Ooh Lala Indian Kitchen at Kern's Food Hall boasts 'authentic flavor' that 'was missing'

Recently added to the list of international cuisine at Kern’s Food Hall is Ooh Lala Indian Kitchen.

Ooh Lala was started by manager Raj Patel and his brother, who also own Hemingway Cuban Kitchen. Though their Cuban cuisine is authentic thanks to their chef, they found a lack of authentic food from their home country in Knoxville.

Indian cuisine naturally has a lot of vegetarian options, and as a vegetarian, Patel was looking for options for himself. As a result, they decided to open up Ooh Lala next to Hemingway.

“If I want to go somewhere and eat it's less options,” Patel said. “We don't have many more options and apart from that, we have a couple of Indian kitchens in Knoxville and the nearby area, but those are not authentic Indian cuisine. You won't get the food – you will get the good taste, but it's not the authentic flavor in the food. So, a little bit was missing.”

Ooh Lala has a variety of traditional dishes such as masala, biryani or dishes fresh from the tandoor, but it also features customizable bowls for customers to make their own creations. Though not discrediting the taste of other Indian cuisine in the area, the Patels wanted Ooh Lala to have an extra layer of depth that better resembled the food they had been eating for most of their life.

“It is separated by the making process of food, instead of making bulk quantities and making sauce and everything on one day for an entire week. (That) will compromise on the flavor, it will compromise on the food. Because if you make something in bulk, it won't get the good taste like … traditional cooking style.

“We just want to give the American people the good Indian food, that traditional cuisine, we don't want the frozen item to be just frying right away. So, our mission is to give real authentic Indian taste.”

Though hardly a finished product when they signed a lease, the Patels saw the vision for what the food hall was going to be. The nature of the food hall allows them to focus solely on the food.

“I prefer food halls because the management will take care of the rest of the things. We have to just handle our cooking area and the food,” Patel said.

“And in the food hall you don't need to get the customers, you will get the foot traffic automatically. If you get the standalone building and start a new restaurant, it will take months to get the word out. The people will know that it's here, but here in the food hall, we get the free marketing as well.”