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Mabel Lui

Two decades ago, a restaurant called Veda opened in Arbuthnot Road in Hong Kong’s Central district.
Seating 160 diners, Veda – the name taken from the earliest known body of Sanskrit literature – was the first restaurant of its kind in Hong Kong, boasting a menu of contemporary Indian dishes at a time when other Indian restaurants served the usual curries.
That Veda, founded by Sarika Jhunjhnuwala, closed after six years in business, but was reincarnated in a smaller, more modern space at Ovolo Central, a hotel founded by Sarika’s husband, Girish Jhunjhnuwala, in 2019.
Since then, numerous chefs have left their imprint on Veda; plant-based cookbook writer Hetty Lui McKinnon helped design the relaunch menu, and Raul Tronco Calahorra led the kitchen for several years.

Now Sarika’s daughter Avni Jhunjhnuwala has put her own mark on the restaurant, which features dishes with classic Indian flavours and with emphasis on health and nutrition.
The menu has a number of hearty salads and a variety of dosas (thin crepes), as well as favourites like aloo gobi and pav bhaji – “an Indian sloppy joe”, Avni calls it.
Sarika is not involved in the restaurant’s operation any more – Veda Café and Bar is run entirely by Avni – but the old and new Veda mirror each other in more ways than one. Sarika opened her restaurant in 2002 when she was 35 years old; Avni, who took over the restaurant in 2024, is also 35.
Back then, Sarika says her desire to open Veda stemmed from wanting to introduce India’s diverse regional dishes to Hong Kong diners.

“Hong Kong was so limited with Indian food,” she says. “Every single restaurant kind of repeated the same menu [of North Indian dishes].
“If you translate veda as a Sanskrit word into English, it means knowledge, and I thought Hong Kong people needed to be educated about Indian food.”
“India is such a large peninsula, we have so many different cuisines and every part of every state has its own staples,” she adds. “So that was the whole idea – just to bring the different parts of India to Hong Kong.”
The old Veda served authentic dishes with a modern twist – among them tandoor roasted venison on sweet potato mash; curry-leaf-flavoured seafood cooked in a coconut shell; and khichri made with rice and lentils, which Sarika likens to an “Indian risotto”.
Reflecting on her decision to close it after six years, Sarika says: “I think Veda was a bit too early for its time. I struggled a lot with people asking me: why is Veda expensive compared to Tandoor [Indian Restaurant] or Gunga Din’s [now known as Ganga’s]?

“Because we did everything fresh, and we used very high-quality ingredients, our cost was higher. I got tired after five years [of having] to answer the same questions: why my dhal is more expensive, why my naan is more expensive.
“I think Veda should [have] come a few years later when people [could] actually understand the quality and the pricing based on the quality. So, we decided to pause.”
A decade later, in 2019, Sarika and her husband brought Veda back, steps away from its original location, as a fully vegetarian restaurant inside the Ovolo Central hotel on Arbuthnot Road.
“We served meat, fish, seafood, everything [before], but when we decided to reopen, somehow we felt, ‘let’s keep it vegetarian this time’,” Sarika says. “With people becoming health-conscious, vegetarianism was also growing in Hong Kong by then.”
While it was obvious that the restaurant had Indian roots, there were also dishes that encompassed a melange of other cuisines – “global vegetarian food”, as Sarika calls it.

When Avni took over Veda this year, she decided to bring back the basics – inspired by her upbringing – with a focus on comforting, nutritious Indian classics.
“When we were growing up, it was four days a week Indian food, three days a week whatever we wanted. We used to wait for those three days a week, because when you’re forced to eat something as a child, you [don’t] like it any more,” she recalls.
“When I went to college, and suddenly these four days of beautifully cooked Indian food was not an option any more, I was like, ‘Damn, I miss that’.
“I remember we would go out for Indian food at restaurants, and it was just not the same as Indian food that we eat at home, which is clean and wholesome [and] at the same time full of flavour.”
The revamped menu is also informed by Avni’s time in New York. There, she completed a plant-based culinary arts programme at the Institute of Culinary Education, after which she embarked on an internship at a vegan restaurant called Planta Queen.

“I wanted to bring that New York cafe vibe back to Hong Kong – all-day dining, casual but refined – and I think that’s what we’re trying to achieve with Veda,” she says.
Some of the new dishes, which Avni says are based on what would be available in a modern Indian home, include pesto paneer and gunpowder cheese dosas, as well as chilli cheese toast – a non-spicy version of which is available on the secret kids’ menu.
“In India, every home has their own version of a chilli cheese toast,” she says. “You can’t go wrong with it.”
While redesigning the menu, Avni also made sure that the mains, which include yellow tadka dhal, rajma masala (kidney bean stew) and grilled paneer with cashew and tomato curry, were conducive to a balanced diet.
“Vegetarian Indian cuisine is quite low in protein, and protein is so essential to our diets,” she says. “We wanted to up the protein content, so you don’t end up getting that heavy feeling from eating a lot of fat and carbs, which is what Indian food can be.
“I wanted to make it a lot more accessible, fresh, and that was similar to what [my mum] had with the original Veda up the road, which was to not give you that heavy ‘I’ve eaten so much curry’ feeling.”

Avni has added her own touches to the restaurant. The wallpaper has been painted over and the lighting is warmer, creating a cosy, welcoming environment like that of a real Indian home and embodying the hospitality that was ever-present at her mother’s Veda.
“I ended up spending a lot of my own money on the restaurant, which I’m so happy to do, because this is my mum’s legacy,” Avni says.
Although Sarika has handed off the restaurant to her daughter – “Now, it’s her baby,” she quips – she believes that Veda’s new direction is well suited to today’s dining environment. “Everyone has [moved away from] the basics so now, to introduce them back, it’s a great time. It’s a refreshing change for people because people are used to fusion, modern, that kind of food.
“I hear really good feedback from my friends and people who have been here. They know me from when I used to run Veda, so a lot of people come here, and they’re loving it.”
Veda, Ovolo Central, 2 Arbuthnot Road, Central, Hong Kong (Tel: 3755 3067)


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Food and Drinks

Back to basics at Veda, Indian restaurant in Hong Kong, with handover from mum to daughter

Some of the dishes on Veda’s revamped menu. Photo: Veda

Veda, an Indian restaurant in Hong Kong reopened in 2019 by Sarika Jhunjhnuwala (left), is now being run by her daughter Avni. Photo: Mabel Lui

Chef Palash Mitra making vegetable pulao, a rice dish, at Veda in 2006. Photo: SCMP

Veda founder Sarika Jhunjhnuwala at Veda in 2004. Photo: SCMP

Curry-leaf-flavoured seafood cooked in a coconut shell at the original Veda. Photo: SCMP

Classic dishes like roasted aloo gobi are on Veda’s new menu. Photo: Veda

Veda’s revamped menu includes classic Indian foods such as like dosa and pani puri, as well as some hearty salads. Photo: Veda

After returning from New York, Avni Jhunjhnuwala took over Veda. Photo: Mabel Lui

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Indian vegetarian restaurant at Ovolo Central is in new hands, and with that has come a return to serving classic dishes with a health focus


Veda was a pioneering Indian restaurant in Hong Kong. Ahead of its time, it closed, but was revived as a fusion vegetarian joint in 2019. Its new menu marks a return to classic Indian dishes.


Where to eat in Hong Kong

What to do in Hong Kong