The Mezze platter is a conversation starter. It arrives with super soft pita bread, a creamy hummus dip with olives, and babaganoush with garlic and olive oil, deep fried falafel, and broken-wheat salad. “It has to be eaten with your hands” is the recommendation and we obediently dig in. It’s refreshing and it marks the arrival of world cuisine to Coimbatore.
“Coimbatore is fast turning cosmopolitan and it is time we introduced world cuisine here,” says a senior member of Sanjeev Kapoor’s team that has toiled here for months to set up Grain of Salt, a multi-cuisine restaurant, conceptualised by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor.
The team visited almost all the restaurants in the city and discovered phenomenal fare at a number of small time eateries. They have been camping here since December to put out a menu that is truly world class. You have Chinese, Italian, Middle East, Continental, Mediterranean and of course Indian cuisine including fare from Coimbatore region.
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The 100-cover restaurant is spacious and has been designed to ensure a fine dining experience. “Our diners should soak in the ambience and generally have a pleasant time,” says S. Karthikeyan, director of Mulberry Restaurants Private Limited, the franchise of Grain of Salt in Coimbatore. He says with pride that Coimbatore is the launch pad for this particular brand.
The chefs have experimented but have not lost sight of the fact that they have to offer acceptable flavours. Our welcome drink is tender coconut with a dash of lime and mint, a perfect Indian taste to start the gourmet experience.The house garden salad bursts with the freshness of home grown vegetables sourced locally, olives, dressed with pesto and finished off with a small grating of parmesan.
The dim sum platter arrives garnished with mustard sprouts and with a variety of stuffings. We taste the vegetable and corn dim sum followed by spinach and cheese, with two different chutneys, a tangy and a meetha one. And, you can’t stop with just one. It is the classic Margarita pizza next and it is delicious. The team prides itself on the fact that everything is made in house, including the bread, the paneer, etc. Mint, coriander and curry leaves come from an organic farm as is the milk used here. They will soon offer fresh juices from cold press machines. From the North Indian platter, we try stuffed kulcha, butter naan with Sanjeev Kapoor’s signature lalla mussa dal and shaam savera (spinach and cottage cheese in tomato gravy that made him a household name). You can tell from where Sanjeev Kapoor has drawn inspiration from the names of some of the dishes: Puran Singh Da Tariwala murgh, Lawrence Road Tandoor chicken and so on. We wait for Sanjeev Kapoor to add something from our city to his menu!
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Ah…the desserts. They like to call them playful desserts, “there has to be mazaa while making them,” says the chef. I bite into gulab-e-gulkhand and it is full of mazaa. Then, the lemon chilli cheese cake, and a dark and dense chocolate cake put in their appearance and we gasp our way through them. For Sanjeev Kapoor fans, there will be his cook books and other products will be available at the restaurant at special rates.
The restaurant is located at SSN Square, Pudur Road, near RTO, Peelamedu. It is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. For details, call: 0422-4212829.