Karikku Cafe — Restaurant in Fremont

I don't review restaurants much but feel compelled to review this one. We are yet to find a decent Kerala restaurant in the Bay Area and have been burnt before, but seeing that Karikku Cafe had 4.6/5 stars on Google, we decided to give it a try.

We ordered quintessentially Kerala items - Thalassery Chicken Biriyani, Appam and Chicken Peralan.

The appam was probably the only edible one of the three. We were starving, and try to avoid wasting food as much as possible but had to leave a lot of what we ordered behind.

I'm writing a detailed review here in the hope that the owners/chef will take this criticism and make improvements, because in the current state, I would NOT recommend Karikku Cafe to folks looking to eat good or even decent Kerala food.

First the Biriyani - I do not know what recipe the Chef is using here, but to the best of my knowledge, Malabar or Thalassery Biriyanis DO NOT use Kashmiri Chilli Powder as the main spice. In fact it is probably used the least in authentic North Kerala Biriyani recipes. Not only was it the primary spice used in the Biriyani here, it was semi-cooked. Also to be noted - the chicken, the masala and the rice are all separately cooked. The chicken was clearly flash fried (and not well at that - like I said, the chilli powder from the marination was semi-cooked). I have seen this being done in really low quality shops by the highways in Kerala where the quality or taste of the food is of much lesser significance than the price. But it is not acceptable in a $13 dish. The reason for this odd decision, I think, must be to reuse the masala across all biriyanis (Fish, Mutton, Chicken etc.). The cost is that the Masala had none of the chicken's flavor. And the rice (though authentic Kaima) had the flavor of neither the chicken nor the masala. Needless to say, the Biriyani didn't at all seemed like it was 'dummed' or cooked together and lacked any cohesion whatsoever - it was just three separate, poorly cooked, badly flavored parts.

Next up was the Chicken Peralan, described on the website as "slow roasted chicken flavored with onions, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and thin slivers of lightly fried coconut". Now I can say there was no Curry leaves or Thenga Kothu (fried coconut slivers). But that's by the by, because the chicken itself was inedible. There were hardly any spices, whole or Garam masala or enough Corriander powder. Whatever spices were there weren't cooked. And what WAS there again, was Kashmiri chilli powder - lots of it. And black pepper powder - so much that it burnt our mouths. There wasn't any sort of balance at all. And there wasn't enough salt.

The appam, though it was fermented, lacked any sourness or sweetness. And the 'wings' or the crispy bits at the ends were lacking. But in fairness, it wasn't as much of a disaster as the rest.

The service was great and prompt, and feedback was received politely. But I don't know if people go to a Kerala restaurant for good service. And in any case, no amount of good service can make up for terrible food.

Hope the folks in charge take this as constructive criticism and make...

We’ve been frequent visitors to this restaurant over the past few years. It used to be one of our favorite spots in Fremont, especially for their Talassery biryani, which was simply to die for. The food has always been great, and their staff used to be friendly and welcoming. Unfortunately, our recent experience (yesterday) has left us questioning whether we’ll be returning any time soon.

We called the restaurant around 7:15 PM to place our order in advance, hoping to avoid a wait since we had plans to be somewhere by 8:15 PM. Our order was simple—just a biryani and porotta—and the person on the phone assured us it wouldn’t be a problem. However, once we arrived around 7:30 PM, the situation took a disappointing turn.

The staff member wasn’t welcoming at all. Instead, he bluntly informed us that there was a one-hour wait for our food. I explained that we had already placed the order over the phone, but he responded in a dismissive tone, saying it didn’t matter—there would still be a one-hour wait. To make things worse, he didn’t even know what our order was, which shows a lack of coordination. At this point, the restaurant only had three or four families dining in, and yet they claimed they needed an hour to prepare just two dishes. That’s simply unacceptable for any restaurant, especially one we used to love.

We expressed our concern to the staff member and even asked for the owner to call us back, hoping to have our experience addressed. Sadly, no one has bothered to follow up. It’s clear that this restaurant is on a downhill trajectory, and if they don’t improve their service and staff management, they will continue to lose loyal customers like us.

Disappointed with our experience, we left the place and ended up going to a competition Restaurant instead. There, we received our biryani and porotta within 10 minutes of placing the order. The difference in service between the two places was night and day.

If this restaurant wants to regain its former reputation, they seriously need to reevaluate their staff and prioritize customer service. For now, we’ll be taking our...

I have been there for the first time as I recently experienced amazing Kerala food in Canada for the which was best that I had ever and I wanted to get similar experience but had my fears of losing the taste of what I experienced in Canada and Wihich I can say it’s out of the world. Canada folks if u travel Toronto Mississuaga stop by at Thanima kitchen or u are missing a lot.

So I ordered vegetable stew and appam and parotta and at the time only 8 customers were there and they were there before me waiting for their food. After 25 mins I got my small meal that I ordered. The taste was ok nothing exciting as the appam and parotta came cold even though it’s made fresh but curry was super hot.

I have eaten 1/2 bowl of curry and got more than 15 or more big pepper corns spread all over the curry and I got busy picking them to keep aside.

There is only one young boy serving the whole restaurant while there were 40 customers came for dine in while I was leaving.how difficult is that to handle by all him self at busy times. So I suggest them to have extra help and specially being weekend I think they need to invest in extra work force to take it forward.

This is not being negative but a honest feedback for them so they realize and improve. I want to tell the manager that vegetables in stew specially big size carrot pcs are not cooked fully but the potato is cooked super good. They need to cut the Veges to smaller size specially hard Veges like carrot. I am just ok satisfied because I was hungry after my workout. I wanted to show and give live feedback back to manager while I asked for him and waited extra minute but he seems busy inside the kitchen helping the staff.

Bring more help on busy days please . Will be back again and take another chance. But for sure every one had to wait too long.

Please take this as just a suggestive feedback and I am sure I will change to 5 start if I see the changes...