“It’s nothing like India,” Chef Sohan Singh Bisht smiles, glancing up and down the street outside RANG Restaurant Danang’s ornate entrance. He doesn’t seem to mind. That’s because he’s in love, he says, with “Danang’s mountains, the long scenic drives, and its proximity to the ocean.” Plus, at his restaurant – called RANG after the word for ‘color’ in Hindi – he gets to pen a daily love letter “to Indian cuisine, its culture, and hospitality.”
Unsurprisingly, for the unassuming chef who’s prone to breaking into a beaming, beatific smile, who spent time in the Middle East, England, and Australia – with its penchant for ingredient-driven cuisine – and who was schooled in Mediterranean culinary traditions, when his Indian food in Danang reaches the table, it’s undergone a transformation.
Dishes like Sweet Potato Gnocchi Chaat – a mashup of his memories of Delhi’s street food made with Italian gnocchi, in which the pasta is fried until crispy outside and bursting with masala inside – and the locally sourced octopus in his charred Tandoori Octopus dish blend tradition with innovation. Or, as Sohan puts it, as modest as ever: “It’s the taste of Indian food in Danang with a little Mediterranean flair.”
So RANG Restaurant Danang is a love letter to India written by a son who’s spent a long time overseas – on cruise liners and in five-star hotel kitchens. Maybe that distance has helped him see the country’s rich cuisine and color-saturated culture with fresh eyes.
An Indian Restaurant In Danang Where Tradition Meets Innovation
Sohan does keep some classics on the menu, he admits, “for people craving them.”
But these are interesting times for Indian cuisine, and Sohan’s RANG Restaurant Danang embodies this moment – one foot planted firmly in tradition, the other stepping boldly into innovation.
He’s part of a growing movement of chefs bringing decidedly global perspectives to Indian cuisine, not to replace the classics, but to expand what’s possible.
Butter chicken and biryanis are giving way to an Indian cuisine that’s embracing regional specialties finally getting their due. Coastal cuisines from Kerala, Goa, and Karnataka bring coconut-rich curries, tangy fish dishes, and spice-forward seafood to urban tables. Lesser-known indigenous cuisines and forgotten royal recipes are being rediscovered and celebrated.
Chef Sohan Has Found His Place in Danang
While reflecting global trends, RANG Restaurant Danang fits perfectly into Danang’s evolving local dining scene too.
The restaurant earned recognition from MICHELIN in its Bib Gourmand list during the guide’s first foray into the coastal city last year, remarkably only five months after opening.
“The guide’s forcing everyone to raise their game,” Sohan nods approvingly. But he gives off the sense that he’s as comfortable at home as he is stepping onto the MICHELIN Guide awards stage (he did it again this year as RANG Restaurant Danang maintained its coveted Bib Gourmand status).
He’s wary of being compared to restaurants like the two-MICHELIN-starred Gaa and the cultured coastal cuisine restaurant Jhol, both in Bangkok. “Oh, RANG Restaurant Danang is still in its early days compared to those culinary giants,” he says, waving off the idea.
Even his aspiration for a culinary collaboration is pleasantly surprising. It’s another love letter emanating from his kitchen. “If I could make one dream collaboration happen, it would be to cook alongside my wife, who’s my greatest source of motivation,” he admits. “Together, I’d love for us to create a special tasting menu themed ‘Her Home vs My House (at RANG),’ celebrating the flavors and stories from both our worlds, side by side.”
Embracing Local Traditions At RANG Restaurant Danang
That humble, traditional spirit translates naturally to how he approaches the local dining scene. Danang is a city with its own traditions and access to exceptional seafood, and with a constant flux of visitors, that provide constant change.
Because of that, Danang’s diners delight in the nuanced flavors and techniques of modern Indian cooking, while the city’s cosmopolitan energy makes it an ideal testing ground for bold, gently boundary-pushing cuisine – think, as Sohan puts it, “Colorful drinks, vibrant dishes, friendly service, and a Sufi-like mystical vibe.”
“Still,” Sohan frowns, taking a last look up and down Vo Nguyen Giap Street – the road that clings adoringly to Danang’s dazzling coastline before it dissolves into Hoang Sa to the north and Truong Sa seven kilometers to the south, “this is a city growing at warp speed.”
“When you taste Danang, you taste the future of Asian cuisine – a dynamic blend of heritage, creativity, and bold new flavors,” he decides, stepping inside RANG Restaurant Danang away from the glare of this booming beach city.
RANG Restaurant Danang Is A Feast
The restaurant’s entrance – with its traditional Vietnamese carved wooden architecture elevated with Mughal-inspired geometric screens and warm golden lighting – is a preamble to the visual feast inside.
RANG Restaurant Danang lives up to its name as we turn from the blue of the sea to the red of the kitchen’s fire licking up at the back of the restaurant. “Actually, blue and red are my two favorite colors,” Sohan smiles. “Fire and water, which sum up my passion in the kitchen and my personality at home.”
He takes a seat at the bar in the center, positioned in front of three dramatic murals – a serene Indian woman adorned in traditional jewelry, a fierce lion bursting with psychedelic energy, and a vibrant Kathakali performer in full ceremonial regalia – each one a portal into different facets of the subcontinent’s soul.
Upstairs on the mezzanine floor, intimate tables overlook the street through carved wooden balustrades, while traditional brass vessels and geometric tilework create pockets of warmth against the restaurant’s soaring ceilings. It’s theatrical without being theme-park, authentic without being museum-piece – exactly the kind of space where Sohan’s cross-cultural cooking philosophy can breathe and flourish.
The Perfect Balance
In the background, flames flicker again from the kitchen, prompting us to ask Sohan how Indian cuisine – with its complicated spice mixes and slow-cooked curries – can reconcile with Mediterranean cuisine based on freshness and seasonality.
“The magic is in the details, I suppose,” Sohan muses. “It’s all about balancing flavors and finding the perfect match.” That octopus dish is a perfect example: tender octopus marinated in his secret tandoori spices, charred to perfection, then paired with almond romesco and herb gremolata.
“It’s intended to be a delicious dance between Indian complexity and Mediterranean freshness,” he elaborates. “The balance? I’d say it’s a beautiful 60-40 split – always keeping the soul of India with a Mediterranean breeze.”
By our count, that makes it sixty percent India, forty percent Mediterranean, and one hundred percent Danang – the math checks out perfectly.
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