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

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

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Mabel Lui

Published: 6:15pm, 19 Sep 2024

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.

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

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.