Suvneet Sandhu of Agra Tandoori Restaurant - Interview

December 2, 2025·27 min·2 clips

Suvneet Sandhu reveals she was smitten by radio at age 10 and now runs her family's Agra Tandoori restaurant.

1. MAP Radio's Gup Shup program features host Shushma interviewing Suvneet Sandhu, co-manager of Agra Tandoori Restaurant in Burnaby, British Columbia. 2. Suvneet is the elder daughter of Bhupendra Sandhu, who has operated Indian restaurants for his entire career; her sister Sukhman also works at the restaurant while a younger sister pursued a separate career. 3. The episode's purpose is a community-oriented restaurant profile, with Shushma sharing her long relationship with Agra Tandoori dating to when the new management took over 12-15 years ago. 4. Bhupendra and his family emigrated to Canada in 1995; Suvneet was born in Canada and spent her school holidays working in the kitchen at Samosa Garden on Kingsway near Boundary Road. 5. Shushma and Suvneet discuss regional Indian food distinctions: Punjabi versus Gujarati cooking styles, including Gujarati kadhi being thin like soup without pakora, Punjabi kadhi being thick with besan, and Gujarati dal containing sugar. 6. The restaurant partnership was between Punjabi Bhupendra and Ismaili Gujarati co-owners, and Suvneet confirms she picked up a little Gujarati — including greetings — from working alongside them. 7. The buffet runs Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with permanent classics like butter chicken, tandoori chicken, and dal, supplemented by rotating dishes including fish curry, goat curry, and chana. 8. Agra Tandoori offers two biryani styles: Hyderabadi, where rice and masala are mixed together, and Ismaili, where plain rice sits at the bottom under a layered tomato-based masala; the Ismaili version is the more popular of the two. 9. Suvneet's personal favourite dishes are paneer makhani and vegetable biryani; she admits she cannot cook much Indian food herself because she can get it from the restaurant. 10. During COVID the restaurant began attaching handwritten personal notes to every takeout order to lift customer spirits when orders were sparse and the atmosphere felt grim; the practice became permanent. 11. Shushma notes that a listener texted in during the show to praise Agra Tandoori's holiday gift boxes — citing a Diwali mixture of Indian and Western sweets and Valentine's Day boxes. 12. For parties, the restaurant previously booked out its full 60-person capacity, but now caps bookings at 30 to preserve seating for regular customers. 13. A New Year's Eve dinner buffet is being planned for December 31st with hourly or two-hour seating rotations; Suvneet says the menu is still being tested as it will be the first dinner buffet the restaurant has offered. 14. Suvneet says the family was more nervous than excited when her father decided to own his own restaurant, though she notes he has done nothing else his whole career. 15. She credits the non-forced nature of joining the family business — she and Sukhman chose it, while their younger sister chose a different career — for making the work genuinely enjoyable rather than burdensome. 16. Shushma reflects that her own policy is to inspect a restaurant kitchen before eating there regularly, and says she has found Agra Tandoori's kitchen impressive since first visiting years ago. 17. The episode is warm and conversational, occasionally switching between English and Punjabi or Hindi expressions, and punctuated by Bollywood songs Suvneet selected including Aaj Na Chhodenge, Khai Ke Paan Banaraswala, Tum Tak, and a fourth song associated with childhood cousin dances. 18. Shushma promises Suvneet a paan to try on her next visit, explaining the difference between sadha paan and meetha paan. 19. Listeners who are part of the Punjabi-Canadian community in the Lower Mainland and familiar with Agra Tandoori will find it most resonant. 20. Listeners outside the South Asian diaspora in BC or with no interest in Indian restaurant culture will find limited general-interest value.

As heard by us

A warm Burnaby restaurant chat with family memory, seasonal specials, and a first dinner buffet.

Agra Tandoori Restaurant sits at the center of this Gup Shup visit, but the appeal is really the family around it: Suvneet talking about Burnaby, her father's restaurant, the daughters who help run it, and the small home details that make the place feel ordinary in a good way.

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Why you'd press play

A Burnaby restaurant visit that mixes family-run warmth, seasonal specials, and a first-ever dinner buffet.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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