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.

Thaligai - Traditional Brahmin Heirloom Cuisine

Thaligai thrives on heirloom cuisine, the kind of food that has passed on from traditions down the ages. There is a lot of nostalgia involved with the kind of recipes and spread which is sure to inkle a memory especially for the age old brahmin households. The food here is predominantly from down south and more so of the kind which is dished up in yesteryear Iyengar homes.

The food is sans garlic and onion and looks to go the healthy route. Thaligai as such refers to a wholesome meal fit for a feast. They have a stack of tiffin based items which you usually wouldn't eat much except on those rare festival days. Their motto is to preserve the vintage cuisine made famous by grandmothers of bygone generation in a renewed slightly tweaked format to cater to the younger crowd.

I'm not sure how exactly it'll be lapped up but the effort to bring in authentic brahmin cuisine deserves the plaudits. My feeling is that they will be more popular during seasons such as the music festival in Dec and also for the US based return folks who would be longing to consume this kind of food.

We were here on an invite to savour some of their specialities. Apart from the dining space at the ground, they have a private dining area which is well done up and seems peaceful. We had a plethora of items ranging mostly from short eat snacks to evergreen favourites and a few rice items and ended up with sweet and degree coffee.

I wouldn't go into specifics of each of the items but some of the stuff i really liked was the Morkazhi, diamond dosa, neer Kozhukattai, bhajji and bonda. The Morkazhi had a delectable taste to it as it was smudged with a flavour which was really hitting the senses. Their Mor Kulambu was also absolutely lovely. The sandwich idli was pretty different with a dash of tomato chutney spread in between the layers for it to resemble a sandwich. This was a very interesting innovation. The Neer Kozhukattai was in fact a soup, i couldn't figure this out at all. It had a lilting aroma with pieces of kozhukatta floating inside and gave a slight avial kind of taste. A real different soup which was like never before. The bonda's had a nice aloo masala tinge and the mysore one was soft and fluffy. The ladies finger bhajji was also crispy and great to munch. The diamond dosa had a slightly spicy masala inset which I quite liked. And for enders we had a jaw dropping delicious Ashok Halwa which was simply melt in the mouth and final flourish was a resoundingly strong filter coffee.

On the whole, it was a lovely experience. The food was great and homely. It was a bit mild and more catering to the healthy side which may not please everyone but once in a way it's a nice option to try out. The prices are pretty reasonable. Thaligai will have it's legion of fans. I appreciate the fact that they are taking the efforts to preserve tradition by bringing in the lost wonders of Brahmin cuisine. They are also intent on adding twists along the way for that 'x factor' and keeping their target audience lured. I wish them all the best in this endeavour and hope they find a firm footing in this ever growing food circle of Chennai.