From Punjab to Beaumont Street

The story of Raj's Corner, Hamilton's Indian kitchen since 1998

One counter, a recipe book carried from Punjab, and a queue that has not really stopped since.

Raj's Corner on Beaumont Street, Hamilton
Our story

A counter, a tandoor and a recipe book from Punjab

Kuldip Sangha was born in Budhlada, in the Punjab region of northern India. Sylvia Sangha was born in Australia. Together they have spent more than thirty years cooking Indian food for people who had mostly never eaten it.

When they opened at 116 Beaumont Street in 1998, what they opened was not a restaurant. It was a counter. Curries in trays behind the glass, breads pulled from the tandoor, a queue that moved fast, and dinner you carried home in a paper bag. Hamilton was an eating street already, but it was Italian, it was Greek, it was steak. Nobody knew whether Newcastle was ready for this.

From day one people warmed to the idea.Sylvia Sangha, Newcastle Herald
How we got here

Thirty years of one recipe book

  1. 1991

    It started in Sydney, as Flavours of North India

    Before Newcastle there was Coogee. Sylvia and Kuldip opened Flavours of North India in 1991 and grew it into several stores across Sydney, all built on the same idea: proper North Indian cooking, sold over a counter, at a price people could pay on a weeknight.

    Those years were the workshop. Kuldip cooked, listened, and changed things. What sold he kept, what did not he reworked, and the menu you read today came out of that decade of feedback rather than out of a cookbook. The Sydney stores were later sold. Paramjit Atwal, who manages Hamilton now, has been with the Sanghas since those first Sydney kitchens and comes from the same part of India as Kuldip.

  2. 1998

    Indian flavours arrive on Beaumont Street

    The move to Newcastle was a gamble on a city that had no real Indian food to speak of. It paid off in about a week.

    Butter chicken went out on the first day and has never been beaten since. The chicken is marinated overnight in yoghurt and spices, skewered, cooked through in the tandoor, then folded into a gravy cooked down slowly. That is still exactly how it is made. No MSG went into it then and none goes into it now.

  3. The menu

    Dishes went on because people asked for them

    Kuldip cooked for the room in front of him. Someone would ask for something from home, and if he could cook it well he put it on the board. Then someone else asked for it, and it stayed.

    The northern dishes came first, the curries and the tandoor breads and the biryani, tikka masala and korma and rogan josh. Then the south arrived: dosa cooked to order on the griddle, sambar, coconut and curry leaf and tamarind sitting alongside the cream and cashew of the north. Two very different cuisines out of one kitchen, which is not how most Indian shops in Australia are run.

    That is why the board today carries twenty two curries on display with around twenty more made to order. The samosa pastry is rolled on site. The naan dough is made on site. The dips and the sauces are made on site, every day, and the meat and vegetables are bought fresh rather than frozen.

  4. The sweets

    A mithai counter beside the curries

    Indian food does not end at the curry, so the sweets counter went in next to it. Laddu, barfi, gulab jamun and kaju katli, the things you would find in a mithai shop in Punjab, made for people who had never been in one.

    They sell two ways. By the piece, to somebody picking up dinner who wants something at the end of it. And by the kilo, to families the week before a wedding, an engagement or Diwali, who order trays at a time. The second kind of customer is the reason the catering side exists at all.

  5. The drinks

    Nobody planned for the mango lassi

    It went on the board as something to cool the heat of a hot curry. It turned into a drink people order on its own, in summer, with no food at all. Kids drink it. Tradies drink it. It outsells things it has no business outselling, and it is blended properly, not poured out of a carton.

    The fresh juices came directly out of that. If Newcastle would queue for a lassi made the right way, it would queue for juice pressed the same way, so the juice side went in and the counter got busier again. Between the lassi, the juices and the sweets, plenty of people now walk in without ordering a curry at all.

  6. 2011

    Making room in Hamilton

    By then the queue on a Friday night was running out the door and onto Beaumont Street. Takeaway alone could not hold it, so Raj's Corner Hamilton was extended in 2011 and the dining room came with it. People could finally sit down with the food instead of carrying it away. Same kitchen, same recipes, more chairs.

    Customers were driving in from across Newcastle and, as the Newcastle Herald reported, from as far away as Tamworth.

    They drive, at times, more than 30 minutes just to get to us.Sylvia Sangha, Newcastle Herald
  7. Catering

    Because the wedding orders would not stop

    The families ordering sweets by the kilo were the ones who asked first. If Raj's could do the mithai for the wedding, could it do the dinner as well? The answer kept being yes, and eventually it became a proper arm of the business rather than a favour.

    Raj's caters weddings, engagements, birthdays, anniversaries, christenings and corporate events across Newcastle and the Hunter. Menus are built per event rather than pulled off a list, dishes such as dosa and biryani go on for catering that are not on the daily counter, and a bain marie can be supplied where a hall has no kitchen. It is the same food from the same stoves, cooked at a scale that feeds three hundred.

