Kerala Cafe — Restaurant in Pune

If you are a Keralite or have visited Kerala recently and miss the Malabar cuisine already or if you are just a curious foodie looking for a change in cuisine culture. Kerala Cafe is your place.

Food-

We tasted a plethora of dishes primarily Non vegetarian which included Sea food, Chicken, Mutton and Buff. I'll be talking about the one's that made an impact for me in more detail. . We started with a serving of what looked like Kokam sharbat but apparently was Herbed warm water to get your Stomach and Liver running for the food lineup. Another set of Welcome drink followed, namely Pineapple Kulukki Sarbath and Lime Kulukki Sarbath . Pineapple Kulukki Sarbath- This was a water base Pineapple Sarbhat with added Sabja acting as a coolant. It was refreshing specially for the warm afternoon. One tiny thing missing was the drink was more watery and less acidic as a Pineapple drink should be. . Lime Kulukki Sarbath- In simpler words Lemonade served in Malabar style. It had the punch and acidity of Lemon with perfect zest balanced by Sabja. We loved the fact how Sabja was a common ingredient amongst both the drinks. It was as if a sign denoting the barrage of spices coming our way. . The 1st round of Artillery started with Soups. . Kozhi Koll soup- A plain clear soup with richness of chicken stock and tons of flavour induced. The focus of this soup isn't much on chicken pieces or the delicious leg piece one can spot in the picture but in the fragrance. . Mutton Bone soup- Paya soup Malabar way. The goodness of the hidden treasures inside the bone and the tangy bitter curry powder combined. If you are looking for a cold remedy… Viola! . Side Dishes- We tasted 5 appetizers on our visit namely. Starting withChicken Ghee Roast- Chicken when it looks that red my heart just melts like butter. Clearly our favourite of the lot. Delicious visually and gastronomically. . Buff Thattukada fry- Buff fingers with kerala style ginger chutney. Give me a mug of beer and these munchies and I’m set for the day. Limited restaurants in Pune serve good quality buff. One such I found at Kerala Café. Which brings us to our 2nd Buff dish for the day. . Buff Double Fry- One would love this Double fry wrapped up in slices of bread or rolled up in Kerala paratha and that’s exactly what we did. Soft Chewy Buff absorbs a lot of taste. Best enjoyed with a bread which compliments and distributes the flavour uniformly. . Prawns Coconut Fry- For someone who comes from Konkan region there can never be enough of coconut in the food, specially Sea food. Prawns shallow friend in coconut oil and garnished with more coconut fit the Kerala agenda. Light on spices it’s an ideal choice for delicate stomach. . . Prawns KC Special, Idiyappam and Coconut rice- Coconut rice is one dish which goes with any and every dish Malabar cuisine has to offer. We enjoyed Coconut rice with Prawns KC special and all above mentioned dishes. Even with the curd curry and rasam from the Meal. Idiyappam doesn’t have much to offer on taste but is a treat for your eyes. It’s like spaghetti pasta put together nicely for presentation. Too pretty to dig in and eat it. . Puttu- Different types of Cereal mixed and baked together to give us lovely cakes of Puttu. It is a pretty dry course served along or instead of rice. Make sure you soak it with curry to enjoy it even more. . Desserts- After this barrage of flavours it was time for Dessert. Rice is a main component be it dessert or main course. We had Chickoo and Tender Coconut flavoured Payasam. Both rich in taste and heavy. The chickoo payasam was bit too sweet for our taste but the tender coconut was bang on.

Service and Ambiance- Kerala café has brilliant service and an attentive staff. The interiors of the café are specially and beautifully designed keeping Malabar theme in mind. We found the interior to be little dark for a bright sunny afternoon. Overall- A must try place for foodies. Very conveniently situated and the owners are warm and welcoming, be it service or feedback. Looking forward for all...

In brief (ratings out of 5):

Overall - 3.5 (there is no option of specifying in decimal and 3 would have been too low)

Ambience n others: Booking experience in restaurant - 2 Service - 5 (tipped an unusual amount.. that happy) Ambience - 4 (not that u will love it, but good)

Soups: Tomato basil soup - 3 (more creamier in taste) Prawns manchow soup - 5 (loved the spiciness)

Starters: Mushroom kurumulagittathu - 3 (blunt taste) Chicken boneless roast - 3 (blunt taste) Karimeen pollichathu - 5 (loved it)

Main Course: Buff appam thali - 3 (go for only fried buff and chutneys) Chicken malabari curry - 4 (not so spicy as mentioned) Tamarind rice - 4 (might have loved more with fish curry)

Drinks: Moru velam - 3 (spicy buttermilk. Had better) Kalipu machan - 3 (neither loved it nor hated it) Lime kulukki sharbat - 1 ( hated it at that moment)

Desserts: Coconut jaggery custard - 4.5 (loved it though sweet is not my type of taste) Jackfruit icecream - 4 Tender coconut icecream - 3.5

Filter kapi - 5 (ofcourse I had better earlier too, but in that moment I just loved it)

Story:

Ok first of all, I don't know what the booking means here. As I booked via Zomato for 4 people for 14:00, I reached at 13:55. I was told to wait until n unless table gets free. I think then what's the purpose of booking. Anyhow, moving forward.

