Broken Bridge Cafe - When fusion trances with innovation for the win!

It was a delightful young early weekday evening and we decided to spend time at Broken Bridge Cafe which is a part of Somerset Hotel. The ambiance gives a breezy woody feel with hues of brown decor in addition to the plant like greenery surrounding. It gives a chiselled feel and ignites the laid back dictum in all it's vigour.

This is a recently opened restaurant specialising mainly on fusion cuisine. The menu is a simple slider but they've innovated tremendously within this space to bring out a lot of unique experiments. Amongst the items which we had, the majority hit the dart right at the center and it was just in a couple of stuff that felt the need for improvement. The menu comprises of small plates aka starters/appetisers and large plates meaning to convey the main course dishes. There are no gimmicks or over the top tomfoolery happening at all and the menu conveys the point as to what it intends to offer.

In the small plates, the show stealer was undoubtedly the Curd rice fritters. Innovation reached varying heights with fried golden balls made to mimic curd rice with hinges of lemon pickle. This was truly one 'one of a kind experience'. They resembled your usual fried cheese balls ala starter but on taste you get the riveting effect of mushy curd rice and to boot also was served a mayo dip with largely lime essence. Audacious work of fusion but I must admit it worked very well. The kalakki (scrambled eggs) with goat jam on bread was another delightful starter. The panneer Makhni papdi chaat was nothing much to write home about. Just a touch of makhni gravy over papdi puri's which were just decent. The spicy corn cakes were kind of nice and I thoroughly enjoyed the palak and Goat cheese flat bread. If you're able to withstand the smell and rawness of goat cheese, then you're bound to love it.

For the large plates, we tried achari 3 cheese kulcha melt as well as mushroom & olives goat cheese kulcha melt. These were really nice spread with melted cheese which was really hard hitting. I loved the flavours of these kulchas which gave a lovely crunch while consuming them and they good enough just to consume stand alone though they also came along with fries,dip and ketchup for company. Also got to try the blue cheese naan which if you are fond of the aroma of it, it'll dunk you in big time and to go along with it a juicily sumptuous panneer tikka masala gravy.

In the dessert draw, the filter coffee baileys tiramisu ruled the roost. Served in an ever silver tumbler, it was simply jaw dropping drool worthy. The skim of tiramisu infused with layers of coffee powder had everything in it to make you dig unabashedly. The nutella custard and maltova crumble was alao equally relishing.

The prices seem par for the course and not really in the vicinity to pinch your pockets. The service was amicable, friendly and on the button. Overall, a really pleasing experience dining at Broken Bridge. If you like a little bit of twists and fusion in your food without the core getting compromised, you should definitely head over to this place for a resolute fine dining encounter.

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.