Punch Lane restaurant Sunda is set to re-open tomorrow after a two-week holiday break. But the restaurant will serve its beloved Southeast Asian dishes for just two weeks, before permanently closing after service on Saturday January 25.
The decision to close was largely due to the size of the venue says Adipoetra Halim, director of the Halim Group, which owns Sunda as well as The Hotel Windsor, Kudo, Aru, and Antara 128.
The group’s large venues Antara 128 and Aru have “taught us a few lessons about economies of scale,” Halim tells Broadsheet, noting that Sunda – which opened under chef Khanh Nguyen in 2018 and has just two 16-seat communal tables and a few bar seats – has since outgrown its current space. “It’s not gonna be the end of Sunda; you might see it come back in a slightly different size and different form,” he says. Though there are no immediate plans to re-open.
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SIGN UP“That sort of scale is good to test things out without taking a big risk,” Halim says of Sunda’s small restaurant space. The group plans to open another venue in the Punch Lane spot later this year. While he’s keeping tight-lipped about the details, Halim says the new venue will be led by a Halim Group chef who has not run his own venue before.
Sunda at 18 Punch Lane, Melbourne will permanently close after service on Saturday January 25