Babaji's Kerala Kitchen Belgrave

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Belgrave, VIC
Babaji's Kerala Kitchen Belgrave

🌴 Authentic Kerala cuisine. Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne.
🥥 ONAM '26 tx on sale now! Be quick!
⏰ Lunch & dinner every day. Available for wedding & event catering.

(Closed Wed)
🥥 Vegan friendly.
🐕 Pup friendly.
👯‍♂️ Sister to Babajis Yarra Valley, Warburton.
🎉 Event & Wedding caterers. We take you on a journey to a land of palms & spice, tropical Kerala South India.

'Home-style' cooks, our restaurant, based in the lush forest of Melbourne's Dandenong Ranges, serves hearty Kerala favourites including Sadya (banana leaf plates), dosa, Malabar biryani, parot

ta, South Indian filter coffee & craft beer every day. Find us a 5 minute walk from Puffing Billy & the Dandenong Ranges National Park and a 5 minute drive from the 1000 steps. See our website for more information.

05/08/2026

4 years! It’s taken us 4 years to start selling our curries wholesale!
And without Jospehine from Kallista General Store & Cellars nagging - for 4 years - she’s a persistant one 😂 - we probably wouldn’t have got around to it!

Seriously - how can it take us that long? 🤔

For soooo many reasons:

- Staff shortages being the main one and waiting for sponsorship visas to be processed. The delays very real and debilitating for Babajis.

- Trying to get Warburton Babajis established (job achieved)

- Trying to make two restaurants survive in this climate (curry deliveries would have actually helped but when you’re struggling the smallest things are hard).

- Losing our main Indian grocery supplier thanks to whatever this s***storm is that we’re all going through now.

- Red tape being the latest ones - (but seriously do we reeeeeaaallly need to add that to a nutrition label Mr Health Officer and how the heck do we even work that out?)

But the IMPORTANT thing - we’ve done it and we drop off curries to Kallista General Store every Thursday.

Tomorrow’s drop off:
Palak paneer
Chicken chettinad
Butter chicken
Chickpea daal

… and when I come back from holiday in October - watch this space! We’ve got plans!

Feeling proud and strong today.

Billy
Babajis

Whilst we’re here! IMPORTANT NEWS!

🥥 ONAM TIX ON SALE NOW. Head to https://www.babajiskitchen.com.au/more/about-us/news-and-events/onam-sadya.html to book.

🐟 Last Pollichattu Fish cart this Sunday at Babajis Warburton - because we can’t get banana leaf and Onam is approaching!

20/07/2026

BOOM! Early Bird tickets for this year’s Onam at Babajis Belgrave & Warburton just dropped!
For all the info: https://www.babajiskitchen.com.au/more/about-us/news-and-events/onam-sadya.html

Limited tickets! This will sell out!
😊 We’ve been getting lots of emails!

Book your tickets now for Melbourne’s best Onam at
22-23 August - Babajis Belgrave
29-30 August - Babajis Warburton

15/07/2026

We wear our heart on our sleeve at Babajis. So it’s not surprising that our Lill … wanted a word with you all as she steps down from being our manager. To
~ Our beautiful Indian guests.
~ Our Belgrave locals.
~ Her team.
~ Her chefs.
umm... even her bosses got a look in!

We hope you’ll take the time to read it (and leave her a comment if you have ever had the privilege of being served by her).

If you ever doubted Gen Z and their capabilities - don’t!

If you worry about trusting your team when you aren’t there - don’t!

If you worry that Gen Z don’t value the same things as earlier generations - don’t!

If you are thinking about taking a risk on a young person in your business - do!

Lilly has taught us more than we have taught her.
The culture she has created at Babajis - many of us Gen X and Millennials could learn from.

We are so grateful that mid Covid, disillusioned in another hospo job - she was drawn to Babajis. Literally.

Thank you Lily.

x Billy & Max

14/07/2026

There’s a few signs of past years here … if you know us well and regularly visit - you’ll know! 😉

Feeling positive today because ‘this’ week last year - we were closed for the WHOLE week. We hadn’t been open on Tuesdays for a while as we couldn’t staff it. 😔

Same goes for a whole fortnight this time last year.
Waiting for the government to approve visas, the time frames blowing out.
(and yes we were actively trying to recruit in the Australian job market too with zero success).

Not our doing - we were just trying to survive the situation that we had no control over. Instead leaving it in the hands of bureaucracy. 🤯

So today - on a TUESDAY!!! - it’s good to be able to say ‘WE’RE OPEN!’🕺🏼
Perfectly timed for a Cheap Tuesday at the Cameo Cinemas .

📸 Back to the photo - How many years ago do you think it was taken?