    See our catering
  8. Today

    Still on the corner, still not franchised

    Sylvia could have franchised the business a decade ago and chose not to, on the grounds that a name is easy to sell and hard to get back. Her words to the Herald were "it's about doing it properly. It's not about franchising."

    So the cooking has not moved off Beaumont Street in more than twenty five years. Sylvia oversees the business, Paramjit Atwal manages the Hamilton store, and one customer who moved to Melbourne still turns up with an empty freezer bag to fill before he drives home.

    Order the butter chicken. It is the same one from 1998.

The same butter chicken since 1998

What people come for

Three things that built the queue

Butter chicken served at Raj's Corner

The butter chicken

Marinated overnight in yoghurt and spices, skewered, cooked in the tandoor, then into a slow cooked gravy. The dish the doors opened with in 1998, unchanged, and still the most ordered thing on the board.

 A glass of mango lassi

Mango lassi and fresh juices

The crowd favourite, blended properly rather than poured from a carton. It is what brought the fresh juice side in, and both now run all day beside the curry counter.

 A gold platter of Indian sweets including laddu, gulab jamun and barfi

Indian sweets

Laddu, barfi, gulab jamun and kaju katli from the counter next to the curries. By the piece for dessert, by the kilo when there is a wedding or Diwali coming.
In the press

What the Newcastle Herald wrote

Newcastle Herald, 2017

Raj's a palace for the spicy palate

Nathalie Craig on the Sydney beginnings, the twenty two curries on display, the customer who drives up from Melbourne with a freezer bag, and why Sylvia turned down franchising.

Read the article Newcastle Herald, 2018

Taste the fresh and authentic at Raj's

On the fresh, no MSG, never frozen approach, the North and South Indian menu, and the customers who queue onto Beaumont Street from as far away as Tamworth.

Read the article Newcastle Herald, 2018

Spiced up Sangha support

The Herald drops in on the Hamilton counter during a World Cup final week to find out who the shop is cheering for.

Read the article
What we stand for

Three things we do not cut corners on

Cooked fresh, every day

Nothing arrives frozen and nothing is cooked with MSG. Samosa pastry, naan dough, dips and sauces are all made on site, and we pay for fresh meat and vegetables rather than frozen.

Marked clearly

Every dish carries its dietary codes: GF gluten free, NF nut free, DF dairy free and V vegan, so the table can order without a conversation about ingredients.

Spices from next door

The traditional ingredients come from Raj's Spice and Groceries, the Indian grocery next door on Beaumont Street, so what goes into the curries is bought a few steps from where it is cooked.

Eating with us

Dine in, take away, or have it delivered

The dining room is open 7 days from 10:30am to 10:00pm, with the kitchen serving right through the afternoon. Book a table by phone.

If you would rather eat at home, order ahead for pick up or choose delivery, which is free after 5:00pm within a 5km radius. Have a look at the menu first, or read about our catering if you are feeding a crowd.

Address
116 Beaumont Street, Hamilton NSW 2303
Phone
(02) 4962 1827
Hours
Open 7 days, 10:30am to 10:00pm
Since
1998, on the same street
Order onlineContact us
Good to know

Questions we get asked

How long has Raj's Corner been on Beaumont Street?

Since 1998. Kuldip and Sylvia Sangha opened Raj's Corner at 116 Beaumont Street, Hamilton that year as a takeaway counter, and the kitchen has been at the same address ever since. Raj's Corner Hamilton was extended in 2011 to add the dining room.

Who started Raj's Corner and who runs it now?

Kuldip Sangha, who was born in Budhlada in Punjab, developed the recipes, and he opened the shop in 1998 with Sylvia Sangha, who was born in Australia. They had run Flavours of North India in Sydney from 1991 before moving the idea to Newcastle. It is family owned and always has been. Sylvia oversees the business today and Paramjit Atwal, who has worked with them since the Sydney years, manages the Hamilton store.

What kind of Indian food do you cook?

North Indian cooking sits at the centre of the menu, with South Indian dishes such as dosa cooked to order on the griddle. There are twenty two curries on display and around twenty more special order dishes, plus breads from the tandoor, biryani, Indian sweets, mango lassi and fresh juices.

What makes the butter chicken different?

It is the dish the shop opened with in 1998 and the recipe has not changed. The chicken is marinated overnight in yoghurt and spices, skewered and cooked in the tandoor, then added to a slow cooked gravy. Like every curry on the menu it is made without MSG and without frozen produce.

Do you cater for events?

Yes. We cater weddings, engagements, birthdays, anniversaries, christenings and corporate events across Newcastle and the Hunter, and can supply a bain marie for self serve functions where there is no kitchen. Indian sweets are available by the kilo for events. Our catering page has the details.