13 mouth-watering pictures inside new Leeds restaurant Arusuvai bringing south Indian cuisine to Kirkstall

Raj Chinnadurai, 47, has run successful restaurants in his home country as well as in America - and now he’s bringing Tamil flavours to Kirkstall, welcoming his first customers to stylish eatery Arusuvai last month.

“Arusuvai is a Tamil word meaning ‘six tastes’,” explained Raj, from Chennai. “All foods come under at least one of the six different tastes, which are sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter and unami.”

He started his career as a chef in India, before moving to the US for 15 years and opening restaurants in North Carolina. After moving to the UK, his friends would frequently encourage him to open a restaurant in Yorkshire.

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Raj recalled: “Whenever we had gatherings at our house, they would always say we should start a new restaurant here. I was a little hesitant at that time, but during covid I started doing home catering and delivering. The response from customers made me realise that it was time to start a restaurant.”

He opened the new venue in the space formerly occupied by Gallery FortyOne, on Commercial Road, in January. “It's an Indian restaurant but it's predominantly focused on south Indian cuisine,” said Raj. “I wanted the menu to take customers on a journey through Tamil food - and the response so far has been really good.”

Here are 13 pictures inside the new restaurant -