First Look: Bibi Ji, the riotous Indian diner reviving a legendary Lygon Street location
Clashing colours and banana leaf feasts washed down with cocktails bring pulsating energy back to the former site of a beloved Italian restaurant.
Lygon Street’s long-standing colour palette of red, white and green has been shaken up by the arrival of technicoloured Bibi Ji, an explosion of patterns, garlands and retro photographs of cricketers and Bollywood stars on the former Cafe Notturno site.
Striving to recreate the warmth and hospitality of Indian gatherings in homes, the 80-seat restaurant opens on Wednesday, May 15 with stacks of snacks inspired by India’s streets, a long list of tropical mocktails and cocktails, and two tandoor ovens to pump out lamb seekh kebabs, paneer tikka and more.
Bibi Ji refers to a mother or maternal figure in the language of Punjab, which is where chef and owner Amar Singh hails from. Singh owns Fitzroy North’s Horn Please and Kyneton’s Dhaba at the Mill.
He hopes the Carlton restaurant will transport Indian people back home. The ceiling is covered with a rainbow’s worth of cloth, usually used as decoration at Indian weddings, while red and white checked tablecloths and candy-striped vinyl booths nod to the Lygon Street of old.
Cafe Notturno, once a 24-hour restaurant, closed last August after 45 years at the heart of World Cup celebrations and other festivities in Carlton. Bibi Ji is part of a new guard of restaurants bringing Indian, Turkish, Pakistani and South-East Asian flavours to Lygon Street.
The fried snacks known as pakora are a big part of the snack section. Bread pakora, a rarity in Australia which sees white bread stuffed with spiced potato and fried, will bring in homesick Indian expats, according to Singh.
“People from our country, when they see this, they’ll be feeling like they’re home,” he says.
Tandoori chicken, cooked on the bone for a juicier result, comes as a half or whole. Curries are a mix of Aussie favourites (butter chicken) and less common recipes, such as lamb bhuna gosht, a drier style of curry with concentrated flavour.
At lunch, a bargain thali set served on banana leaves gets you three to four snacks, six to seven curries, rice and bread for $15, or $35 if you want unlimited top-ups.
From the head-spinning statement bar, drinks such as mango lassis spiked with cardamom-infused rum and pina coladas will be dispensed, along with mostly Victorian wines and a long list of whisky, which Singh says is a popular choice in India.
Amar, a long-time collaborator of restaurateur Jessi Singh (no relation), is leading the project, with Jessi recently deciding to scale back his involvement to minor shareholder. Jessi is currently at work on You My Boy, an Indian pub in Collingwood, in addition to running his city venue Daughter in Law.
Open Wed & Thu 5pm-late, Fri-Sun noon-4pm & 5pm-late, from Wednesday, May 15.
179 Lygon Street, Carlton, 03 9088 2094, bibiji.com.au
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Emma Breheny – Emma is Good Food's Melbourne-based reporter and co-editor of The Age Good Food Guide 2024.