Agni
Fine dining restaurant · Brewery District ·
Bengali-American fine dining with live-fire cooking
Bengali-American fine dining with live-fire cooking
"A headline-making spot from James Beard Award–nominated chef Avishar Barua, and one of Bon Appétit’s 20 Best Restaurants of 2024." - Sharan Kuganesan, Oset Babür-Winter
"Born in Columbus and raised by Bangladeshi immigrant parents, Avishar Barua has become the city’s unofficial culinary ambassador; at Agni he presents a tasting menu of “forward, borderless cuisine,” demonstrating a wildly imaginative, cross-cultural approach — for example, his riff on the Bengali street food phuchka is filled with foie gras and tamarind — all driven by his one goal: flavor." - Katie Chang
"There’s no other restaurant like Agni in Columbus. This fine dining spot comes from a Bobby Flay-slaying, Top Chef alum, who often puts creative and nostalgic Midwestern spins on the Bengali recipes he grew up with. The restaurant is appropriately named after the Hindu god of fire: there’s always a flame roaring in the back to churn out courses from the tasting menu. Expect dishes like seafood curry, chaat given the caesar salad treatment, and adorable anellini pasta with kofta meatballs—a riff on Chef Boyardee. This is where you should go to splurge on a nice night out or fancy first date. The wine pairing is worth the extra $85 and the somm is known to occasionally throw in sake or mini Bud Light—this is Anheuser-Busch territory, after all." - erin edwards, kindra peach
"There’s no other restaurant like Agni in Columbus. This fine dining spot comes from a Bobby Flay-slaying, Top Chef alum, who often puts creative and nostalgic Midwestern spins on the Bengali recipes he grew up with. The restaurant is appropriately named after the Hindu god of fire: there’s always a flame roaring in the back to churn out courses from the tasting menu. Expect dishes like seafood curry, chaat given the caesar salad treatment, and adorable anellini pasta with kofta meatballs—a riff on Chef Boyardee. This is where you should go to splurge on a nice night out or fancy first date. The wine pairing is worth the extra $85 and the somm is known to occasionally throw in sake or mini Bud Light—this is Anheuser-Busch territory, after all." - Erin Edwards
"The tasting menu is a constantly evolving, team-driven narrative of personal homages: dishes trace memories and teachings from the kitchen’s Bengali-American and Oaxacan cooks to Filipino classmates and Midwestern favorites. Star savory highlights include a Bengali goat curry sourced from the chef-owner’s mother and ladled over saffron-infused malloreddus; an idiosyncratic French onion chaat built for texture and layered with caramelized onion, potato purée, fried greens, crunchy jhalmuri, and three drizzles (apple chutney, creamy salsa, and a homemade “Heckuvagood” riff on a beloved Midwestern dip); and a moqueca- and shrimp-cocktail–inspired prawn course coated in buckwheat and toasted coconut with an aromatic horseradish-tomato-coconut sauce. Other inventive plates include Sichuan-style dumplings filled with a kebab-spiced family lamb recipe and sealed with seven pleats, meant to be eaten with a grilled duck skewer and sweet soy studded with Kashmiri and Tianjin chile oils; and a recurring, meaningful duck finale that reimagines adobo as a duck-stock reduction, features confited thighs rolled into lumpia, dry-aged breast, a koji-pickled duck egg, pickled eggplant, and playful touches like banana ketchup and coconut mustard. Meals often close with a cafe de olla–inspired pan de mollete bread pudding—made from leftover sourdough and finished with dulce de leche, coffee shaved ice, cookie crumbles, meringue, lime zest, and pineapple powder—reflecting the hospitality the team experienced in Oaxaca. Overall, the kitchen emphasizes collaboration, cultural specificity, and bold combinations that balance richness with bright, pickled, and textural counterpoints." - ByLi Goldstein
