Daana will be celebrating a milestone this weekend as they host the 200th Bhoj menu at their award-winning Curtin restaurant.

For the last five years, owners Sunita and Sanjay Kumar have hosted Daana’s Bhoj – meaning ‘feast’ – on weekends, showcasing cuisines from across India.   

Sunita and Sanjay say Indian cuisine has several regional and traditional subcultural cooking styles, each impacted by a range of factors including geography, climate, trade links, religious beliefs and political invasions.

They say restaurants in Australia and around the world often fail to showcase the “true richness, culture and diversity that is Indian cooking”.

For Sunita, who last year was named 2020 ACT Businesswoman of the Year, Daana has always been about “bringing a little piece of India here”.

“[Daana’s Bhoj] is a little history nugget or a culture nugget that we try to share with our guests,” Sunita told Canberra Daily last year.

“If you come in for that experience then you will get to read a little about what that food is, where it’s from, if there is a theme behind it.

“Somebody who’s not from India will get a glimpse of the cultural, historic or some aspect of India which is connected to the food.”

Even when a region of India was re-visited by the Bhoj menus over the years, the husband-and-wife team say every one was different, with new recipes and creations coming out of the Daana kitchen each week.

Daana’s milestone won’t be lost on the Canberra community, either. Sunita and Sanjay say they have a host of loyal customers, some who have experienced more than 100 Bhoj menus, including one local couple who have been to 190 out of the 198 held so far.

The Daana team will reach their milestone over the weekend of Friday 7 and Saturday 8 May. To celebrate, they’re showcasing ‘India on a Plate’ throughout May – a series of specially curated Bhoj menus which will showcase cuisines from four to five regions each weekend.

Find out more or book a table via daana.com.au