KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 6 — Mumbai’s Kailash Parbat, a vegetarian chain with 42 outlets in India and a global presence spanning New York, Amsterdam, Singapore and more, has opened its first restaurant in Malaysia.
The family-run business traces its roots back to the 1940s, when the Mulchandani brothers began selling chaat from a roadside stall in Karachi.
Following the partition of India, the brothers relocated to Bombay, where Kailash Parbat was established in 1952 — now run by the third generation of the Mulchandani family.
An iconic Indian street food, chaat refers to a family of savoury snacks that comes in numerous variations — typically featuring some combination of fried dough, potatoes or chickpeas, topped with chaat masala, a tangy spice blend made specifically for chaat, along with yogurt, chopped onions and coriander.
The restaurant opened last week in Nu Sentral, among the street-facing units of the mall’s lower ground floor.
The sleek, polished design belies the business’ humble beginnings as a street stall, as does the expanded menu.
Alongside dishes like paneer tikka and biryani, there’s an entire “pan-Asian” section featuring gobi manchurian and Indian-style hakka noodles — and further down the menu, somehow, even pizza.
The restaurant is located on the lower ground floor of Nu Sentral, facing outside — Picture by Ethan Lau
But of course, they haven’t forgotten what got them here in the first place.
There’s an entire page dedicated to chaat, though with so many options, it can be daunting to navigate.
That’s why you should get the KP Chaat Platter (RM32), which features four different types of chaat on one plate.
The first, dahi wada, consists of deep-fried lentil fritters — reminiscent of what we call vadai — covered in yogurt and topped with sweet and spicy chutneys.
A wondrous mix of fluffy, soft, cool, creamy and spicy sensations. The crispy corn baskets, on the other hand, skew crunchy and sweet, filled with sweet corn and pomegranate.
The final two — bhel puri and sev puri — are quite similar.
The former combines crispy puffed rice and potatoes with a medley of onion, mango, sev (deep-fried chickpea noodle crisps), green chilli chutney and sweet tamarind sauce, while the latter swaps the puffed rice and potato for saucers of crispy fried dough and adds diced tomato to the mix.
The interior of Kailash Parbat — Picture by Ethan Lau
It’s a mouthful to try and explain the complexity in these bites — but it’s a mouthful I gladly devour.
There’s no single dominant note here. It’s neither mainly savoury nor spicy nor sour nor sweet — just utterly moreish.
Honestly, it makes me feel that chaat deserves to be its own food group.
Once you recognise some of the building blocks in chaat, it’s fascinating to see how different preparations and combinations come together.
It’s sort of like Lego — most of the pieces are the same, but you wouldn’t say a Lego Death Star and a Lego Hogwarts are the same thing.
Take papri chaat, for example. I tried this dish for the first time last year, and it ended up making my year-end best-of list.
Papdi Chaat is a simply irresistible combination of the same few base ingredients in ‘chaat’ — Picture by Ethan Lau
Kailash Parbat’s Papdi Chaat (RM20) uses the same crispy flour saucers and sev as sev puri, doused in the same cool yogurt and chutneys as dahi wada — yet the result is far more than the sum of its parts.
There’s something irresistible about fried dough covered in cold, creamy yogurt that somehow accentuates the heat of the green chilli chutney.
Of course, we couldn’t leave out the world’s most widely recognised chaat, even if people don’t realise it’s one: pani puri.
The little ball-sized bite has been endlessly reinvented, showing up everywhere from cafes to trendy small-plates joints and even fine-dining institutions, thanks largely to its amuse-bouche method of delivery.
Here, the Pani Puri (RM18) stays largely true to itself — a hollow shell filled with potatoes, herbs and spices, to be topped with a spicy water and sweet tamarind sauce.
Pani Puri is arguably the most widely recognised ‘chaat’ (left). Use plenty of tamarind sauce (right) – Pictures by Ethan Lau
Be liberal with the two — the shell shatters in one bite, flooding the mouth with sweet, sour and spicy juices.
Not everything impressed, unfortunately.
The Vada Pav (RM18) was oversized and lacked enough chutney — eating it proved a stodgy, ungainly affair.
Thankfully, the Chole Bhatura (RM22) was much better.
Though it’s not a chaat, it’s a signature dish here and it’s easy to see why.
The savoury, spicy chickpea curry is plenty delicious on its own, but the fluffy fried bhatura — similar to puri, but made with leavened dough — is the perfect vessel.
Chole Bhatura is improved only by a good Mango Lassi — Picture by Ethan Lau
Speaking of perfect, there’s only one drink to have with this to round out a very satisfying meal: a sweet, creamy Mango Lassi (RM15).
Kailash Parbat
LG27 & LG28, Nu Sentral Shopping Center,
Jalan Tun Sambanthan,
Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur
Open daily, 11am-10pm
Tel: 019-668 4528
Instagram: @kailashparbatmalaysia
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
* Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.
* Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more musings on food and mildly self-deprecating attempts at humour.
