Newcastle Indian street food restaurant Thali Tray to open second premises in Sandyford

Josh Roberts, owner-operator of Thali Tray, with his dog Red at the new site on Helmsley Road in Sandyford
Josh Roberts, owner-operator of Thali Tray, with his dog Red at the new site on Helmsley Road in Sandyford -Credit:Josh Roberts


A Newcastle-based Indian street food restaurant is set to open a second premises later this month.

Thali Tray opened on the second floor of Newcastle's Bealim House in December 2022 after establishing a reputation for its curries, nans, puri and pickles on Stepney Bank in Ouseburn. The restaurant announced on its Instagram page that its newest branch will open over the Bank Holiday weekend later this month.

The new site is in the former Little Green vegan café premises on Helmsley Road, Sandyford, and will be split between Thali Tray and Kaapi Café, an Indian-inspired café and takeaway. The premises will have outdoor seating, as it did in Ouseburn, but there won't be any fire pits this time around.

There will, however, be Indian-inspired cocktails such as a dirty chai martinis and clarified mango lassi pina coladas accompanying the food menu. Owner-operator Josh Roberts, 31, says that he is "really looking forward to reconnecting with all the old faces" from Thali Tray's maiden site in Ouseburn.

Josh told ChronicleLive: "We've developed a new market in the city for ourselves but a lot of our old customer base are predominantly around that Ouseburn, Heaton, and Sandyford area. So when this site came out it was almost too good of a mix of what we needed."

Josh continued: "We want this to be almost the refinement of what the Thali Tray experience is. We feel like we've got a good grip on what the food offering should be, but this will be a bit more Indian-inspired front of house and beverage menu.

"It's almost a moving with the times kind of next step."

Thali Tray is set to open on Helmsley Road on Sunday, May 26.