Baar Baar occupies a first-floor space on Eva Street with the energy of both a restaurant and a cocktail bar. The concept treats India's regional cooking as a living tradition, using contemporary technique and New Zealand ingredients without losing sight of tandoor smoke, layered spice and the sociability of chaat. Lunch and dinner services give the room different rhythms, while the name, which evokes returning again and again, suits a menu designed for passing dishes around a table.
Vegetarian starters make a particularly vivid introduction. Creamy yoghurt, peppers and cashews shape the Shahi Dahi Delights, paneer is marinated and grilled, and cauliflower appears both in a spiced yoghurt preparation and in Gobi Manchurian tacos. Gol gappa keeps a stronger street-food character, filling crisp puris with potato and chickpeas before adding date chutney and mint water. The result is a first course that can alternate cooling, tangy, crisp and smoky bites rather than relying on a single kind of snack.
The tandoor anchors the meat and seafood side of the menu. Slow-roasted chicken, yoghurt-marinated lamb chops, peppered prawns with pineapple salsa and gram-flour-battered Amritsari fish all carry distinct spice profiles. Larger dishes broaden the picture through garlicky dal, slow-cooked black lentils, smoky eggplant, creamy tandoori chicken curry, lamb shank, coconut-rich prawns and fish, and paneer in cashew gravy. Naan, rumali roti and biryani turn those dishes into a full shared meal.
The drinks list continues the restaurant's Indian storytelling through Bollywood-inspired names and ingredients such as mango, rosewater, tamarind, black salt, cardamom and paan. Several ideas also appear without alcohol, so the flavour play is not confined to cocktails. Jalebi with rabdi or paan kulfi provides a fittingly aromatic finish. With intimate private dining, larger seated functions and full-venue events also available, Baar Baar can move from a lively dinner for two to a celebration without abandoning its food-led identity.
Address: Level 1, 5 Eva Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
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