New Indian restaurant to open in Chepstow in June 2023

Salkaara already has two restaurants in Cardiff, one on Wellfield Road in Roath, and one on Station Road in Llandaff North.

The new restaurant will open on the Chepstow High Street next week, Salkaara will replace The Pepper Mill after it permanently closed its dine-in restaurant last year.

The Italian restaurant closed in March 2022 because of the impact the coronavirus pandemic had on the hospitality industry.

The site has been empty for a year, with the new owners keen to get up and running from the building.

Salkaara (Image: Salkaara)

Selection of dishes at Salkaara indian restaurant. Picture: Salkaara

Owner of Salkaara, Vipin Vasudevan said: “I stumbled upon the building by chance in March last year, there was no intention to buy it, but we thought we would take the plunge.

“Chepstow looks like a nice quiet town, and it is convenient to manage for us between Cardiff and Bristol.

“I am excited and tense, but with the word excited there is a lot of pressure with it. These days once you plan something the cost goes much higher than you plan for which is why we want to get it started.”

Salkaara serves authentic Keralan Indian cuisine inspired by Southern India, such as sword fish curry, Malabar Biryani, along with the popular dishes of Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Korma.

He added: “We are not a normal traditional curry house that you would have come across, we are from South India and the influence for the cuisine will come from there.

“We would not have a Balti, we never heard of those dishes in Indian so our dishes will be more authentic and each of them will be different.”

Mr Vasudevan also has two Salkaara restaurants in England, one in Bristol and one in Banbury, Oxfordshire, the dine-in restaurant in Chepstow would be the fifth Salkaara to open.