Amar Singh is not someone who naturally enjoys being on a microphone or in front of a camera. He was shy when we began talking at Bibi Ji, which is about to celebrate its second birthday, but the more we spoke, the more his deep attachment to hospitality came through. Once the recording stopped, Amar became much more animated. He talked about how restaurant owners have to be able to multitask, and how he carries a toolkit with him whenever he visits one of his venues. He can fix plumbing and gas problems, check in with the kitchen, talk to staff and move on to the next restaurant. After Covid, he lost three venues, and people told him he was crazy to open Bibi Ji. But Amar sees failure as part of learning, and two years on, the restaurant is full of colour, families and regulars who travel across Melbourne to eat there.
Conversation with a chef: It’s nice to see you again. I think the last time I saw you was in 2022, before Bibi Ji was even here.
Amar Singh: Yes, we met at Horn Please, maybe four years ago, before opening Bibi Ji. Time goes very fast. Bibi Ji is already turning two. We started with a very simple, small goal: to create a space where people could have a meal with family and friends. We’re lucky. The market is very tough, but we get a lot of love and support from the local community and from customers on Lygon Street.
Lygon Street has changed a lot, hasn’t it? It was always known as the Italian street, but it feels much more multicultural now.
Yes. Before Covid, there were a lot of Italian restaurants. After Covid it started changing. Now there are many different cuisines, including Indian and Pakistani food.
Was coming to this part of town an intentional decision? You already had restaurants in other parts of Melbourne.
Yes. Here on Lygon Street, we wanted to offer more Punjabi food and a colourful, different dining experience. During school holidays and long weekends, people come to the city and visit Lygon Street. We have a lot of good customers here and many repeat customers.
Tell me about the Punjabi food. What makes the food at Bibi Ji Punjabi?
The restaurant is called Bibi Ji. The food starts from my home. It is the food my mum cooked at home in India, and we cook the same kind of food here. It is homestyle food. When customers come here, we want them to feel as though they are sitting at home. That is the culture and the vibe we want to create.
What does that look like on the menu? Which dishes are particularly homestyle?
Even with the vegetable dishes, we don’t use too much oil or artificial colour. It is very simple food.
I read somewhere that you said people need more than just butter chicken these days. Do you have butter chicken on the menu?
Yes, we have butter chicken. You always need butter chicken!
Do you have your own particular way of making it?
The first thing is that we don’t use artificial colour. Secondly, we don’t use butter. No butter. It is healthier. I started in this industry almost 18 years ago, but my cooking began in my mum’s kitchen. I learned from her. At home, we never used artificial colour. We also never had a plan for what we were cooking that night, even if 20 people were coming. Whatever ingredients we had, we cooked with them. That is what we do here. Even in the butter chicken, we don’t use butter. We always try to make the food as healthy as we can.
Bibi Ji turns two tomorrow, and you’re holding a special dinner.
Yes. We’ve created a separate menu with chef Fuzz Ali, who is a Fijian Indian chef from Sydney. He and I have created the menu together for tomorrow night. It is very unique.
What’s on the menu?
We’ve created five entrées and four curries, served with rice, naan and papadams. The entrées are completely different from the regular Bibi Ji menu, with more Fijian-Indian flavours. Fuzz has created a prawn curry, and I’ve created a black pepper chicken dish. It is something completely different. It is fried and very good for this cold weather. People love it.
It is already a very fun atmosphere in here because it’s so colourful. What else will be happening on the night?
We’ll have belly dancing as well. Our main aim is to create memories for people. We held a celebration for our first birthday last year, and customers are still coming back and telling us how much they loved it. For the second birthday, we want to do the same thing: a special menu, good fun and belly dancing, so people have another memory.
We want to keep welcoming our regular customers and keep improving the quality of the food. We also want to hold more events and welcome more big groups. It is a hard time, so we are trying not to increase the menu prices too much. We will take less profit so that we can keep our families and our regular customers coming back. That is always our goal.
Amar Singh, Bibi Ji
You have a lot of regular customers here?
Yes, a lot. People come from Epping, Wallan and Craigieburn. They come into the city on the weekend and plan to have dinner at Bibi Ji after shopping. Last Saturday, there was a couple here with their two-year-old baby. They live in Epping and had been planning to visit ever since we opened, but it is almost a 50-minute drive for them. The woman told me she had seen our videos and photos and kept saying to her husband, “We definitely have to go to Bibi Ji one day.” When they finally came, they said the restaurant looked just like the photos and videos. Then, after their meal, I asked about their experience. They said it was even better than they had expected. When customers give us feedback like that, it makes us very proud.
Do you get a lot of Indian families coming in?
Yes. We get a lot of big groups. This is a place for family and friends, and people come here to celebrate birthdays and other occasions.
