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Gayan Pieris has been thinking about this one for a long time.
The chef, who has built a quiet but devoted following in Melbourne’s food circles, is opening Agnii at 105 Chapel Street in Windsor, a Sri Lankan restaurant that has been, by his own account, years in the making.
“This restaurant is a dream I have carried inside me for many years. Some nights, I thought it would never come,” he wrote to followers this week. “But here we are.”
The Melbourne Chef Behind The New Restaurant
Pieris grew up in a big family on a rice farm in central Sri Lanka, where his mother cooked three times a day for ten hungry mouths. Plus, farm workers, relatives, and whoever else happened to drop by.
He came to Australia after the civil war, established himself in inner-city Melbourne kitchens – including a stint at Cumulus – before relocating to the Mornington Peninsula.
From 2019, he led the kitchen at Many Little in Red Hill, transforming what had been a bistro known for veal schnitzel and spaghetti bolognese into a must-visit Sri Lankan restaurant.
He has since taken ownership of Many Little outright. The food industry has noticed. So have diners. But Agnii, he has said, was always the real destination.
What is The New Melbourne Sri Lankan Restaurant Agnii, exactly?
The name comes from the Sri Lankan concept of fire as hearth — not heat for heat’s sake, but the centre of domestic life.
The dara lipa, the traditional Sri Lankan hearth, is a reference point for the whole project.
Pieris grew up in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, around rice fields and open kitchens, and the cooking at Agnii is meant to carry that background without turning it into a theme.
The menu will be built around ancestral Sri Lankan flavours — roasted curry leaves, spice and smoke — but the produce will be local and Australian.
“Ancestral Sri Lankan flavors. Local Australian produce. A bridge between old and new. Between who I was and who I am becoming,” chef Pieris revealed.
Chef Pieris made it clear that while nostalgia would play a part, this is modern Sri lankan dining.
“Agnii is my deepest expression of heritage. The village life I grew up with, days spent in rice fields, the patience of waiting for fruit to ripen, the sacred rhythm of cooking over flame brought into a modern dining context. Not to romanticise the past. But to honour it. To carry it forward,” he said.
Sri Lankan Restaurant On Chapel Street
Chapel Street has changed. The stretch running through Windsor has gradually tilted toward independent restaurants with something to say, and Agnii lands in that context well.
It is not a safe location choice by any stretch of imagination. The neighbourhood already as other South Asian restaurants, including the popular Sri lankan restaurant Hopper Joint.
Early response, however, suggests Pieris has a ready audience already – something that Chapel Street has always demanded.
The restaurant’s social accounts have already been flooded before a single service has run.
The team posted this week that they were “humbled, overwhelmed, deeply grateful” after what they described as thousands of messages from people following the opening.
That kind of anticipation before an opening night is not common. It usually means the chef has earned genuine goodwill over a long period of time, and Pieris has.
When does Agnii open?
That part is still being confirmed. Reservations and final preparations are still being worked through, and no specific date has been announced yet. The restaurant has asked followers to stay tuned across its social channels for updates.
What Pieris has made clear is that the wait is nearly over. “One plate. One ritual. One flame at a time,” he wrote.
Melbourne’s Sri Lankan community as weel as those who enjoy the cuisine is watching this one closely. So has anyone who has eaten Pieris’s food before and wondered when he would do something entirely on his own terms.
Agnii opens soon at 105 Chapel Street, Windsor. Follow @agniieateryanbar on Instagram for the opening date and reservations.
