A fierce-looking black panther fixes a cold stare at you from above. The logo, below, with ‘Karimbuli Restaurant’ in large golden Malayalam letters greets you. Outside are abstract installations and round tables under yellow umbrellas.
It’s a little past nightfall and a mantle of light-blue illumination envelopes the entryway done up with bamboo pole railings. The attached juice stall on the right looks more like a mini museum of native American art and craft. Long, garishly painted tribal masks and gargoyle-like faces grimace from walls. Clay jars, big and small, stand on the shelves.
Past the open lounge, walls of the narrow staircase entrance double up as a canvas for tribal sketchwork.The AC dining section is on the first floor but it’s not open yet. A covered space on the second floor is where the eatery now functions.
The recently opened (apparently, the exotic artwork is still a work in progress) restaurant near Ananthapuri auditorium, Jagathy, has already become something of a talking point. From the unusual name to the abstract paintings to the décor to the staff dress code (all in black), everything smacks of a dark or jungle-ish appeal at this restaurant.
It’s not so bright inside, in line with the theme. Electric lanterns provide succour and dining sections are separated by old-style wooden partitions. Thatched roof props add to the “naadan” ambience the restaurant so keenly aspires to showcase. The dinner menu (daily specials vary and are displayed on a white board outside) shows a native American tribal chieftain. The dishes range from a mix of mutton, chicken, beef, buffalo, fish and even duck to a variety of puttu to the simple and nutritive kanji with erussery, chammanthi, chilli, pappadam and pickle to the no-frills kattan chaya.
And here we await veeshappam, chemba (brown rice) puttu, appam, ‘veg curry’, chicken thoran, chicken perattu, kanava thoran, buffalo and fish curry gravy (to go with the puttu). Plates arrive. Soon followed by veeshappam and ‘veg curry’ – basically a kuruma-style curry of Bengal gram with large well-cooked chunks of potato – served in a clay bowl. Goes well with the veeshappam.
The juice stall attached to Karimbuli
One by one, the other items land on our lacquered table sans a tablecloth, again keeping in with the overall raw theme. Chicken thoran, spicy, dry and very finely minced and with ample helpings of coriander leaves, ticks all boxes. But the perattu is quite bland . The dark-looking dish was garnished with loads of curry leaves and a slice of lime.
Rake the buffalo fry and you find generous dollops of semi-raw tomato slices, which kind of overpowers the taste. The meat was pretty well-cooked and the look and texture takes after the chicken perattu.
Fish curry gravy (coconut is a no-no) tastes quite homely, though a tad tangy. Now, the pièce derésistance we have been waiting for – kanava thoran. Toothsomely spicy and with (once again) loads of dry curry leaves and coriander leaves, it is served with a couple of disks of raw cucumber. One won’t be disappointed with the quantity of the individual dishes. Something that should serve as an appetite booster for the health-conscious is that the delicacies do not really swim in oil, often the price one pays to tickle the taste buds. But the chief takeaway is decent food at a such a reasonable price.
Rakhi Naidu, the proprietor as well as the “chief chef”, says her mission is to provide “good, healthy food devoid of artificial ingredients.” She says it’s her passion for cooking that drove her to learn about tribal cuisines in Kerala. “I’m a stickler for healthy, naadan food. That’s evident from the taste of the masala,” says the vegetarian, who is only happy to cook “gratifying” non-veg food for her customers. Dinner for two can cost even less than ₹100
