Fine Dining Indian for Hull’s £7 Million K2 Development
Sham Alom, the former owner-chef of the popular Rumi’s Indian restaurant in Beverley which closed in April, is to return to the Yorkshire dining scene, with Arisi, set to open this summer, in the centre of Hull. The restaurant – Arisi meaning ‘rice’ in Tamil – is named after the staple diet of those living in Bangladesh and Eastern Indian districts. Western areas tend to eat bread (such as naan, chapati, paratha and roti). It’s rare to find both rice and bread on dining tables in India.
The new Arisi restaurant will be an integral part of the new £7m K2 office and living complex on the former Kingston House site. Offices and a gym are already open at the 13-storey development, which will also have around 39 hotel apartments and 14 luxury flats. Icarus Lounge, a luxury events space with a sky bar offering 360-degree panoramic views, will be located on the twelfth floor of the development.
Alom has designed a unique menu hoping to appeal to an eclectic clientele. Each dish is individual and based on authentic cuisine from different regions of India and Bangladesh. His signature dish will be a Quorma Dum Pukht – braised lamb shank cooked in a pastry-sealed pot, which prevents pressure being released and seals in the flavours, whilst slow cooking over a low flame. Changing with the seasons, the gourmet Indian menu will be strong on vegetarian and vegan dishes, eschewing the crude base-sauce cooking method employed by less ambitious curry chefs, in favour of proper marinating with healthier cooking techniques. And with a tilt at Hull’s historic seafaring heritage, daily fresh fish will include cod and mackerel landed locally at St Andrew’s Dock. Express lunchtime offerings aimed at local office workers will feature light, delicately spice, small plates. And patrons of the two theatres nearby, will be able to take advantage of early-bird options available before curtain-up.
