A few popular dishes apart , my knowledge in vegetarian South Indian cuisine was a big fat zero. I had heard of the vegetable stews and bissebelle bhaat but never really ventured in to that territory. So when I got an invite to review the revamped South Indies I did my regular ritual - checked reviews and ratings by those I trust {pretty impressive}, checked the menu {for some reason written in Japanese} and then rubbed my eyes to double-check if someone had indeed invited me to review a vegetarian restaurant. But I did go along because it meant tasting a range of new dishes, always an exciting prospect for me.
They have a set dinner menu comprising of 30 dishes, all of which except the desserts are served at the table. First-up we were served rasam-puri, which is basically paani-puri with rasam instead of the regular teekha-meetha paani. The rasam was of 4 flavours - tomato, pepper, mint and pineapple. While the sweet-spicy flavour of the pineapple rasam was a novelty, I stuck to the original tomato rasam and called for seconds. It was really good. Then the sweet assault starts. The five-six starters served here were a good mix of fusion as well as traditional south Indian dishes. So we got some amazing urad dal wadas, rice and cheese rolls, banana dosa, paneer and potato fritters and Andhra chilly mushrooms, all of this to be eaten with their amazing dips / chutneys. We particularly relished the onion chutney which had a sweet onion flavour with a spicy kick.
Between the starters and the mains, we were served a baraf gola, a palate cleansner really, which is also helpful to drown the spiciness of some of the starters. The mains were south Indian curries paired with which the restaurant suggests are the correct breads / dosas to eat. So you get a vegetarian stew and another spicy curry with soft neer dosas, appams and pillowy kal dosas and Hyderabadi paneer and corn masala was served with flaky malabar parathas. I absolutely loved dunking the kal dosas in the stew and if it's on the menu on my next visit i'm going to gorge on this dish alone.
We just about had the appetite for the rice course and tried the curd rice and bissebelle bhaat. The terrific curd rice is served with a tradional accompaniment called kuzumbhu which is a ginger-garlic chutney. I also loved the bissebelle bhaat and wanted to eat more of it but for the enticing dessert counter staring at me. The rice dishes are served with more than 10 types of pickles, some of which are prepared in house. Out of the ones I tried, I liked the garlic, mango and date varieties.
After such a traditional meal it only seemed apt to tuck in to some payasam and halwa and let the western desserts be. They do hot and cold payasam; the hot payasam with broken wheat and jaggery was soothing but the cold one, served in shot glasses was quite sensational and the carrot halwa was noteworthy as well. The also have cold-stone ice-creams with interesting sauces like figs, dates and rose. The meal ends with a nice south Indian filter coffee which involves a bit of theatrics.
Having never tasted most of these dishes before, I cannot vouch for authenticity but food really was awesome. The serving staff is very informed about the dishes and a meal here is a bit of an education about the rich cuisines of the south. For once a vegetarian restaurant that I'm looking forward to re-visiting.
They have a set dinner menu comprising of 30 dishes, all of which except the desserts are served at the table. First-up we were served rasam-puri, which is basically paani-puri with rasam instead of the regular teekha-meetha paani. The rasam was of 4 flavours - tomato, pepper, mint and pineapple. While the sweet-spicy flavour of the pineapple rasam was a novelty, I stuck to the original tomato rasam and called for seconds. It was really good. Then the sweet assault starts. The five-six starters served here were a good mix of fusion as well as traditional south Indian dishes. So we got some amazing urad dal wadas, rice and cheese rolls, banana dosa, paneer and potato fritters and Andhra chilly mushrooms, all of this to be eaten with their amazing dips / chutneys. We particularly relished the onion chutney which had a sweet onion flavour with a spicy kick.
Between the starters and the mains, we were served a baraf gola, a palate cleansner really, which is also helpful to drown the spiciness of some of the starters. The mains were south Indian curries paired with which the restaurant suggests are the correct breads / dosas to eat. So you get a vegetarian stew and another spicy curry with soft neer dosas, appams and pillowy kal dosas and Hyderabadi paneer and corn masala was served with flaky malabar parathas. I absolutely loved dunking the kal dosas in the stew and if it's on the menu on my next visit i'm going to gorge on this dish alone.
We just about had the appetite for the rice course and tried the curd rice and bissebelle bhaat. The terrific curd rice is served with a tradional accompaniment called kuzumbhu which is a ginger-garlic chutney. I also loved the bissebelle bhaat and wanted to eat more of it but for the enticing dessert counter staring at me. The rice dishes are served with more than 10 types of pickles, some of which are prepared in house. Out of the ones I tried, I liked the garlic, mango and date varieties.
After such a traditional meal it only seemed apt to tuck in to some payasam and halwa and let the western desserts be. They do hot and cold payasam; the hot payasam with broken wheat and jaggery was soothing but the cold one, served in shot glasses was quite sensational and the carrot halwa was noteworthy as well. The also have cold-stone ice-creams with interesting sauces like figs, dates and rose. The meal ends with a nice south Indian filter coffee which involves a bit of theatrics.
Having never tasted most of these dishes before, I cannot vouch for authenticity but food really was awesome. The serving staff is very informed about the dishes and a meal here is a bit of an education about the rich cuisines of the south. For once a vegetarian restaurant that I'm looking forward to re-visiting.
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