I was speaking to another Indian restaurant recently, and they said they never know whether a booking will turn into 20 people. How do you prepare for those big groups?
We cook fresh food daily. On Friday and Saturday, we know we may need to serve 300 people, so we prepare enough food to cover that. We never use frozen food. That is why we have a small menu. Some people, especially Indian customers, don’t always like a small menu. They want ten paneer dishes and ten chicken dishes. But we can’t do that without cooking too much food and freezing it. I don’t even have a freezer here.
The kitchen is open, so customers can see how much food we are cooking, where it is being cooked and how the chefs work. An open kitchen is good for the customer, but it is also good for me because I can see how clean everything is and how the kitchen is being run.
Maybe that is part of the reason you’ve had so many successful restaurants. You understand that you can’t have an enormous menu and still do everything well.
That comes from my experience. When I started Dhaba at the Mill, we opened only four nights a week and had a very small menu. It is still a small menu, but people love it. People know they are getting fresh food and quality, not quantity.
I love Dhaba. And I still have people telling me they’ve only just discovered Horn Please and how much they love it.
Horn Please turns 16 on August 15.
Sixteen years is amazing.
It is a long time. We went through Covid, but during Covid we cooked a lot of food for customers and the local community. They are grateful to us, and we are grateful to have such lovely customers.
We hear so much about the challenges facing restaurants at the moment. What are the biggest challenges for you?
Expenses are going up day by day, but people are not spending as much money. Wages, groceries, rent and government expenses are all increasing. It is very hard for every business. We are still okay, but weekdays are difficult, and we are not seeing much growth at the moment. Five or ten years ago, many places on Lygon Street were open 24 hours a day. They aren’t anymore because there are not enough customers. Many places in the CBD, Brunswick and Chapel Street are closing because they can’t afford to continue. Small businesses where the owner works with the team can still be okay, but a large business run entirely under management is very hard to operate because there are so many expenses.
Is it difficult to find staff?
Staff are okay now. Staffing is not the main issue. The main issue is expenses. When fuel prices went up, all the suppliers put their prices up because of the cost of fuel. Once the prices go up, they never come down. That is one of the hardest things for us.
And fuel costs affect the price of food because everything has to be transported. It’s something customers may not think about unless they work in the industry.
Yes. That is why we have to keep offering good-quality food and good service. If I am a customer going out with my family or friends and I have limited money, I have to think twice about where I’m going to spend it. People are thinking like that now. It is hard for everyone. Hopefully things will improve soon.
How many restaurants are you involved with now?
I’m running Dhaba, Horn Please and Bibi Ji, and I’m a co-owner of the Daughter in Law restaurants in Melbourne, Adelaide and on Chapel Street.
That’s a lot.
Yes, but this is my passion. I still run all the kitchens. One day I’m in Melbourne, the next I might be in Sydney or Adelaide. I am always there behind the teams.
The last time I spoke to you, you were still getting into the kitchens and cooking. Are you cooking less now?
No. I’m still involved. My goal is to change the menus according to the seasons. If any kitchen needs a chef, I can go there. I am also always behind the teams, checking the food. If I’m in Melbourne, I’ll go to Horn Please and check everything, then have a weekly meeting with the team. I do the same thing here and at Daughter in Law. I work with the teams, change the menus and make sure we keep the quality of the food high. That is always my goal.
You must have a lot of staff to look after as well.
I’m very lucky. We have good teams, good head chefs, managers and general managers at all the restaurants. I know how to create a team and how to keep staff happy because I worked for other people before I became an owner. I know what it feels like to be a staff member. I have people who have worked with me for five, six or seven years. I’m very grateful. We have good teams. They are like family.
Congratulations. Reaching two years with Bibi Ji is remarkable in this climate, but you also have venues that have been around for 16 years. Tomorrow night sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Has Fuzz worked in this kitchen before?
No, but we have spoken a couple of times on FaceTime. I showed him the whole kitchen. He is coming tomorrow morning, and we will jump into the kitchen and do all the preparation together before welcoming the customers.
You said Bibi Ji sometimes serves 300 people across a Friday and Saturday?
Yes, easily. Sometimes we can serve 400 people between six and eleven. We are very lucky to have such a good number of customers on Lygon Street.
I came to the charity dinner you held to raise money after the floods in India. Everyone really rallied around it.
Yes. People are very grateful for what we do, and we are part of the community.
What are you most looking forward to for Bibi Ji over the next year?
We want to keep welcoming our regular customers and keep improving the quality of the food. We also want to hold more events and welcome more big groups. It is a hard time, so we are trying not to increase the menu prices too much. We will take less profit so that we can keep our families and our regular customers coming back. That is always our goal.
Bibi Ji, Lygon Street, Carlton