Most restaurants serve a plate of complimentary nibbles, be it salad, papad or simply, a bowl of chips. At Hotel Luxer, it’s just two small circles of pita bread (one for me and one for my colleague) but it’s served with very tasty hummus.
Situated on Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, right opposite Citi Centre Mall, the place advertises itself as a Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurant, but has a mix of cuisines, with Indian and Italian food also on the menu.
We’re the only diners on a Tuesday evening, so service is fairly fast. The decor has a distinct Arabian Nights feel to it, with wooden latticework, stained glass lampshades and flickering star-like LED lights on the ceiling. Although the glass windows might let in more natural light during the day, the lighting is quite dim for dinner.
The restaurant is the maiden venture of Adnan Shaik, who comes from a family based in the real estate industry. While in the USA for his MBA, he was very taken in by the authenticity of the Arabic restaurants and wanted to bring the same experience here. “Diners ask for parathas and naan when they see that we serve Mediterranean cuisine. When they sample the food, they say it’s not as spicy as expected. So it’s a process of educating them as well, which is the challenge,” he says, adding that they have Indianised some of the dishes to suit the local palate so that they can get used to the flavours.
There are plenty of options to choose from, and our courteous waiter offers help. We go with his recommendations. The coconut rubiyan — baharat spice marinated prawns dusted with coconut and panko crumbs — is best eaten with the coconut cream dip that comes with it. The prawns are flavourful and are served in individual shooter glasses on a base of tabbouleh salad and the dip gives it a sweet touch.
The vegetarian mezza platter also has a tabbouleh salad, apart from three pieces each of falafel, warginap and fatayer, served with hummus and moutabel. The falafel has a faint taste of cumin which is largely overpowered by clove; enough to make the tongue burn unpleasantly. We quickly move on to the delicious fatayer, a delicate filo pastry stuffed with spinach and caramelised onion.
What intrigues us is the warginap: sushi rice, confit tomatoes and sliced almonds wrapped in a grape leaf. The flavours are unfamiliar, but tasty enough to go back to for another bite. The eggplant-based moutabel goes well with all the starters. We’re almost done with the platter when we realise that the pita hasn’t been served along with it. After asking for it twice, it arrives: now there are four of the tiny round circles of bread.
The aroma of saffron hits us the instant the shish taouk with gaetho is served. The saffron and herb-marinated chicken legs are piquant. They are served on a base of thinly sliced and grilled eggplants, zucchini and tomato with a rasher of chicken bacon on the side.
Baklava is on the dessert menu: the portion is quite small, but because it’s extremely sweet, with its heavy rose flavouring, we linger over each spoonful. As it was a bit dry, more generous serving of syrup would have made it an even better end to the meal.
Hotel Luxer is located at 50, R.K Salai, Mylapore. A meal for two costs Rs 1000.
