Date: 4 December 2016
Venue: Ambience Mall, Gurgaon

Zambar is a well known name for South Indian food specifically cuisines of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. They are probably one of the very few South Indian restaurants serving South Indian food in casual to fine dining setup. We tried their pure vegetarian Sadhya meal during Navratri sometime back and were very impressed….. We heard they have come up with a new menu and were invited to review the food. We gladly accepted.

The focus was southern spices and the menu was curated by Chef Vetrimurugan Natesan. The cuisine was pan coastal….from Kerala to Andhra along with dishes from Goa and Sri Lanka. Starters had stuffed vegetable poppadums and chicken soup along with pineapple rasam and papad. Vegetarians would love this starter. Karukhe Murukhe Vendakai and Potato Cafreal were Crispy fried bhindi and potatoes in Goan masala respectively. Bhindi was tad oily but still crispy and a good munch. South Indian meat balls Thanjavor Kati Kola are a mutton lover’s delight. Calamari butter garlic and Kingfish almost took us to a Goan beach where we experience the Sun, sand and good food. Chilled draught beer completed the experience. We loved the Kismoor salad served with these starters.

From the mains our most favorite dish was appam and vegetable stew. Someone rightly said you can never go wrong with simplicity. The simplicity and the taste of this combo dish surpassed every other dish we have had during this lunch. We also had some steamed rice with Kadla Curry (chickpeas in gravy). We also tried Nellore crab masala.

We would also mention the South Indian Moplah chicken Biryani which was fragrant with Southern spices and Srilankan Kotthu Roti which is a flaky parotta fried with chicken and egg. This was a dish in its own.

We finished this lunch with South Indian souffle which was smooth as silk and the taste of coconut milk and jaggery lingered on our tastebuds and mind for quite some time. Service was quite slow but it was a lazy weekend lunch and we didn’t mind much.

All in all – we would recommend Zambar Southern Spices for an elaborate leisurely South Indian meal.