($23.90) is spiced with turmeric, coriander and garlic, then seared, topped with fennel seeds and served with coconut curry.
Other Indian standards include slow-cooked daal makhani ($7.90) — featuring black lentils, red kidney beans and split chick peas — along with Chicken 65 ($9.40), a south Indian favourite that sees hunks of chicken battered in egg and corn flour, then deep-fried and spiced with curry leaf, red chili, tamarind, cumin, garlic and other spices (that dish, like many at the restaurant, is gluten-free).
Decor is familiarly industrial, with exposed brick walls, a cement bar and reclaimed barn wood on the tables and bar top. But Chawla and Valleau — who, like the chefs, were previously affiliated with the Amaya chain — are hoping that the lighter, fresher take on Indian cuisine will help them stand out on the St. Clair West strip.
“This is not a stereotypical restaurant,” Chawla says.
