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If you’ve ever doubted whether Vancouver can still surprise you, head to Peya. On a stretch of Hastings near Slocan, a stone’s throw from culinary darling Dachi and a short drive from critically acclaimed new Italian spot Folietta, the understated brasserie is doing something you won’t find anywhere else in the city: French-Indian cuisine, rooted in technique and built on memory.
For chef and co-owner Ashwani Dabas, the road to Peya spans continents, career pivots, and a two-year delay marked by construction chaos and city red tape.
Born in New Delhi, Dabas didn’t grow up dreaming of a culinary career. He planned to get an MBA in the U.S. and was deep into GMAT prep when a rejected Visa forced a change in direction. “At that time, I was already questioning whether I should do an MBA or focus on culinary,” he recalls.
Instead of business school, he enrolled in Niagara College’s culinary program and later moved west to Vancouver. He landed at The Blackbird Public House, part of the Donnelly Group, where he quickly climbed from line cook to kitchen manager. Within six months, he was overseeing staff and menus. He eventually became a regional culinary lead, managing multiple kitchens and corporate events.
“My management experience—everything—came from Donnelly,” he says.
But as his skills grew, so did the urge to create something of his own. He joined Kitsilano’s The Ellis as executive chef and later became co-owner. That’s where he met his eventual business partner, Kevin Day. The two began brainstorming what would come next.
“We kept throwing ideas back and forth while playing FIFA,” Dabas says.
What started as a concept for Indian-American barbecue evolved into something more refined and personal: a brasserie blending his French-focused culinary training with the bold flavours of home.
The pair signed the lease for Peya in December 2022. Then everything slowed to a crawl: permitting issues, design complications, and construction setbacks pushed the opening back by more than two years.
“Every time we tried to go ahead, we came back,” Dabas says. Even an expedited permitting process, paid for out of pocket, did little to help. “That money—we don’t know where it got used.”
Now open, Peya delivers a menu as original as the concept. The Fig & Goat Cheese Samosa has been so popular they sell out of it most Fridays. Figs are soaked in lemon and apple juice, folded into goat cheese, and wrapped in filo brushed with curry-leaf brown butter.
The Peya Cornish Hen, a signature dish, is Dabas’s take on butter chicken. Using Cornish hen for its deeper flavour, it’s brined, marinated for 72 hours, roasted, then served in a red-pepper gravy alongside flaky, house-made garlic naan.
There’s also lamb liver mousse—French in method, Indian in flavour—served with blueberry compote, pickled okra, and nut crackers.
The drinks program is led by bar manager Chris Enns, one of the city’s most respected cocktail talents. French wines meet Indian spice; mango lassi-inspired riffs share space with local beers from Strange Fellows and Powell Brewery.
After parting ways with their original designer, Dabas and Day took on the restaurant’s look themselves. The tables are hand-stained. The booths are wrapped in saffron and emerald. French retro details meet the softness of an Indian veranda. A 24-seat patio is on the way, pending yet another city permit.
Ashwani Dabas fuses cuisines at his restaurant Peya.
Peya fits seamlessly into Hastings-Sunrise, a neighbourhood that’s light on high-concept dining and big on community. The vibe is grown-up but unpretentious. The crowd tends to be in their 30s and 40s, according to Dabas, sharing multiple dishes, ordering multiple rounds, staying awhile. The food is light enough to enjoy in volume, but built for depth.
For Dabas, Peya is the culmination of a journey that almost didn’t happen.
“I’m not the kind of Indian chef who can make, like, a ton of curries,” he says. “But I make specific dishes from specific places that are very true to those places.”
After years of building other people’s restaurants, Dabas finally built his own.
Peya is located at 2101 E Hastings Street.