Riding down a shifting street in Harris Park

On a Kmart bike and wearing a styrofoam helmet — its sole purpose being to avoid fines rather than head injuries — I follow my dad south down Wigram Street. Suddenly, we’re in India. A 10-minute bike ride from home, we fill ourselves up with golgappa, aka pani puri, before choosing what restaurant we’ll order choleh bhatura from.

Brimming with South to North Indian cuisine, Wigram Street in Harris Park has earnt the name Little India. But with a couple Nepalese businesses, Pakistani owners, a Vietnamese bakery, and the iconic Lebanese cafe, Little India is not just for Indians. This pocket of restaurants, street food vendors, ethnic grocers, a laundromat, health practitioners — and an absolute disregard for any road rules — creates a home away from home for the dense migrant population of South Asian diaspora in Harris Park.

For the average visitor to Little India, the options are overwhelming. You enter at the corner of Hassle and Wigram Street, instantly facing traffic, pedestrians on the road, Bollywood soundtracks competing with the neighbouring restaurants, and realise that about 90 per cent of these restaurants have the same menu.

I’ve pedalled down Wigram Street over many years. First in the baby seat, then training wheels, on my big girl bike, and in the car on rainy days. Restaurants come and go, seamlessly replacing the previous business’ facade with new signage and unique branding. However, the remnants of the former small business linger; laminate flooring, a bright feature wall, a TV playing the latest T-Series clips, and an identical shop layout.

I’ve also seen the corner shops, small takeaway restaurants, and grocers that have lasted their lease term long enough to see it renewed – and long enough for me to become a returning customer. But if the key to Indian cooking is ghee, what’s the key to a lasting business on Wigram Street?

To start with a family favourite, one where almost every second Father’s Day – and the majority of my grandparents’ birthdays – are held, is Taj. Loved by my father and his father, perhaps for their entirely vegetarian menu, samosa, and bread pakora that consistently satisfies a craving, Taj can easily go unnoticed at the far end of Wigram Street — except for the week before Diwali.

In the lead up to the biggest religious festival of the year, Taj becomes solely a sweets shop. Tables and chairs are pushed to the back wall, creating a makeshift buffet-style floor plan where sweets of all kinds are weighed and sold by the kilo. Unfortunately, no bread pakora or samosa are available at this time of year.

A few years back, Taj opened an extension restaurant, Taj Bhavan, a couple stores down. As loyal customers to Taj, naturally we found ourselves seated in Taj Bhavan soon enough. It felt more like a restaurant than a takeaway store, with a similar menu, just a few dollars more. Fairly empty for the Friday night my family had dinner there, we weren’t overly surprised to find out that Taj Bhavan closed down several months later. Though it was a nicer space and the food was the same as its smaller takeaway store, Taj Bhavan is no more, while Taj still stands strong today.

Perhaps Billu’s, the restaurant that brought Wigram Street into the limelight, has the answer. Boasting rickety tables and chairs, laminated menus, and stock standard customer service, Billu’s is known for their well cooked meat and generally enjoyable curries. With the occasional rocket kulfi stand (Indian ice cream shaped in a long cylinder with a cone end resembling a rocket) out the front, Billu’s has helped Wigram Street earn the Little India label, attracting customers well beyond the South Asian demographic of Harris Park. Last year, Billu’s expanded, opening a second restaurant location in Bella Vista, Indian Street Food by Billu’s in Circular Quay, and Spiced by Billu’s in Barangaroo.

These three major expansions give Billu’s a more fine dining edge, serving a different plate of customers and tapping into the experience of restaurant dining as opposed to good meat and a standard menu. Billu’s also opened a fifth venue, Glassy Junction, directly opposite their first location in Harris Park. Featuring Indian dishes that are general crowd pleasers and a bar fit out, Glassy Junction closed as quickly as they opened. Even Billu’s, in the hot seat of Harris Park, couldn’t replicate their success in Little India again.

Indian Chopsticks is one of few fusion places in Little India that has been around for years. Serving Indo-Chinese dishes, their menu differs from the majority of those on the rest of the street, and has remained the same as long as they’ve been open. Indian Chopsticks is a personal favourite of mine, for no particular reason aside from the fact that I’ve eaten there countless times and their vegetarian chow mein is consistently fulfilling. Chatkazz, on the outskirts of Little India opposite the train line on Station Street East, is another fusion restaurant that has become incredibly popular over the years, regularly filling their car park space — even on weeknights — with makeshift tables to meet the demand of a younger customer base.

A newbie on the map is Shri Desi Dhabha, owned by the Shri Refreshment Bar at the corner of Gordon McKinnon Lane and Marion Street. Famous for their paan (betel nut) stall and morning paranthas for the international students of Harris Park, this success was a sign of something bigger. When Al-Wadi Charcoal Chicken opened up just off Wigram Street, on the corner of Marion and Albion Street — with a new store fit out and glossy branding — only to close down months later, Shri Desi Dhabha became a mainstay. With some of the cheapest thalis (a meal of naan, rice, selection of curries, yoghurt, pickle and a sweet) in Little India, they’ve become a popular spot for a quick and cheap lunch.

As for India Bazaar, directly opposite Taj, it’s one of the few grocery stores that have stood the test of time, with the neighbouring grocer having changed owners and names over the years. It’s a tiny store with single file-sized aisles, and loose dal and chana at the back of the store. SweetLand Patisserie with their Lebanese sweets and cakes is another small business that has endured on Wigram Street, sufficiently serving the demand for baklava and fruit cake.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed from the restaurants that fall victim to the cycle of closing businesses, it’s that a clean shop with great customer service means nothing to the visitors of Little India. At times it can be the places that don’t seem to stand a chance upon first opening, but then you find yourself there as a regular before it becomes a habitual visit. As restaurants and take away shops continue to open and close, I’ll continue to ride around Harris Park and try to eat at the new places before they shut down. Otherwise, I’ll remain loyal to Taj for the mango lassi and Indian Chopsticks for the vegetarian chow mein.