Apollo Dimora is a stone’s throw away from the bustling KSRTC bus terminal and the Central railway station in Thampanoor. But as soon as you enter Cafe Hive, the maple brown-themed multi-cuisine restaurant inside the new hotel, an exquisite calm sets over. The decor is straightforward and simple, with walls tastefully lit to make the soothing brown stand out.
“We have all the usual fare that you can expect from a multi-cuisine restaurant. The highlight, though, is the soon-to-be-launched veg-fusion menu of the vegetarian restaurant ‘Dimora Vega’. It is something entirely our own,” says executive chef Shanavas.
“‘Malabari Spaghetti Biriyani’ is one such dish,” he adds.
Wondering what that is? Well, it is simply Spaghetti pasta made with vegetables and Malabari biriyani masala. If you think that sounds amusing, try another one on the fusion menu. Potato podimas and paneer pepper masala Lasagna!
How about that! The maida dosa used to make the lasagna sheet is stuffed with two layers of potato podimas and paneer pepper masala. It is then topped off with Chettinadu style gravy and cheese gratin. There you go, Desi Lasagna. Take that Italians!
We decide to kick off the evening with Shanavas’s special fusion soup. Ten minutes later we get a bowl of a light brown milky soup topped with curry leaves and dried red chilli. A piece of spiced up garlic bread is served too, and the name of the soup; Mushroom Cappuccino soup! Reluctantly, we taste a little. The fried crunchy mushroom pieces in a soup of light coffee with the exotic spiciness of your typical Kerala curry tingles the taste buds so well that soon the bowls were spooned clean.
Next up was the fusion starter. We wait again for the surprise in store for us. A few minutes later comes, what the server proclaims, the ‘Assorted Bruschetta Porotta’, an Italian style roll made using our own Kerala Porotta with three different succulent fillings; a pineapple based sweet stuffing, a corn kernel-mushroom creamy filler and a spice ‘n’ sweet carrot stuffing - each proving to be as heavenly as the next one!
Moving on to the regular menu of the Cafe Hive, you are spoilt for choice. The starters, soups, salads and main course dishes are listed in Indian, Oriental and Continental. My foodie friend locks in on Chilli fish to start with. To avoid overloading our tummies, we decide to skip the extensive salad section that offers well known ones such as Caesar and Waldorf salad.
While we skiff through the main-course portion, Chilli fish arrives. Crunchy and succulent in equal parts, the fish cubes cooked in sweet ‘n’ sour sauce along with capsicums and served with fried noodles is one that will seduce your senses. Having got the word that the main course would take a while, we chew on luscious fish for a while, in no hurry to finish off the fairly large portion.
After a good 15 minutes, the scrumptious-looking Grilled Tenderloin Steak, a large juicy slice of beef in mushroom sauce with a ball of mashed potatoes, is served. The tender meat drenched in dark gravy melts as we munch on it. Murg Murchan, a chicken tikka variant garnished with fried cashew nuts, was next up. The fiery North Indian curry was perfect for the soft, smooth Rumali roti. The menu for the main course includes traditional lip-smackers such as ‘Karimeen pollichathu with pineapple’, Chettinadu chicken curry and some continental delicacies like Ratatouille and Beef Stroganoff. The Oriental half offers popular dishes like Thai green/red/yellow curries and Gobi Manchurian.
Finally, all things sugary! The desserts available range from the traditional Parippu Pradhaman and Rasmalai to fruit tart and mousse. We round up our evening with some heavenly custard pudding with a refreshing dash of blue lagoon mocktail.
For those looking for something other than the usual a la carte fare or a quick meal with a pleasing assortment of dishes, Cafe Hive offers sumptuous buffets for lunch and dinner. The lunch buffet involves three non-veg dishes while the evening one has four. Eight veg delicacies and four rice dishes are part of the buffet. Ten salads and desserts is a constant for both lunch and dinner feasts, says the chef. Appam live counter is another staple of the buffets.
The dinner buffet is priced at Rs. 800 and lunch at Rs. 650, all plus tax.
The fusion menu of ‘Dimora Vega’ would only be available from next week onwards.