We went inside. Huge crowd. Of course from previous para, u might have already guessed that.

First, we ordered soups. My parents ordered tomato basil soup and I and my wife ordered prawns manchow soup. I loved the prawns soup. But didn't like tomato basil soup much. It tasted more creamier than spicy which my taste buds might have not liked. My parents liked it though. Yes, you guessed right, they don't eat much spicy food.

Then, we ordered starters. Mushroom kurumulagittathu (mushroom pepper fry), Chicken boneless roast, karimeen pollichathu (fish cooked in banana leaf). I loved the fish very much. I didn't like the taste of other dishes. Blunt taste for me.

In between, my parents and my wife were not able to take up more spice so I had to order Jaggery Coconut Custard there n then. We loved it. That melted jaggery on top, too tasty.

Then, we ordered main course. Buff appam thali: Fried buff was good. Coconut chutneys were simple but awesome in taste. Appam was ok. I have eaten better appams made by my mom. Buff curry, let's just say its presence didn't matter.

Chicken Malabar curry: liked it with the wheat parotta.

Tamarind rice: was good. But I feel it would have tasted better with spicy fish curry. Need to try next time.

In between, we ordered many drinks. Moru Vellam: spicy buttermilk. Liked it.

Kalipu Machan: coke mixed with orange juice and lemon juice. Kind of ok. Would have tasted better if masala would also have been added. My 2 cents.

Lime kulukki sarbath: chia seeds in the lemonade. I didn't like it at all. My wife did though.

Then, the desserts turn. Ordered tender coconut ice-cream and jackfruit ice-cream. Loved the latter one. Tender coconut ice-cream was ok. I would recommend having jackfruit and tender coconut icecreams from Natural icecream as they have small pieces in it which I (at least) enjoy more.

Then at last, filter kapi. Good. I loved it.

Overall, a bit expensive experience but a nice one though.

P.S. Kindly forgive me for any grammatical or...

Visited the place on Auspicious ocassion of Onam Sadhya, to treat myself with their Veg Sadhya Beast Thali which include 36 Veg items all the way from Kerala.

The Ambience is Mix of Some Modern And some local work, as of Onam Festival The entrance was decorated beautifully with Flowers Rangoli alongwith with some traditional items.

Also the staff were dressed so beautifully in traditional dress and all of them were really helpful and greet you properly also explaining about dishes.

This Cafe serves Authentic Kerala Cuisine, they served us the following :

Starting with Chips: Banana Chips - These were fried perfectly as used to be, really good in taste with good blend of masala. Sharkara Chips - These were something different, sweet in taste made up of jaggery i think, but good though. Chaka Chips - These chips were made up of jackfruit, good in taste. Mulagu Kondattam - This was one of my favorite, its a keral Chilli and it was fried and the taste was just awesome, it got some spice in it which just got amazing taste. Pavakka Kondattam - Its a karela chips, nicely done, authentic taste.

Some kerala Chutney - Puli Inji - It was a sweet and sour chutney made up of ginger, jaggery etc, very well going with rice. Inji Thayir - This again made up of ginger mixed with yogurt and chilli, something different not have strong spicy taste.

Now with some sabji or side curry, there were so many and each one of them was tasty so i m listing few here which i like above everything else - Pineapple Pachadi - as name suggests it is made up of pineapple mixed with coconut and yogurt curry giving it a medium spicy taste and not sweet. Avial - It was a mixture of vegetables mixed with coconut oil and coconut curry, great in taste. Kottu Curry - i dont know how it is made, but it was thick gravy mixture of veggies, really liked it. Madhura Curry - it was sweet in taste, nice one and unique. Kalan - it was made some locally produced vegetable dnt remember the name, but what i know was, really tasty Erissery - this curry was something else, really liked its taste and texture.

Now coming to some main curry - Sambhar - as all of us know about this dish, the main point to describe, it was one of best sambhar here not too thin or thick great in taste with perfect mixture of spice and vegies. Pulissery - It was kind of south indian kadi, but i really liked it, the taste was sour but was going perfect with rice. Parippu curry - it was a daal but a really tasty one.

Now some drinks - Rasam - it is one of widely known as of south Indian dish, its a really spicy kind of soup or drink, the one who loves spicy should try it. MoruVelam - its a south indian chaas. For me it was not so good.

Desserts - Palada Payasam - Its a rice kheer made in kerala style, i just loved it. It was a bit difference which i used to have. Semiya Payasam - This ia normal tone is sevai kheer but the sevai was fine and thin, they just made it so good and tasty.

So here it is, i not able to cover all 36 items but believe me all of it was worth try and was really tasty each and everyone. And it was my first time to try with kerala cuisine and tasty indeed.

They also have alot of variety of non veg too so please give it a try as well.

HOPE ALL GET WELL VERY SOON IN KERALA🙏

Food 👌👌👌👌👌 Service...