(Hint - Couch at the front that Max slept on - sometimes whilst service was taking place 🤦‍♀️ - if you didn’t know better, you could be mistaken for thinking you were on Varkala cliff. Just before the monsoon arrived (May) and ‘everyone’ was sleeping on couches to cope with the heat🥵🥵🥵). Max just playing his role in keeping it authentic! 😉

We’re now open:
Mon, Tues, Thurs 12-8pm
Fri & Sat 12-9pm
Sun 12-8pm

🎬 Cameo Cinemas - CHEAP MOVIE NIGHT - TUESDAYS. HALF PRICE.

12/07/2026

It’s just ‘opening on Tuesdays’ to you. But to us - it’s a HUGE achievement and signifies us coming out of a tough few years enduring the fall out of Covid.

During Covid and the few years after, we had no choice but to close on Tuesdays. Our staff capacity never really recovered and the government so slow in approving the visas we needed for our chefs (15 mths & 9 mths).

And so a 5 day week - closing Tuesdays - and cooking at less festivals it was to be.
Not what we wanted - but done out of necessity & survival..

Sure, hospo is still tough at the moment.
But we have the strongest team we’ve ever had… and for the moment, we’re treading water - which in this economic climate is positive. We’re not going backwards and its great to see new faces (and lots of old ones) through our doors every day.

And so - we’re back open on Tuesdays! 12-8pm.
Perfect for Cheap Tuesdays at the Cameo.
Walk ins welcome.

See you Tuesday.

01/07/2026

There was a time when we didn’t know what we were doing!

It all started in 2014 at the Belgrave Big Dreams Market cooking dosa… we’d never actually cooked a dosa before.

The day was wild, 💨 ☔️ 🥵. We learnt how hard dosas were to cook (especially outside). Add to the mix a total fire ban day, 60 knot winds, 41 degrees… let’s just say it was a massive struggle and we questioned our life choices!

Somehow we kept going… cooking thousands of dosa at the Queen Vic Market and barely any dosas to the hundreds of thousands of commuters at Southern Cross Station (epic fail, we lost heaps of $$$).

And there was that time we cooked dosa for those in the nuddy at Tanglewood Festival (sorry folks, social media ain’t going to accept those photos … so we’ve shared a tamer one).

And that very sad time when we cooked dosa to honour Bhavita Patel, who lost her life in the Bourke St attack. Dosa was her favourite dish.

Whatever the occasion, our dosa brings people together, talking around the hotplate, admiring what ‘looks’ so simple (ingredients - Yes! Cooking - No!).

Today, we’re honoured to bring this South Indian tradition to you and thankfully, we’ve mastered the art.

Having a function? Why not dosa?

Our live dosa station starts from $12 p.p (minimum spends apply).

DM us and follow the link here for more info about our catering: https://www.babajiskitchen.com.au/event-catering-kerala-south-indian-cuisine/south-indian-kerala-wedding-catering.html

Let’s chat dosa!

Babaji's Kerala Kitchen Belgrave is open today from 12-8pm.

Yes - Our famous dosa is on the menu (school holiday idea - learn to eat a dosa with your hands!)

Walk ins welcome.

30/06/2026

Days off ’should’ be to ’switch off’. NOT when you’re these boys and you want to recreate the taste of ‘home’.

For us, ‘cooking is life’!

Let us present to you ‘Kethel’s chicken’, iconic in Trivandrum since 1949, tender fried ’Spring’ chicken with our secret fiery masala.

This is the BEST fried chicken in Kerala.

Should we bring Trivandrum’s ‘iconic’ Kethel chicken to Babajis Belgrave?

If we get to 500 likes here, we’ll do it!

Over to you!

We’re closed at Babaji’s Kerala Kitchen Belgrave | South Indian Restaurant today. Back tomorrow. Babaji’s Kerala Kitchen Warburton | South Indian Restaurant is open ALL school holidays for lunch & dinner.

29/06/2026

This one’s spicy! … Our village style fish curry, as traditional and close to home as we can make it …. (in Australia).

Kitchen’s open from 12pm.
Fish curry best eaten with m***a rice.

Walk ins welcome.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY IDEAS IN THE DANDENONG RANGES

This one’s spicy! …

Our village style fish curry, as traditional and close to home as we can make it …. (in Australia).

Kitchen’s open from 12pm. Fish curry best eaten with m***a rice.

Walk ins welcome.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY IDEAS IN THE DANDENONG RANGES

Check this out, it’s NEW! & free!
ngurrak barring - an arts & culture trail through towering forests & Hills villages.

Chase Puffing Billy Railway Train of Lights.
Sadly sold out, but you can chase it and come for dinner at Babajis after!

Best spots to see it:

6pm. Lakeside Crossing Emerald.
Emerald Lake
6.10pm Wright Rd Level Crossing
Wright Forest Trestle Bridge
Behind Gembrook Recreation Reserve
6.50pm Gembrook station.

🍄 Go mushroom hunting at the Olinda Playground
(We didn’t tell you to eat them!)

Treetops Adventure Belgrave - just 2 minute drive to Babajis (but a steep walk).

Address

1/1644 Burwood Highway
Belgrave, VIC
3160

Website

https://www.babajiskitchen.com.au/

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