Savya Rasa - Curated cuisine captured from the southern regional belt!

In a nutshell, Savya Rasa proved to be a wonderful experience. The ambiance with touches of yellow indicating an old world flavour was surely on point. The cuisine is largely South Indian and more of heirloom with authentic curated food from the down south belt of India comprising of 7 different regions. Lots of research had been performed and it was pretty evident during our recent visit.

This is sure to be a connoisseurs delight especially for those who've lived and tasted the sensory pleasures of the special food that the regions such as Nellai, Chettinadu are known to whip up. I began the evening with a vetrilai soup. It was a classic rasam soup with the betel leaves and spices combining to give the tongue an exquisite flavour. It surely sounded the bells in the right direction for more brilliance to be hurled at.

Then up in the starters, Urulai Podi Varuval was delightfully done up. The whiff of fresh podi coated over these burly sized potatoes had such a smoky lingering taste. The traditional green leaf gave it that extra punch. The other appetiser namely the pallipalayam kalaan was as superlative as it got. The mild hint of coconut over drool worthy mushrooms spiced up with ground masala and turmeric was indeed quite something. The panniyaram stuffed with chutney inside was also really good and so were the flavour filled vazhapoo vada.

For the main course, we tried the vetrilai poondu saadham. Being a quintessential lover of garlic, I lapped this one up instantly. In the mould of a biryani, the flavour was vehemently strong and possessed a rich taste. To go along tried the Avicha Muttai kuzhambu. This was quite nice too but would have ideally liked it to be a bit more spicier. More in the kurma texture, this contained three big fat pieces of boiled egg. Also happened to try the tamatar pappu which was a lovely Dal creation. Lastly I also wanted to try their egg hopper which wad so fluffy and an absolute tongue twirler. One word I need to mention about their gravies which were super succulent and amazingly rich in taste. You could feel the inherent presence of coconut cream tail gating on to the mouth.

And towards the end of the meal, we tried a number of refreshers ranging from Sharbath, rose milk, vasantha neer, neer moru and kokum mojito. There were all lovely in their own way carrying the necessary essence of flavours. And for desserts, we had a lovely slurp at the elaneer payasam along with the kavuni arisi halwa. It was a super sweet way to end a wholeseome delicious meal. The service was onstead and it's always a good thing when the servers know the menu in and out as their suggestions came in really handy. The rates as expected are a little pricey but since it is guaranteed to give a good fine dining experience, it ain't something really slouching over.

On the whole, a tremendous restaurant serving authentic flavour filled cuisine from down south of India.

Soy Soi - Asian and Amazing!

Soy Soi is another newbie which has hit tinseville. This one is perched in the Koturpuram main road. Koturpuram happens to be one residential locality which does not possess too many restaurants offering different cuisines and this happens to be a good addition.

This is not your usual chinese restaurant and the penetration is more towards Asian street food bordering into the cuisines of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma. The interiors are done up well and the spacing is far larger than what you envisage it to be. Dim lightings infuse the Mandarin feel and an open kitchen atmosphere epitomises the street food culture.

Options are a little less for vegetarian but from whatever I had, I kind of enjoyed the fare. First up, the Tom Kha soup with a hint of coconut cream floating with veggies was quite nice. Not the best I've had but certainly decent enough. In the starters the Mushroom Dim sums were dished out well. They were soft and had grainy juicy mushroom pieces inset. I also tried the Pie Thai which were crispy corn tartlets having a mix of veggies inside. The thinly cut asparagus spread with a sambol sauce was quite good.

My main meal for the night was a veg Khow suey which came in a big plate with noodles at the center and condiments spread across such as peanuts, tofu, chilli flakes etc and coming along with an aromatic thai red gravy. This was the stunner and elevated the dish as it had a really delicious taste with strong dosage of coconut cream and just the right amount of veggies.

For desserts, had a Soy Soi brownie which was average at best. The brownies were quite chunky but a little hard at the exterior. The ice cream helped to balance out things.

Overall, it was a fairly pleasing meal. The service was quick and the food came in even intervals. One major grouse I have however is on the quantity. The portion sizes just did not justify much and even if the pricing can be said to be reasonable, the quantity feels a detriment.

On the whole, a nice little Asian eatery down this alley. Just a wee bit sprucing up on the portions can do this place a world of good.