INDIAN STREET FOOD

Indian street-food whiz Sammy Akuthota has a simple philosophy for success as his Chai Lounge concept takes off in Auckland.

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It’s not too hard to understand why Swamy Akuthota and his wife, Padmaja, were perhaps a little perplexed when their son, Sammy, decided he wanted to shake up the family’s successful business model.

After all, the pair have almost two decades behind them running Auckland’s much-loved Satya restaurants. “Initially, they were like, ‘Why do you want to reinvent the wheel?’,” laughs Sammy Akuthota, the magnetic personality behind Satya Chai Lounge. “But later on, they saw how much people were enjoying it, they saw how fun it was and then they handed over the keys to their Karangahape Rd restaurant,” he says.

Akuthota rallied his mates and soon the traditional Satya officially became Satya Chai Lounge. He admits the initial idea for Satya Chai sprouted from the simple fact that he wanted a place he could hang out with friends and eat the kind of Indian food he was craving. “That’s basically how Chai Lounge came to be – from a selfish desire of being able to drink whatever beer I wanted and eat Indian street food,” Akuthota laughs.

Step inside either the Karangahape Rd or Sandringham Satya Chai Lounge and it won’t take you long to embrace the down-toearth vibe of the Satya offshoots.

There’s none of the austereness of the hip-yet-predictable interior design many shiny new restaurants sport these days. Instead, you’ll find a warm and welcoming rustic aesthetic and jovial energy that emanates throughout the place.

Akuthota believes that the unique character the Satya Chai Lounges possess is all part of the reason they’ve been so well received in the Auckland food scene. “It was a place made with love,” he says. “I always say, I don’t want to serve any food to my guests that I’m not cool with; that passion for food is really there,” he says.

Then there’s the piquant Indian street food and what’s arguably one of the best craft beer menus in Auckland.

“PEOPLE REALLY LOVE WHAT WE DO; WE WANT TO KEEP DELIVERING AND JUST HAVE FUN.”

SAMMY AKUTHOTA

Akuthota is not wrong when he says that, for many Westerners, Indian food is merely a curry accompanied by a naan and a Kingfisher beer. Chai Lounge flips that notion on its head. Think mouth-watering morsels bursting with flavour that are made for sharing with good friends. “It’s cool for our guests to experience a completely different side of Indian cuisine,” he says. “You don’t really get that flavour intensity in a lot of other cuisines.” As for the craft beer, there’s always something new and obscure that Akuthota’s hand-picked for the menu. “Craft beer is made with the same amount of passion that we take with the food we do,” he says. “Plus the two of them work really well together.” And if you’re not sure what to try, Akuthota – who you’ll often catch serving tables while sporting an ear-to-ear grin – has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything beer.

After a breather during lockdown, Akuthota says he is amped about the future. He is that guy who always has another idea ticking away in the background. He hints at future collaborations off the back of his Hyderabad Hotel pop-up in collaboration with Garage Project earlier this year. Akuthota says there’s also another permanent site in the pipeline that he hopes to have open in time for summer. “People really love what we do; we want to keep delivering and just have fun.”

271 Karangahape Rd, Auckland 515 Sandringham Rd, Auckland satya.co.nz/satya-chai-lounge