Gymkhana-Las-Vegas-Exterior-RENDERING-Courtesy-MGM-Resorts.jpeg?quality=80&w=970″ alt=”” width=”970″ height=”689″ data-caption=’Gymkhana Las Vegas. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Courtesy MGM Resorts</span>’>
Gymkhana, the only Indian restaurant in London with two Michelin stars, understands the assignment when it comes to opening in Las Vegas. The goal, of course, is to bring the best of London’s Gymkhana to the Vegas Strip while adding new dishes and new dazzle for festive only-in-Vegas nights.
On December 3, Gymkhana will make its United States debut with a 170-seat outpost at the Aria casino-resort. (Reservations are now live.) Gymkhana, known for dishes like tandoori lamb chops, venison keema naan and pork cheek curry, will serve beef for the first time when it opens in Las Vegas. New dishes will include a short rib pepper fry and wagyu keema naan, alongside an exclusive-to-Vegas goan lobster curry. Cocktail service will include Gymkhana’s first punch bowls.
Gymkhana, as always, will upend the idea of fine dining and what guests might expect at a two-Michelin-star restaurant.
“Maybe their perception is it’s going to be stuffy,” Pavan Pardasani, who recently joined Gymkhana parent company JKS Restaurants as global CEO, tells Observer. “It’s going to be formal. I’m going to have to dress a certain way. And that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Gymkhana is here to introduce Indian food to a wider audience. This is a restaurant that celebrates family-style dining and wants guests to rip and dip bread into curries. Gymkhana is where you’re totally fine grabbing a lamb chop with your hands. You can build a meal around vegetarian dishes or you can savor biryani and tandoori kebabs made with wild game. As always, the best nights in Las Vegas are about choosing your own adventure.
“The truth of the matter is, you don’t need to love Indian food to love Gymkhana,” Pardasani says. “What you need to cherish and love and seek out is a really great night out, a really great culinary experience that’s about how we present, execute and deliver that food.”
In London, Gymkhana is a tightly packed 100-seat bi-level restaurant inside a Mayfair townhouse. In Las Vegas, there will be 170 seats, but Pardasani and JKS founders Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi are focused on preserving the warmth, coziness and conviviality of London’s Gymkhana. The new restaurant at Aria will weave together the jade-like green (what JKS calls Gymkhana green) and the kind of dark wood, metallic elements and plush seating that makes the London location feel like an elite private club.
“You have to understand that this opening was a big part of what sparked my brain and my heart and my passion to join JKS,” says Pardasani, who is the son of Indian immigrants and grew up in New York City. “Because otherwise, you would define me as your traditional coastal elite. I’ve spent 43-and-a-half of the 46 years of my life living in L.A. and New York, except for two-and-a-half years when I lived in Las Vegas.”
That time spent in Las Vegas, when Pardasani had a leadership role at Hakkasan, gave him clarity.
“Las Vegas truly reflects and represents America,” he says. “Living there and immersing myself in the community there and meeting people that come from different parts of the country with very different ideas, thoughts and worldviews taught me that Las Vegas is really the gateway to America.”
And at a moment when high-end Indian food is popping off in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, bringing it to Las Vegas is a no-brainer for Gymkhana. This isn’t just about opening a top-tier restaurant. This is about changing the culture.
“I see the strengthening of Indian concepts and I see that operators are thinking outside of just New York,” Pardasani says. “I hope that people experience us in Las Vegas and they take their love and their passion and their joy for our food back to where they live. Maybe it will inspire them to tell their local community that they need an Indian restaurant. Maybe it will inspire people to pursue what we’re doing. Let’s break down the myths and the barriers people might have about our food and make it part of the great cuisines that are available all over America.”
Gymkhana is part of a major JKS expansion into the United States. JKS is opening another glamorous Indian restaurant, Ambassadors Clubhouse, in New York’s Flatiron neighborhood. The JKS portfolio also includes chef Kian Samyani’s Berenjak, a Persian restaurant in London that just opened a location at Soho Warehouse in Los Angeles.
Even among top hospitality groups around the world, JKS stands out for its range and deep belief in the diversity of great food. JKS, which also has buzzing London restaurants that serve Sri Lankan, Thai, Spanish, British pub and modern European food, started with the Sethi siblings wanting to celebrate their heritage in London. Now it’s time to do the same thing in America.
Pardasani is excited to show guests in Las Vegas that bar snacks like samosas and pappadam are very much a part of the experience at Gymkhana.
“Typically in Indian culture, you don’t drink without eating,” he says.
Pardasani is also looking forward to serving guests who want vegetarian options like flavor-packed daal, chana masala and tandoori broccoli.
“It’s very common in Indian families to have a day or days of the week where you’re vegetarian,” Pardasani says. “The representation of vegetarian food within India is some of the best. You don’t have to give up on taste.”
But perhaps most of all, Gymkhana is ready to showcase the wonders of family-style dining.
“I grew up in an Indian household where we ate Indian food every day,” says Pardasani, who has visited India 20 times and fondly remembers dishes his late mother and grandmother made. “And what that entailed, always, was sharing. It was never, ‘This is my food. That is your food.’ And I think Gymkhana presents this opportunity where you don’t want to just eat one dish. The way to achieve that is to share.”
Gymkhana wants you to understand that Indian cuisine is food for everyone. And you’re very much encouraged to put multiple dishes onto your plate and just let everything blend.
