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If you were to pass The Gateway Hotel on Residency Road in downtown Bangalore, you would never guess that the unprepossessing Taj property houses a restaurant ranked among Asia's 50 Best Restaurants for two years in a row, including in the latest list released earlier this month. But Karavalli, which serves the cuisine of the country's southwestern coast (Karnataka, Kerala and Goa), has attained something of an iconic status in the 22 years it has been around. One of its latest high-profile guests was reportedly Kokilaben Ambani, who had flown in to Bangalore to have a meal at Karavalli, according to sources, though this could not be independently confirmed. It's also supposed to be a favourite with the city's IT czars, such as Wipro Chairman Azim Premji.
To food writers, Karavalli's inclusion in the list of Asia's 50 top restaurants, sponsored by S Pellegrino and organised by William Reed Business Media, was no surprise. "Of course it's among the best. It's quirky because it has stuck to the southwestern coast," says Marryam H Reshii, the Delhi-based restaurant critic who names tissryo sukke (clams in dry spices and coconut) and kane bezule (lady fish cooked in Mangalore masala) among her favourites. It is also the only restaurant in south India in the list, and the only one serving cuisine from this region. The others are Bukhara, Indian Accent, Dum Puhkt and Varq in New Delhi and Wasabi in Mumbai, though none are in the top 10. Karavalli itself slipped to 49th place, from 44 last year.
Thankfully, the drabness of the hotel facade does not extend to its interiors. Karavalli is supposed to be a replica of a Mangalorean home and has wooden beams and a high tiled roof and lovely old glass lamps. There is a small counter facing the entrance where appams, neer dosais and Ramassery idlis, the specialty of the tiny eponymous hamlet in Palakkad, are made, so that interested patrons can watch the process. Guests are served on a banana leaf, albeit one in a copper coloured thali. You can also opt to sit outdoors, among palm trees and a frangipani hanging over a lotus pond, which is all quite charming, especially during the day.
Naren Thimmaiah, the executive chef who has been with the restaurant since its launch, attributes Karavalli's success to the authenticity of the ingredients, 75 per cent of which he says is sourced from the region, and the long years of experience of the chefs. "The red rice has to be from Kuttanad (in Kerala), the coconuts from Kundapur because those are fleshy and give the thick milk used in kori gassi, and the palm jaggery has to be from Goa," says Thimmaiah.
The idea always was to promote regional cuisine and serve food as the locals prepare it. Thus, the chef and his team fanned out and spent time with experts in local cuisine, such as the Bunts and Shivalli Brahmins (who made Udupi cuisine famous) in Mangalore, Goan Christians and Syrian Christians in Kerala, who they had been put in touch with by regular Taj clients. They stayed with the families for around a month and returned to replicate the "good ol' dishes the way our grandmothers made them," says Thimmaiah. "There is no improvisation. Even the garnish is restricted to fried curry leaves or some chopped coriander."
But though customers return for classics like Alleppey fish curry, the team recently decided to expand the repertoire to the cuisine of other communities in the same region, such as the Havyaka Brahmins of Dakshina Kannada (south Karnataka) and the Moplahs (Muslims) of north Kerala. Part of the new menu is the Moplahs' pothi choru, picked by the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants jury as the standout dish. The ghee rice-chicken curry combination is wrapped in a banana leaf wilted over a fire, and the subtle smokiness permeates into the food, making it even more flavourful, says Thimmayya.
Interestingly, of the nine chefs at Karavalli, only two have degrees in hotel management. The others are chefs like Padmini Chandran from Palakkad and Latha Parakash from Mangalore, both formerly homemakers, who you will spot behind the appam counter, and people like Ganesh and Balachandran who used to work at small hotels in Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram.
One criticism of Karavalli, says a restaurant critic who requested anonymity, is that it occasionally has a "bad hair day". But even here opinion differs, with Kripal Amanna, managing editor of Food Lovers and Taste and Travel, saying the restaurant's consistency is what sets it apart. Asked to name his favourites on the menu, Amanna, incidentally a former Taj executive, reels off a whole list, starting with tiger prawns roast, meen pollichathu (black pomfret steamed with spices in a banana leaf), kane bezule and kozhi barthadu (chicken pan-fried with spices and Coorg vinegar). "I could go on and on," says Amanna, grinning.
INDIAN TWIST IN BANGKOK
"I wanted to change the global image of India. Indian food has gone beyond the curries, samosas and dosa, and it needs a proper representation in fine dining," says Gaggan Anand, over the phone line from Bangkok, where his restaurant Gaggan is located. The Kolkata-born chef's restaurant has been ranked No 3 among Asia's 50 best restaurants, the only "Indian" restaurant in the top ten. Its specialty is "Progressive Indian cuisine," with dishes such as Iberian pork served with a vindaloo curry reduction. "Gaggan is outstanding, definitely one of the most interesting restaurants in Asia," says Gwen Robinson, Asia editor at Nikkei Asian Review. What works, says Robinson, is the fact that it does "almost classic Indian dishes which are quite straight as well as more playful creations and flavour combinations". And in case you don't make it to Bangkok, an Indian edition "with a more adventurous cuisine" is on the cards.
