Carrying on a family tradition, Needham resident Paramjit Singh joined with his brother Narinder Guhania and best friend Pardeep Kumar to launch Monsoon Indian Kitchen at 324 Chestnut St. The takeout restaurant, which opened Jan. 2, serves Northern Indian food based on family recipes.
Singh moved to Needham in 2018 after growing up near his extended family’s Cambridge restaurant, Passage to India, which has been in business since 1974.
“Our philosophy is that we want to serve our local community with affordable and healthy food,” said Singh. “We started looking for a place to open in Needham with that philosophy because we wanted to bring the taste of our family business from Cambridge to Needham.”
Singh said he looked for a site for a restaurant when he first moved to town, but that was ultimately delayed by COVID-19. He eventually found the Chestnut Street location, which already had a kitchen built in, and they began working on it in 2023. While his family’s other restaurants are sit-down dining, they decided to go with the less involved takeout operation. He said with town zoning, permitting and parking requirements it took almost a year to open.
The space has one long bar table by the window with eight seats where patrons can eat their takeout meals. Singh said the menu is not a big one. “When we open a restaurant, we want to keep it very, very basic. Our food is from North India, Punjabi. That is not spicy food. It’s nice and flavorful but it doesn’t burn you.”
He said their two specialties are Chicken Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken. “Then we always recommend everyone should order a garlic naan with it,” he said. The menu includes a spinach dish called Saag Paneer. “That primarily comes from our mother. She would cook that all the time.”
Keeping prices reasonable is part of Singh’s philosophy. “We want to serve healthy food and we want to make sure that people are able to eat not only once a week, but maybe twice a week because it’s a good place and it’s affordable.”
The Monsoon Indian Kitchen chefs were trained at the family’s Cambridge restaurant and are part of a staff of seven. Singh has several employees from Needham and hopes to add another soon. Right now he helps out during busy hours, working with his restaurant manager Harpreet Saini. “People are loving the food,” he said.
The restaurant takes its name from the cooling rains of the Monsoon season in India. “Monsoon is for us, at least in Punjab, is spring. It’s hot, hot weather in summer. When the monsoon starts it starts raining and everyone feels cool and then that’s good for the crops and all. So for us it’s just a great feeling.”
As with their other family restaurants that have been operating for five decades, Singh hopes Monsoon Indian Kitchen will be here for many years. “Our goal is to stay to serve the community. I have another 15-20 years, I’m in my 40s, so by the time I’m 65 if my daughter wants to take it over, that’s fine.”
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