Dipna Anand to open new venture with Restaurant Associates

Dipna Anand has revealed plans to open a restaurant at Unity Place in Milton Keynes next month through her partnership with Restaurant Associates.

The caterer, which is part of Compass Group, announced it had won the contract to oversee all the food and beverage outlets at the workplace and leisure destination in February.

Anand will oversee the opening of a 150-cover restaurant that will feature a microbrewery from Toast Ale, which brews beer from surplus fresh bread.

She will serve Punjabi and South Indian cuisine with dishes such as tandoori lamb chops; chicken and paneer tikka; masala fries, gajwar halwa and gulab jamun – a fried milk dough served hot and crispy in a cardamom sugar syrup.

The restaurant will feature oak parquet flooring, green marble tiling and leather-backed banquettes.

The chef has already opened a more casual concept, Dipna Anand Indian Street Food, in Unity Place's Urban Food Market.

Unity Place is also home to Santander bank's UK headquarters, retail outlets, a community hall, health facilities, and an auditorium for 300 guests.

Anand said: "I am so looking forward to opening my new restaurant in Unity Place. It has a completely different feel to my previous sites, but we'll be serving some of my oldest family recipes.

"We've developed some new dishes alongside our beloved classics, and have a mega grill that we'll be firing up to char all our tikka's and chops on which is very exciting."

Anand previously collaborated with Restaurant Associates for the launch of Dipna Anand at Somerset House in London in November 2021. It served Punjabi and South Indian cuisine but the site has now permanently closed, according to Google.