New Indian Restaurant Opens In Moncton’s North End

MONCTON – Moncton’s north end is the home to its newest purveyor of spicy, savory northern Indian cuisine.

The Oct. 29 opening of Indish marks the culmination of months’ worth of planning by restaurateurs Charanjit Singh and Gulshan Kumar to bring more options for authentic Indian cuisine to the Hub City.

Indish, conceived as an idea in March 2021, now serves Amritsari and Punjabi cuisine in three levels of spiciness to customers of all tastes at 112 Morton Avenue.

Kumar’s wife Rupinder Kaur he and Singh chose a perch in the Sunny Brae area to break the pattern of good eating being restricted to Moncton’s downtown core.

When Indish opened its doors to guests on October 29, spokeswoman Anuradha Anuradha said they were a combination of nervous, excited and anxious for the outcome – and that outcome was positive.

Kaur said Kumar and Singh opened Indish on Morton Avenue, with the many diners from India King lamenting a lack of food options outside the downtown area in mind.

Anuradha said customers flocked to Indish as soon as it opened – and business has been buzzing ever since.

“We’re getting a very good response for this restaurant,” said Kaur, who showed me a collection of photos of happy first-day customers on her phone.

Anuradha said Kumar and Singh planned to open Indish at their own pace, instead of starting in a rush, without everything they needed.

“We wanted to have a good opening, and thought, ‘Let’s go with the flow and when everything has come, and finally things are together, we’ll open,’” she said.

Supply Chains 

Although it wasn’t difficult to promote Indish, pandemic-induced slow supply chain movement made it challenging to get everything from ingredients to the decorations on the wall that were directly sourced from India.

“Deliveries were a big challenge for us. If you could normally expect delivery in a month before the pandemic, those deliveries are showing up in two to two-and-a-half months now,” said Kaur.

Owing to its intricate menu, Indish replies on a sophisticated network of suppliers. These include Saputo, which provides cheese and dairy, Sisco, which provides chicken and assorted seafood from the Moncton Fish Market. The variety of spices Indish purchases from Dieppe-based Spice Shop is the key to its signature spicy Indian cuisine.

“In Atlantic Canada, our spices are not very familiar, so we get many of them shipped from elsewhere, and some, we are getting from here, from some very good vendors,” said Kaur.

That particular part of the supply chain is crucial to Indish, noted Anuradha.

“The spices we use are very diverse and rich in taste, so putting one ingredient could altogether change the whole taste of the food,” Kaur said.

“We have to be really particular when we experiment with the spices.”

Indish opened with customers of every stripe – and level of spice tolerance – in mind. The restaurant’s menu includes food in three levels of spiciness.

“Some people can’t have much spice, and some can, so we’re offering three types of the same dishes – light, moderate and spicy,” said Kaur.

Late Night Treats

Indish, open until midnight and situated between Domino’s Pizza and Subway and the home of what will soon be a new Mezza Lebanese Cuisine franchise, is a bid to provide an alternative to what’s already available in the late-night restaurant market – which is saturated by fast-food offerings.

“Until we opened, there was no option for Indian food after 10,” said Anuradha.

“Sometimes, people finish work at places like Walmart at 10 p.m. and they want food, but don’t want a subway or burger – they want a full meal. And they don’t want to go home and cook – they still want an easy option.”

Anuradha said Indish’s hours will be the same as neighboring Domino’s Pizza and Subway. These are also meant to accommodate Moncton’s Indian community since many Indian celebrations go late into the night.

“The nightlife is quite popular in India. In the case of India King, many people were approaching us and saying, ‘You close at 10 and that’s too early.’ So, with people calling to book anniversaries and birthday parties, that’s going to help us.” Anuradha said.

The owners were originally involved in the opening of India King but have since parted ways with their partner in that business.

Indish opening when it did was good timing, Kaur said, adding the restaurant is booked solid for November 4, the first day of the Indian festival Diwali.

Along with sit-down eating, Indish also aims to provide catering for events in Moncton, drawing on Kumar and Singh’s experience catering to as many as 500 people at once during events like cricket tournaments, when in charge of India King.

Kaur told Huddle part of this plan involves live cooking with a clay oven to prepare fresh naan bread on site.

“We’ve not seen any live cooking in the Atlantic, so we’re looking forward to providing that,” added Anuradha.

Experienced Owners

Kumar and Singh, restaurateurs with two decades of industry experience in Indian and Canadian markets, told Huddle their focus is making people happy with their food.

Anuradha said the partners came to New Brunswick and built India King and Indish in spite of language barriers that could easily hold an aspiring business owner back, adding, “It takes a lot of courage to come up with this thing in mind, and these two have done that once, and done it again, moving onto a new location.”

In addition to their ownership roles, Singh works as tandoor (clay oven) chef and Kumar helps in the kitchen, working alongside Indish’s 15 staff members.

The restaurant’s name, a portmanteau of Indian and English, is a nod to the fact that the venue is finding its niche providing a fusion of Canadian and traditional Amritsari Indian cuisine.

“We wanted to bring more variety to Moncton and satisfy the tastes of both Indian and Canadian people,” said Kaur.

“That’s how we came up with the name. We came up with a couple of other names, but we wanted to reflect the philosophy we have here, so that’s why we thought it up.”

Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].