Indian restaurant Subcontinental arrives in Surry Hills

Hooray for Bollywood. Sydney's latest obsession with food from the Indian subcontinent shifts up another rickshaw gear later this week with the opening of Subcontinental.

The restaurant will join the growing posse of new Indian restaurants across the city and the recently opened Bang, which has brought colour and Bangladeshi street food to Crown Street, Surry Hills.

Taking up residence in the transformed basement space formerly occupied by Shortgrain and the Longrain bar, Subcontinental's menu, with dishes like pineapple raita and cardamom-driven duck rezala, will have a geographical spread of dishes reflecting its moniker when it opens Thursday or Friday.

Owner Sam Christie (who also owns Apollo and Cho Cho San) says they'll add to a line-up already taking in pan puri and goat masala, broadening the menu with even more widespread dishes.

"[TV] chef Peter Kuruvita will do a guest chef dinner here in early March and help out in a mentoring role to develop our Sri Lankan offering. Peter was actually the one who first brought our sous chef to Australia," Christie says.

Subcontinental head chef Victor Chung hails from Kolkata but is prodding everywhere from Nepal to India's south for inspiration.