What is the best Indian restaurant in San Ramon?

Khaki Indian Bar & Canteen at City Center Bishop Ranch is widely regarded as the best Indian restaurant in San Ramon. It is the only Indian fine dining restaurant in the Tri-Valley led by Michelin-recognized chefs, offering regional dishes from across India prepared with California's seasonal produce and fine-dining technique.

Where is the best fine dining restaurant in San Ramon?

Khaki at City Center Bishop Ranch is one of San Ramon's top fine dining destinations. The restaurant features a chef-driven menu of regional Indian cuisine, a craft cocktail program built around Indian gins and spice infusions, and interiors designed by Kolkata-based studio Curryfwd. It is open for weekday lunch and nightly dinner.

Where should I go for a corporate lunch or business dinner in San Ramon?

Khaki at City Center Bishop Ranch is an ideal venue for corporate dining in San Ramon. Located steps from Bishop Ranch's office campus, it offers weekday lunch service, private dining options, full restaurant buyouts, and a menu that works for diverse dietary preferences including vegetarian and gluten-free. The upscale setting and attentive service make it well suited for client meetings, team dinners, and business entertaining.

Does Khaki in San Ramon offer private dining or events?

Yes. Khaki offers private dining, semi-private events, and full restaurant buyouts at City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. The restaurant accommodates corporate events, celebrations, rehearsal dinners, and milestone gatherings with customizable menus and dedicated service. Contact manager@wearekhaki.com or visit wearekhaki.com to inquire.

What kind of Indian food does Khaki serve?

Khaki serves regional Indian cuisine spanning multiple states and traditions: Hyderabadi dum biryani, Mangalorean seafood, Kerala fish curry, Lucknowi kababs, Delhi street-style chaat, and Champaran-style slow-cooked meats. Each dish is prepared with fine-dining precision using California's freshest produce. The menu changes seasonally.

Is Khaki good for date night in San Ramon?

Khaki is one of the most popular date night restaurants in San Ramon. The dining room features warm interiors designed by Kolkata studio Curryfwd, blending California modernism with Indian textiles and textures. Combined with a craft cocktail program and refined Indian cuisine, it is well suited for anniversaries, special occasions, and romantic dinners.

Where is Khaki located?

Khaki is located at City Center Bishop Ranch, 6000 Bollinger Canyon Road, Suite 2601, San Ramon, CA 94583. It is on the second floor of City Center, steps from LB Steak, Slanted Door, Bamboo Sushi, and THE LOT cinema. Free covered parking is available.

Does Khaki offer catering in the Tri-Valley?

Yes. Khaki provides catering for events throughout the Tri-Valley including San Ramon, Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton, Walnut Creek, and the greater East Bay. Options include drop-off catering (delivered and set up by the Khaki team) and pick-up from the San Ramon kitchen.

Is Khaki open for lunch?

Yes. Khaki serves lunch Wednesday through Friday from 12:00pm to 3:00pm and on weekends starting at 11:30am. Weekday lunch is particularly popular with the Bishop Ranch corporate community for business meals and colleague lunches.

Can I host a sangeet or South Asian celebration at Khaki?

Yes. Khaki accommodates South Asian celebrations including sangeet parties, engagement dinners, milestone birthdays, and family gatherings. The restaurant offers customizable menus, full buyout options, and a team experienced in executing events.

The Chefs Behind KHAKI: Sujan and Pujan Sarkar's Michelin Story

Khaki Team
May 22
6 min read

Most restaurants that claim a Michelin pedigree are stretching the truth. KHAKI isn't. The kitchen is led by two brothers, and the credentials are a matter of public record. Sujan Sarkar earned a Michelin star for Indienne in Chicago, the first Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in that city, and picked up James Beard Award nominations in 2024 and 2025. Pujan Sarkar ran the kitchen at Rooh in San Francisco for seven years before the brothers opened Tiya together in the Marina. This is the story of how that pedigree ended up in San Ramon, what it means for the food on your plate, and why people drive across the Bay Area to eat at a restaurant inside a business park.

Who Are the Chefs Behind KHAKI

KHAKI is led by brothers Sujan and Pujan Sarkar, with restaurateur Akash Kapoor as co-founder and CEO. Between the two chefs sits more than two decades of combined experience cooking Indian food in some of the most demanding kitchens in the United States and abroad.

Sujan grew up in Kalyani, near Kolkata, and learned to cook from his mother and aunt before training in London's Michelin-starred kitchens. Pujan built his career in San Francisco, spending seven years as head chef at Rooh. The brothers opened Tiya together in San Francisco's Marina in 2024, then brought their regional Indian approach to the East Bay with KHAKI in August 2025.

The short version: this is not a chef-for-hire arrangement or a borrowed name on a marquee. The people who designed the menu are the people whose names are on the Michelin and James Beard records.

How Sujan Sarkar Earned a Michelin Star at Indienne

Sujan opened Indienne in Chicago's River North in 2022. Within a year it earned a Michelin star, becoming the first Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Chicago. The Jean Banchet Awards named it Chicago's Best New Restaurant in 2024, and Bon Appétit included it on its Best New Restaurants list.

The James Beard Foundation nominated Sujan for Best Chef: Great Lakes in both 2024 and 2025. Indienne runs six-course seasonal tasting menus split into vegetarian, non-vegetarian, and pescatarian, an approach that treats Indian cuisine as serious fine dining rather than a casual or to-go meal.

That last point is the thread that runs through everything Sujan cooks, including at KHAKI. As he put it in interviews, Indian food too often gets treated as something casual rather than something to be enjoyed as a sophisticated dining experience. His career has been a sustained argument against that assumption.

