Sweet as sin with every bite

CHENNAI: How many chocolates can you eat in one go? You can find out for yourself at Desi Klub, a three-month-old restaurant in the city, which has a special chocolate thali on their menu.

Desi Klub is a Mumbai-based restaurant that has franchises in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai and they are looking to expand. Five partners — Sushil Mehta, Arvind Baheti, Suresh Gundecha, Pavan Surana and Abhishek Bokadia, are happy to have brought the concept of Mumbai street food with a twist to the city.

“Though chocolate thali was always a part of the menu, we never publicised it much before. It is only now that we have started putting it out on our Instagram and Facebook pages and are getting rave responses,” says Shrey Mehta who takes care of operations.

Disclaimer: The thali is only for hardcore chocolate lovers. There are eight items in the thali: Chocolate khakhra, chocolate shrikhand, chocolate kheer, chocolate gulab jamun, chocolate swiss roll, chocolate barfi (truffles), chocolate ice cream and a white chocolate lollipop. “It has a mix of dark and milk chocolate with infused flavours, that doesn’t give you a sugar rush,” says Shrey, but we are not convinced till we take a bite of the items on the thali. And boy was he right!

First up is the chocolate khakhra, where a plain khakhra is coated with chocolate sauce. Shrey tells us he can’t share the recipe, for obvious reasons, but that everything is prepared in house, except the ice cream and khakhra. “We source the chocolates from abroad. We make sure that there is a balance of sweet, bitter and other flavours,” he adds.

The chocolate truffle aka barfi, is made of dark chocolate and coated with chocolate powder, the swiss roll has an orange filling in it, the gulab jamun oozes chocolate as you cut into it...aah it’s pure bliss even to watch the plate!

The thali menu is decided by the main restaurant and the Chennai team had to do a small survey to see if it will work in the city. “It is definitely a different concept and nowhere in Chennai do you have a chocolate thali. We tapped that,” adds Shrey. Now, they have a minimum of five orders everyday, and they are also quite popular on social media. Most of their customers who prefer chocolate thali are the youngsters. The next step is delivering their food, including chocolate thali, and they are currently in talks with Swiggy, Zomato and Foodpanda.

If you are a choco lover, flip right to the end of the menu, to the desserts section, where it is listed. “It is intended as a dessert where people can either share or relish individually. But some have had it as their main course itself. We still haven’t had a customer who could finish the entire thali on their own after the main course,” says Abhishek. Why not keep a contest? He laughs, “We are planning on it!”

Have the thali when it is hot...the chocolate gulab jamun just melts in your mouth. As it’s a dessert, it doesn’t matter what you eat first or last. Another tip they give us; dip the khakhra in chocolate kheer (warm dark chocolate sauce). It gives sinfully sublime a new meaning!

Priced at `415, the thali is available at Desi Klub on Harrington Road (opposite MCC School).
For details, call: 30853689