Gayan Pieris, who has spent seven years at the hatted Mornington Peninsula wine-diner Many Little, said he wanted to change how Sri Lankan food is perceived in Melbourne. "The issue is that not too long ago most [Sri Lankan] restaurants here were buffets, and it was branded as a 'cheaper' option," he said. "Woodfire cooking has become trendy, but I haven't really seen much of it in Sri Lankan places."
Agnii, which means "fire" in Sanskrit, is built around a flame-throwing open hearth known as a dara lipa, constructed by Samuel Fraraccio, this year's Good Food Guide Trailblazer award winner. The hearth is flanked by racks for hanging, drying and smoking fish, and kilns for claypots. "It's still insane when I see it: my replication of my mum's kitchen," said Pieris, who grew up in a farming family in central Sri Lanka.
The menu includes bath mula, banana leaf-wrapped parcels of curry and rice heated over wood and unwrapped tableside, which Pieris said was how he took his lunch to school as a child. A curry trolley carries regional specialities such as Jaffna goat curry, and there are dedicated kitchen stations for hoppers, dosa and kottu. Other dishes include puttu, kingfish head mousse piped into kokis crackers, and "patties": lamb cutlets seasoned with 16 spices, wrapped in pastry brushed with curry leaf oil and cooked on the hearth. Cocktails feature Sri Lankan arrack, and a negroni is soured with goraka, a tamarind-like fruit.
Agnii occupies the first-floor space formerly home to Hoo Haa Bar, with earthy interiors, a 40-seat private dining room and a terrace being transformed into a "tropical spice garden". A late-night menu runs from 10pm to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Lunch is served Friday to Sunday and dinner Tuesday to Sunday, at 105 Chapel Street, Windsor.