Tellicherry’s

Enjoyed another faultless dinner here last Thursday evening. To the wait staff and the chef, thank you. Your food and your attentive and pleasant service was clearly consistent from our earlier visits.

Gastronomic madness. What a place. Delicious and authentic food. But the desserts. They are too die for. The coconut ice-​cream. Mad. Mad. Love.

Holy goat curry! Holy fish biryani! Holy garlic naan! Some Indian restaurants are not created equal, and this is one of those restaurants. It’s run by the guys behind Nilgiri cooking schools so you know it’s legit, and this ain’t your anglicised rogan josh slinger, oh no, this is coastal Indian with exotic influences the likes of which you’ve probably never seen, I certainly hadn’t. We ate:
— TELLICHERRY FISH BIRYANI: star anise, Tellicherry pepper, biryani mix, basmati rice and fresh fish ‘dum cooked’
— AADU ULLARTHU: slow cooked goat with ground ‘masala’ of, fennel, cassia and poppy seeds
— BRINJAL AVIYAL: stuffed baby eggplant in seasoned yoghurt
with mustard and curryleaf ‘baghaar’
— GOBHI KEMPE BEZULE: batter fried cauliflower, black mustard, tempered yoghurt
Everything was spectacular, but the goat, good lord, the goat was a show-​stopper, closely followed by the biryani and the buttery naans. Plus it’s BYO so yeaaaah son, get on.

Sadly, it seems Indian restaurants are so similar. Not so with Tellicherry’s. Cuisine hails from the west coast of India, that is Cochin up to Goa. But all the dishes have innovative aspects that are truly different than any Indian restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. That’s saying a lot, since I used to live in New Delhi, and have eaten in Indian restaurants all over the world. My wife and I had a couple of starters, of which the saffron prawns were outstanding. Our mains were the chicken curry, fish biryani (outrageously good) and cauliflower. I’m not a huge naan fan, so was happy to order the parotha. Yummy all around, but not particularly spicy — I would have preferred more heat. Staff was friendly and attentive. By the way, the have a small section of Indian restaurant standards for the less adventurous or perhaps for open minded kids. Think butter chicken, daal makhni, etc. We’ll be back for sure.