Aarth, Parnell: First Look Inside Vicky Shah’s New Modern Indian Restaurant
Chef Vicky Shah has cooked at Cassia, Kol and Sidart. Now he’s going it alone with a modern Indian restaurant in Parnell, Auckland.
Enoki mushroom, black pepper, ginger and radish. Octopus, scampi, squid and Te Matuku oyster.
Chef Vicky Shah’s arms read like a menu. Tattooed reminders of his most-loved ingredients from the earth and the ocean.
The kingfish came first. The radish is one of his favourite things (“the spiciness, the way it looks simply sliced”). But the art on his arms is, he says, unfinished. Shah has always been hungry for the new.
Vinayak Shah (who has been called Vicky since he was a child) was born and raised in Mumbai. An only child, and a self-described “picky” eater, he credits his mother with instilling his interest in food.
“I was always, ‘I don’t want to eat this, make something new, I ate this yesterday’ ... and she’d come up with something new and that was very nice.”
And now, he’s eating his own words.
As a chef and restaurateur, “you always should make something new every now and then, otherwise why would anybody come out and eat”?
Shah has worked in some of Auckland’s most lauded kitchens including Cassia, Sidart, The French Cafe, Kol, Ahi and, more recently, Ki Māha on Waiheke.
His goal was to have his own place before he turned 30. Tonight, give or take a couple of weeks, he will have achieved that. With financial backing from family and partner Julia Benton as restaurant manager (the pair met when they worked at Cassia), Shah has opened Aarth – Auckland’s newest modern Indian restaurant.
“I am, of course, scared, but people believe in it ... and I know I can cook. That’s the easy bit!”
It was the morning after the soft launch for friends and family when Viva visited. In the restaurant that is a little tricky to find, Shah was signing the delivery slip for a new round table and sipping coffee. Follow the brick laneway, past the statue of Les Harvey, and into the intimate corner space that, at 10am, still smelled ever so slightly of campfire.
Aarth, in the space formerly occupied by RFG, will operate as a Wednesday to Sunday evening-only restaurant, but Shah says a lunch service is pending.
Its dining room seats 12, the bar counter takes 10 and there’s room for another 15 diners in the plant-fringed veranda. The bar has been shortened and the kitchen opened up so customers will be able to watch Shah cook over charcoal and manuka.
The most romantic table in the house is set into a curved window, the recycled cardboard Graypants’ Scraplights are new, and so is a custom botanical artwork from The Plant Parlour, depicting the Ganges River in lush, textural, green moss.
The aesthetic is fine dining. Shah calls it “fun dining”.
“The whole vibe is it’s open, it’s loud, but it’s a little bit darker at night, so it’s moody – a nice date night spot. People think fine dining is always stuffy, but it’s not.”
Loosely translated, Aarth means “meaning”.
“It was, honestly, the only name everyone agreed on straight away,” says Shah. “And it’s how I approach cooking. I’m quite intentional by nature. I don’t just add things to fill space, whether that’s on a plate or in a room.”
So, yes, there will be butter chicken. It will be served in a bird’s nest. It will come with what appears to be a rooster-shaped toast. And it will inspire comments like “my mind is blown” on social media.
“When you come to an Indian restaurant, you need to order butter chicken,” says Shah with his tongue in his cheek.
Aarth is doing it as a rillette. “And on top of that, you have a honey tuile, with some raspberry and chilli powder. I just wanted to have something that you laugh about. Something that breaks the tension.”
Conversely, do not expect to find rice or naan or roti on the menu, but will be served with every main course.
“It’s not written down, because where I’m from, we always have it,” explains the chef. “You don’t charge for it ... back home, every time you eat lunch or dinner, there is bread and rice.”
(Of course the bread will be made from scratch. “We don’t want to write ‘homemade’ because that is our job as chefs. That’s what I love to do. That’s the passion.”)
Shah says Aarth is “deeply personal” – childhood nostalgia through a modern New Zealand lens.
He has reimagined onion bhaji as a whitebait fritter and turned nihari (more commonly made with beef or lamb and served at breakfast) into a duck dinner.
Auckland’s ubiquitous raw fish is served here with masala chaas (spiced buttermilk) and pops of sea grapes and Matakana-grown finger limes. “Lamb with too many chutneys” pairs New Zealand’s most famous protein with multiple condiments from different regions of India.
“So you can make a new dish with every mouthful – different dishes from the one plate of food.”
Shah doesn’t want to give too much away but the Aarth full experience, a $210 set menu that includes bubbles on arrival and wine pairings, may or may not also incorporate a branded, sugar-free soft drink that, he says, “just goes” with something spicy.
(Order the experience without drinks at $140 or choose from the a la carte menu offering snacks for $9-$12, entrees at $24-$36, mains at $42-$52 and dessert for $18-$22.)
He’s wanted to be a chef since he was a kid. The first thing he remembers cooking was pasta, “with some kind of red sauce – like a tomato sauce – but I put spices in it”.
At 18, he moved to Auckland to study at what is now known as The Culinary Collective. He worked part time in the production kitchen at SkyCity and was staging at Sidart, gaining work experience under then-owner Sid Sahrawat, when, for the first time in his life, he tasted meat.
“Chef did a lamb dish. He dusted it with curry powder and I was like, ‘wow, it’s actually really good ... maybe I should stop imagining animals getting killed’.”
Shah’s family is Gujarati. Growing up, he ate only vegetarian food and says that gave him strong grounding in sauces and the way spices can be layered – from the fragrance of rose petals and fennel seeds to the “bulk” of cumin and coriander to the floral and earthy cardomom.
“People think Indian food is curry. But there is a lot more to it. There is a story behind it. There is a reason behind the smallest thing.”
He invented that whitebait bhaji because his partner Julia loves the onion version so much. He took a coconut and dried mangosteen drink popular in coastal India, and added a freshly shucked oyster, because he figured the sour and rich flavour profile of sol kadhi would complement the shellfish.
“Every dish, every flavour, even the pace of the experience has a reason for being there.”
Aarth, 5pm-late, Wednesday-Sunday. 1/333 Parnell Rd, Auckland. Aarth.co.nz.
More on food
The kai, chefs and creators at the heart of our culinary scene.
Book Now: Where To Eat On Valentine’s Day In Auckland. From set menus to one-night-only desserts.
The Couple Transforming North Shore Neighbourhood Dining.Sarah and Jordan MacDonald have a lot on their plates.
The best places to eat and drink on Auckland’s Karangahape Rd. Is there ever a dull moment (or dish) on K Rd?