The experience at Avartana can truly be considered as an epicurean adventure of the highest echelons. It reeks luxury in every way possible and is at the upper tier when it comes to a fine dining spectacle. The name 'Avartana' translates to magic & mysticism and the food served over is a beautiful confluence of the meaning of the two words. It is predominantly South Indian cuisine infused with modern elements like molecular gastronomy, a state of the art serving style blended with innovations aplenty but yet also managing to retain the core element of South Indian cuisine sticking discreetly to it's roots and traditions.
The concept at Avartana works on the mode of a course meal with different courses being carefully curated. They have crafted 5 designed meals with the names of the tasting experience presented as Maya, Bela, Jiaa, Anika and Tara. All these come in both Vegetarian and Non Vegetarian options with Maya being a 7 course, Bela 9 course, Jiaa 11 course, Anika & Tara both being 13 course with the latter especially catering into being a coastal spectacle.
The menus are always fixed and you would not see much tinkering on the options. However they are quite collaborative to help you with alternate choices if any of the items penciled in happens to be allergic to your palette. As it works on the course concept, it easily takes at least a minimum of 2 hours to complete proceedings with the objective being to enjoy an enhanced culinary experience.
We were around 8 of us and all of us chose the 'Jiaa' with a mix of both Vegetarian and Non Vegetarian options. Jiaa equates to 'Soulful' and hence curated to ideally explore a soulful meal journey. Before even getting our hands on at the items delectfully put forth as part of Jiaa, we were served with 'Amuse-Bouche', a complementary bite sized starter to set the ball rolling and get ready for the larger palette to unleash. To add on to this, we got the signature distilled Rasam which told quite a story to our taste buds. The whole aroma was so enamoring that we had repeats of it during the entire course of our meal.
Listed below is a brief couple of liner descriptions on the different culinary creations created for Jiaa
- Corn & Cherry Tomato accompanied with Pomegranate & Curd Chilli: This was soothing with glazed pieces of tomatoes overlapped with Pomegranate and a couple of pieces of corn that resembled slices of cheese. The mixing of these with the chilli curd was perhaps the show stealer
- Cracklings with Mango Mush: This was purely an appetizer with crunchy cracker bites served alongside a boulder with a juicy mango dip to tag along
- Sundried Tomato Tapioca infused with coriander chutney: This was a reddish delight with it being soaky and gurgling all the way through but literally melting once placed on the mouth
- Crispy chilli potato 2.0 with Pineapple & Mint: This looked like a crystal ball and hard to actually figure out a potato being the protagonist over here. It had to be consumed in one bite and you could literally feel a burst of flavours crackling on the taste buds.
- Lemon Leaf Sorbet: This was like an interval cleanser right in the middle of a movie for us to warm ourselves and get ready for the main picture. The iced cool lemon was refreshing.
- Bottle Gourd and Raisin with Ginger & Chilli: This appeared to resemble a Vietnamese rice paper roll with layers of it holding inset stuffings with the paste of ginger & chilli dripping from the inside.
- Spinach & Curd Cheese mixed along as Aerated Rice Cake: It felt hard at the outset but was super mushy when breaking it and went along jocularly well with the accompaniment.
- Fried Aubergine with jaggery & sesame sauce: This had a tangy twist to it with the nice crunchy doled up piece of brinjal going in tandem with a steamy neer dosai and sesame sauce dripped over gregariously.
- Vegetable Rice with Okra Yoghurt: The rice was served in a Pandan leaf with the okra yoghurt as a curry. It felt like buttered rice with a very smooth texture.
- Sago Yoghurt with Tamarind & dried berry sauce: This basically felt like curd rice revamped with a modern facelift. In Brahmin households especially we are accustomed to end our meals with curd rice for cleansing our palette. Felt a similar vein here by having it in the form of yoghurt with crushed papad to boot.
- Almond Cremeux with Candied Orange: A nice little dessert to close proceedings. The biscuity texture of the pastry and the cool ice cream shavings were a good combination
On top of the rich spread served as part of the Jiaa repertoire, also had one local mocktail termed as 'Muttukadu' which was largely a pineapple drink infused with a dollop of jaggery that was pretty refreshing to say the least siding up the meal pretty well.
On the whole it was a very wholesome experience. Make no mistake, it is extremely expensive as a stand alone meal especially also considering really thin food portions that felt like just tasting a sample. But on the other hand it really feels like a true master chef experience with the way the whole concept has been carved and pieced together. Each and every item is unique with the flavours expressing themselves succinctly and uniquely. The staff were very polite and welcoming giving a gist on every single item along with also providing their aid about the way each one of them had to be consumed.
The brand 'Avartana' is prevalent in many of the ITC restaurant chains located across India and this particular branch at Chennai has been the beneficiary of many an award in recent times for it's foray in fine dining and especially after our recent eat out episode at this restaurant, can affirm with authority that there's class written all over it and definitely worth embracing especially for a special occasion.
It was definitely an experience worth remembering. It's not always that you get to explore a cuisine of this masterclass. As the tagline goes, it was truly a refined, progressive and avant-garde re- interpretation of the finest South Indian culinary trail providing for a truly, elevated, enhanced and encapsulated experience.
