A Place to Pause, Taste, and Remember: Kalpaney Brings Thoughtful Vegetarian Fare to Bengaluru!

In a quiet lane in JP Nagar, a new restaurant is rethinking what vegetarian food in India can look and feel like. Kalpaney is the kind of space that doesn’t announce itself with grandeur but stays with you long after you leave. Conceptualised by hospitality professional Avinash Kapoli and chefSombir Chaudary, it’s a restaurant built around a single word, imagination, or kalpana, from which it gets its name.

Kalpaney offers a deeply personal and intuitive take on global vegetarian cuisine. The ingredients are familiar, even nostalgic: The food mirrors this approach, playful, rooted, and surprising. It leans into memory but doesn’t stay there. Feta Meets Dahi Bhalla pairs the tang of Greek feta with the soft comfort of dahi bhalla, layered with house chutneys and bursts of fresh pomegranate, a street snack reimagined without losing its soul. Nadru Seekh transforms lotus stem into a juicy kebab, charred and served with a sharp coriander chutney that cuts through the earthiness. Dal Dhokli Reimagined plays with form and texture, turning dhokli into ribbons of tagliatelle, tossed in a slow-cooked dal and finished with a kokum tadka that lingers. Every dish draws from something known, a childhood meal, a roadside plate, a festival spread, but brings in technique, balance, and clarity that make you taste it anew. This is not food trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s food giving memory a different language.

“There’s a kind of wonder we wanted to bring back to the act of eating,” says Avinash, who previously co-founded Jamming Goat and SOKA. “What if vegetarian food could feel comforting and yet completely new? What if every bite reminded you of something but also made you pause?”

Chef Sombir, who has quietly carved a name for his thoughtful interpretations of regional cuisine, adds, “Food for me is memory. It’s birthdays and festivals, train rides and weekday lunches. What we’re doing here is holding onto that but shifting the lens. It’s still rooted, just reimagined.”

The nonalcoholic drinks menu reflects the same care. Instead of imitating spirits, Kalpaney draws from familiar Indian staples and indigenous traditions to build a vocabulary of its own. Think summer household classics like Shikanji, nostalgic nods to street-side favourites like Mohobbat ka Sharbat, and drinks rooted in the ingredients and practices of indigenous tribes. Preeti Prema, for instance, is a clear, floral take on Mohobbat ka Sharbat, made with watermelon, rose cordial, saffron threads, and bubbles. Imli ka Khajur reimagines the tangy comfort of Shikanji with tamarind and ginger extract, date molasses, green chilli, vegan foam, and smoked Himalayan salt. These aren’t placeholders for wine or cocktails. They stand entirely on their own.

The space mirrors this quiet thoughtfulness. The 90-cover restaurant is designed to feel like a home that has evolved slowly over time. Wooden textures and soft light are accented with Kalamkari-inspired tones of deep red, moss green, and muted mustard. Artworks with titles like Brinjal Baba and The Perpetual Supper speak in riddles, reimagining everyday vegetables as cultural symbols. Even the dish companion cards, short storylets that reference a grandmother’s hands or a forgotten spice, invite you to linger a little longer.

Kalpaney doesn’t sit neatly within categories like fine dining or fast casual. It resists labels. What it offers instead is something still and deliberate, a restaurant where food becomes a way to reflect, reconnect, and return to the quiet rituals that define global hospitality. Here, every plate is paired with a pause. Guests are asked to avoid phone calls at the table. Each meal ends with jaggery. At Kalpaney, the menu feels familiar, until it doesn’t, and these rituals sit with you longer than you’d expect.

Kalpaney is now open for both lunch and dinner. It is less about performance, more about presence. A restaurant that doesn’t shout, it listens.

Location: JP Nagar, Bengaluru

Opening Date: July 20, 2025 (Dinners only) | July 25 onwards (Lunch and Dinner)

Cost for 2: 1600 INR
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