Sudharsan Murugavel, the co-owner of the Dosa Kitchen has been a chef for the last 25 years. Having a career spanning 25 years, he has worked with various prestigious hotels and has mastered the art of various cuisines.
When it came to taking the next step in his career, Mr Murugavel decided to elevate the authentic taste of South Indian cuisine with his restaurant, Dosa Kitchen. “My wish and my aim was always to start a restaurant or a startup on my own. So when I was finally working on something of my own, I wanted to start with the food I grew up with. We started dosa kitchen to bring authentic southern Indian food to our customers”, said Mr Murugavel.
Dosa Kitchen started out as a pop-up in 2015 and has now made it to The Good Food Guide. Out of around 37,000 restaurants nominated all around the UK, only 100 restaurants were included in the guide. Being one of those 100 restaurants in the whole country is a great achievement for this South Indian restaurant in Newcastle.
The initial pop-up was the idea of Mr Murugavel and his business partner Mr Mathen Ganesan. The partners didn’t want to risk it and the pop-up gave them the confidence they needed to expand the Dosa Kitchen. “We started out with a pop-up as going for a restaurant might have been a huge risk”, explains Mr Murugavel.
Elaborating on the food scene in the city, he added- “Being the first authentic South Indian restaurant, we were not sure of the response. There are lots of Indian restaurants in Newcastle, but none of them did South Indian food and most of the locals are more used to chicken tikka masala, tandoori naan and stuff like that.”
Dosa Kitchen is a regular at farmer’s markets and food festivals, successfully converting the wandering public into regular customers. In Mr Murugavel’s opinion, “When people see dosas being served at these events, they do come to try as it is not very expensive. They are more open to trying different things in these markets. If people like the food, it becomes much easier to persuade them to try out the restaurant.”
Following the inclusion in The Good Food Guide, Mr Murugavel wants to continue growing his venture at a steady pace. Discussing the future of the restaurant, he says, “We upgraded from a pop-up to a permanent space in 2017 and have been doing quite well since then. Of course, Covid-19 affected our business like it affected the rest of the world but we were able to bounce back from that quickly. Following the massive exposure from The Good Food Guide, we definitely want to expand to other cities like Edinburgh or York.”
“I want to thank the customers who have been supporting our journey from the get go. It is with their support that pushing our standards and making it to the Michelin Guide is another milestone I’m eager to achieve”, he adds.
