INDIAN food has taken an extravagant and upmarket turn in Innaloo with the Gosavi family's newest venture, Bollywood Rest.
INDIAN food has taken an extravagant and upmarket turn in Innaloo with the Gosavi family's newest venture, Bollywood Rest.O.Bar.
The Gosavis are also the driving force behind the 2 Fat Indians restaurants in Cottesloe and Highgate.
Bollywood Rest.O.Bar is located in the Greater Union Cinema Complex on Liege Street, but is tucked away from the other restaurant chains.
Badri Gosavi says the family spent almost $1 million refitting the new venture, which has a centrepiece water feature in the entrance and a $40,000 Italian-made mosaic in the bar area.
Mr Gosavi says he wanted to create an Indian restaurant with a difference in Innaloo, which already has a selection of Indian restaurants, including several all-you-can-eat style venues.
"Bollywood is a big venue and we wanted to mix it up with a funky bar and include the Bollywood theme into it...the style of the restaurant, the size of the venue and the facilities that we have there with a lot of parking space make it very different from what is already around," Mr Gosavi told Gusto.
The restaurant, which seats up to 300 people, has had a lot of functions bookings according to Mr Gosavi.
"We have large facilities to do catering with two kitchens - a prep kitchen and a normal kitchen," he says.
Mr Gosavi has a well-established recruitment network in India to find his chefs.
"My sister lives over there and advertises there for chefs. They go through all the interview process before we do the sponsorship application," he says.
Mr Gosavi got involved in hospitality after studying accounting and finance at Edith Cowan University.
"My parents have a chemist business in Zambia where I lived all my life and they financed the opening of our first restaurant in Cottesloe in 2006," he says.
"The first restaurant did really well and we opened the Highgate venue soon after."
Mr Gosavi says he has big plans for the future, but it will all depend on which opportunities come first.
"Innaloo is still missing a very good Italian restaurant, but if an opportunity comes up in a different suburb we might look at something else," he says.