What Pujan Sarkar Built at Rooh and Tiya

Pujan Sarkar spent seven years as head chef at Rooh in San Francisco, a restaurant the Michelin Guide praised for an innovative menu that fuses the subcontinent's flavors with modern restaurant technique. Rooh built a strong reputation across multiple locations during his tenure.

In 2024, Pujan and Sujan opened Tiya together in San Francisco's Marina district, in the former Maybeck's space. Tiya was built around elegant, accessible Indian dining, and Chef Pujan is named on the Michelin Guide's Bay Area Indian coverage for the restaurant.

At KHAKI, Pujan's grounding in regional Indian technique provides the culinary foundation. His travels through coastal Karnataka directly produced the Mangalorean Beef Sukka on the KHAKI menu, a dry-roasted regional dish almost no Bay Area restaurant attempts.

Why Two Michelin-Recognized Chefs Opened in San Ramon

It's a fair question. Chefs with this background usually open in San Francisco, Chicago, or New York, not in a suburban business park 35 miles east of the city.

The answer is partly about the audience. San Ramon and the broader Tri-Valley sit at the center of one of the most affluent, most heavily South Asian corridors in California. Bishop Ranch alone employs 30,000 people across 600 companies, including Chevron's headquarters. That community had no Indian fine dining option that matched its sophistication, so people were driving into San Francisco for the kind of meal the brothers wanted to serve.

The other part is the space. KHAKI took over the former Curry Up Now location at City Center Bishop Ranch, a connection that runs through co-founder Akash Kapoor, who is also CEO of Curry Up Now. The Renzo Piano-designed City Center gave the restaurant a genuine downtown setting in a place that didn't previously have one.

What Michelin-Level Technique Means for the KHAKI Menu

Credentials don't make food taste better on their own. What they predict is technical execution, and that shows up across the KHAKI menu in ways diners notice even when they can't name them.

Take the Lamb Shank Purdah Biryani, served for two. The pot is sealed with a wheat-dough purdah and the lamb is braised before it ever meets the aged basmati, served with raita and a bone-broth salan. The Champaran Handi Mutton is bone-in kid goat slow-cooked in a sealed clay handi with mustard oil, a rustic Bihari one-pot dish that connects to Akash's own childhood. The Meen Pollichathu is a whole butterflied branzino in coconut-kokum-tomato masala, wrapped in banana leaf, Kerala coastal cooking that takes real skill at scale.

The menu reaches across India by region: Hyderabad, Mangalore, Kochi, Rampur, Champaran, Lucknow, Delhi, Kolkata, coastal Karnataka, Andhra, and Mumbai's Parsi and Irani café traditions. Most American Indian restaurants flatten all of this into a single generic menu. KHAKI keeps the regions distinct, which is the harder and more interesting path.

The Akash Kapoor Connection: From Curry Up Now to KHAKI

KHAKI's co-founder and CEO is Akash Kapoor, the hospitality veteran behind Curry Up Now, the fast-casual Indian chain. KHAKI occupies the former Curry Up Now space at City Center Bishop Ranch, which is how the restaurant landed in this specific location.

The pairing matters because it brings together two kinds of expertise. The Sarkar brothers bring fine-dining technique and Michelin-level execution. Kapoor brings operational scale and a deep understanding of how to run a hospitality business in the Bay Area. KHAKI is the meeting point between serious chef-driven cooking and a team that knows how to deliver it consistently, night after night.

Why Choose KHAKI to Experience the Sarkar Brothers' Cooking

The Bay Area has plenty of good Indian restaurants now. What sets KHAKI apart is access: it's the only place in the East Bay where you can eat food shaped directly by a Michelin-starred chef without driving into San Francisco or flying to Chicago. The brothers aren't a name on the wall here; they built the menu, and the regional range proves it.

The most honest way to put it is this. If you want to understand what the Sarkar brothers do, you used to need a reservation at Indienne in Chicago or Tiya in the Marina. Now you can order the Jackfruit Cutlet, the Mangalorean Beef Sukka, and the Lamb Shank Purdah Biryani at one table in San Ramon, paired with the only full Indian cocktail program in the Tri-Valley. That combination of pedigree, regional depth, and a location you can actually get to is why people drive in from across the Bay Area, and why it's worth choosing KHAKI for the meal you want to remember.

FAQs About the Chefs Behind KHAKI

The questions diners ask most about the people running the kitchen.

Is KHAKI a Michelin-starred restaurant?

KHAKI itself is not Michelin-starred. Its chef, Sujan Sarkar, earned a Michelin star for his Chicago restaurant Indienne. He leads the KHAKI kitchen with his brother Pujan Sarkar.

Who is the chef at KHAKI San Ramon?

Brothers Sujan and Pujan Sarkar, with Akash Kapoor as co-founder and CEO. Sujan holds a Michelin star for Indienne; Pujan ran Rooh in San Francisco for seven years.

What is the connection between KHAKI and Curry Up Now?

KHAKI's co-founder and CEO, Akash Kapoor, is also CEO of Curry Up Now. KHAKI occupies the former Curry Up Now space at City Center Bishop Ranch.

Has Sujan Sarkar won a James Beard Award?

Sujan Sarkar was nominated for the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2024 and 2025 for his work at Indienne in Chicago.

What other restaurants are the Sarkar brothers connected to?

Sujan is behind Indienne in Chicago and has worked on concepts including Baar Baar and Swadesi. The brothers co-founded Tiya in San Francisco. Pujan led Rooh SF for seven years.