A long-standing Indian restaurant on Sixth Street shut its doors earlier this year but another Indian restaurant has sprung up in its place – promising an explosion of flavours that Indian cuisine is best known for.
4 Seasons Chaat House is now located in the space where Arvind’s Curry and Cocktail used to be. Set in the buzzing uptown area of New West and sharing a wall with the East African restaurant, Massawa, the dine-in venue is a go-to spot for those with a hankering for popular Indian street foods.
Their cavernous menu includes samosa, a pastry with savoury filling; tiki chaat, potato patties doused in chutneys and spices; and gol gappe, bite-sized deep-fried pockets of bread that are usually filled with potato, chickpea and tamarind water; mango lassi; milk shake and more.
As per Devendra Panwar, owner of the restaurant, all the dishes are made fresh in the restaurant's open kitchen every morning.
A team of 10 members, including Panwar's wife and daughter, work through the week to give the New West community a taste of the food that is unique to India — specifically to the city of Dehradun that lies on the Himalayan foothills and where Panwar and his family are originally from.
“Dehradun sees tourists from all over India. This diversity reflects in the menu that the restaurants offer there,” said Panwar, who moved from India to Canada in 2013.
While he always wanted to bring this multicultural Indian culinary to the West Coast, it took a little more than seven years for his dream to come true.
Between 2013 and 2017, Panwar worked at other restaurant kitchens, clocking anywhere between 12 and 16 hours a day, he recalled. After enduring a “hard time” with his employer, he decided to make a career pivot and take up truck-driving with Amazon.
But Panwar missed doing what he did best: cooking.
“I'm happy to feed people good food,” he said.
In 2021, he got off the road and back into the kitchen — opening a fine dining spot, Panorama Indian Lounge, in Surrey along with a business partner. Three years later, he stepped up his business with a “chaat” (Indian street-food snacks) spot in New West.
Panwar said he had always “loved” the city for its history, the waterfront and the people — “It’s totally different from other parts of Vancouver.”
He had often wondered how best to bring in a slice of India to New West's diverse community.
Setting up a chaat shop on Sixth Street was his answer to that.
4 Seasons Chaat House is located at 420 Sixth St., and is open between 11:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and till 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
