Tanvi Restaurant

A restaurant by day, a lounge after dark

Tanvi is a modern Indian restaurant at Hard Rock Hotel Malta in St George’s Bay, with interiors by Astet Studio and a concept built around two sisters: Priya Iyer, the restaurant’s chef, and Anya Iyer, who leads the bar and lounge. I photographed the interiors to capture the two distinct moods the space moves through across a day — Priya’s warm, unhurried dining room, built around North Indian tandoori, rich curries and vegetarian thali served family-style, and Anya’s bold after-hours lounge, built around the question of what India drinks after dark. In the dining room, I focused on the rich terracotta tones, deep red banquettes and lush greenery that carry that warmth, balancing wide architectural compositions that show the room as a whole with closer, detail-led shots of material, texture and finish, the kind of interior photography that lets a restaurant’s craft come through rather than just its layout.

The adjoining lounge and bar called for a different register, one built to match Anya’s cocktails rooted in Indian botanicals like saffron, kokum, black pepper and fresh tulsi. I gave it the same attention to depth and detail, drawn to its curved brass counter and moody, low lighting. From the open kitchen, where Priya’s tandoor and tableside chaat trolley bring the food to the table, to the curved bar itself, I documented each space with a consistent eye for colour and light, letting the contemporary, layered character that defines Tanvi carry through. The result is a restaurant that reads as two distinct rooms depending on the hour, each shaped by its own sister’s vision, captured within the same 150-seat space at Hard Rock Hotel Malta, overlooking St George’s Bay.