A new restaurant chasing a South Indian focus rather than the North Indian dishes most familiar to American diners is aiming to open in Cary by December. Bar O Bar, from SAMA Hospitality, is planned for 2301 Corley Road, with a menu built around coconut, mustard seeds, black pepper and curry leaves.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Bar O Bar plans to open in December 2026 and follows SAMA Hospitality’s earlier success with Fusion9, an Indian-fusion bar and restaurant in Morrisville. The restaurant’s own website currently tells visitors it is coming soon to Cary, describing its concept simply as Indian flavors with a fresh perspective, per bar0bar.com. The name itself comes from barobar, a word that means perfect in several Indian languages, according to the News & Observer’s reporting.
Leading the kitchen is chef Vikash Vumudi, who the News & Observer reports has experience in Michelin-recognized kitchens internationally, including time honing his craft at Sindhu, a restaurant from Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar in England, and work as a development chef alongside celebrity chef Ajay Chopra. Separately, Indulge Express has reported that Vumudi previously worked in Michelin-starred restaurants under chefs including Kochhar and Chopra, and that he served as head chef of Voila, a lifestyle and luxury restaurant. Vumudi has said his cooking balances tamarind, black pepper and fresh coconut with precise technique and exceptional ingredients, per the seed report.
A Menu Built Around South Indian Staples
The planned menu includes dishes like donne biryani and ghee & gunpowder, alongside cocktails inspired by Indian desserts, the News & Observer reports. Sai Ancha, per that same reporting, said Bar O Bar aims to showcase Indian cuisine’s depth, diversity and creativity, and that Cary suits the restaurant’s vision. The interior design is expected to include handcrafted furniture sourced from Rajasthan — India’s largest state — along with natural stone, timber, antique brass and textiles, according to the same report.
Bar O Bar would join SAMA Hospitality’s existing Fusion9, which Visit Raleigh describes as an Indian-fusion bar and restaurant offering vibrant flavors and a fine dining experience at 1012 Morrisville Parkway. Fusion9’s own site notes it serves Indian and Indo-Chinese dishes including biryani, naan, curries and dumplings, and that it makes its own syrups, infusions and spice blends in-house for cocktails shaken to order, according to fusionninenc.com.
A Region With a Growing Appetite
The timing lines up with broader shifts across Western Wake. Morrisville had the highest share of residents identifying as Asian Indian in the area in 2023, at 34.3%, roughly double the 17% figure recorded in 2010, according to INDY Week. Wake County added more than 140,000 residents between 2020 and 2024, and the county issued 261 new commercial building permits in 2024 alone, including 20 in Cary, 19 in Apex and two in Morrisville, the outlet reports.
That growth has coincided with a wave of new Indian dining concepts nearby. Kaara Modern Indian opened in Apex on October 24, with a dining room seating about 80 to 90 people plus a casual space for roughly 30, serving a mix of northern and southern Indian cuisine along with Indo-Chinese dishes like Sichuan noodles, per the same INDY Week report. Cheeni, in Research Triangle Park, opened in December with South Indian and Punjabi dishes, and Urban Angeethi has planned a renovation that would double its space to 4,600 square feet and expand seating from about 110 to 230, the outlet notes.
Further afield, Taal, a fine-dining Indian restaurant at 310 W. Franklin St. in downtown Chapel Hill, combines southern and northern Indian cuisine with craft cocktails, as reported by the Raleigh News & Observer. The region’s dining expansion isn’t limited to Indian food, either — Shinmai Moku, a contemporary Japanese izakaya offering yakitori, shareable small plates and handcrafted cocktails, opened Sept. 26 in Raleigh’s Quail Corners shopping center, according to Raleigh Magazine.
Dining and Cooking