Breakfast at an ‘evening restaurant’ might sound like an irony. But that’s exactly the delicious difference Sayahna Garden Restaurant brings with its stand-alone Sunday Breakfast, which boasts of a compact but inviting, chiefly ethnic Kerala fare. As you walk in after negotiating a particularly snarled-up mid-morning traffic despite it being a Sunday, the place suddenly offers you a semblance of serenity as a touch of the traditional comes garnished with a reposeful ambience.
Ensconced at a lush corner of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation’s sprawling Mascot Hotel in the heart of the city, Sayahna Garden Restaurant’s highlight is, as the name evinces, the green-hugged open-air dining space by the side. The stripped-down furniture adds to the sun-kissed garden’s visual charm by silently foregrounding the emerald vista.
The garden dining area at Sayahna Garden Restaurant | Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA
However, opting comfort over aesthetics, we amble towards the AC dining area with artsy, oil-smooth wallpapers and we are welcomed by a courteous usher. The dinky list on the single-page menu proves particularly helpful in whittling down your choices for an economical breakfast. Apart from the few odd-ones-out like the good old bread-butter-jam combo or the improvised beef/chicken omelette or muffin, the rest of the list unequivocally sounds chaste naadan with the likes of kadala curry, beef roast, Kumarakom chicken curry, pidiyum kozhiyum, ari pathiri, chiratta puttu, mutta kuzhalappam... to name a lip-smacking few. The bonus is ‘the week’s special’, not on the list and something that can range from a variety of South India’s evergreen favourite, dosa, to a dose of the quintessentially Maharashtrian pav bhaji masala. The special on a chosen day is announced on the black board outside, and, today, poori bhaji masala it is. Nevertheless, the best part of the entire deal is the ‘small’ and ‘large’ portions available for the dishes on offer, especially curry. A great boon in trying out more while reigning in the final bill.
Poori bhajimasala | Photo Credit: Harikumar J.S.
After a genial dialogue for order-taking and a brief wait, the dishes are borne in one by one. First up is ari pathiri, accompanied by a ‘small’ portion of beef roast and mutton stew. Soft and almost wafer-thin, the snow-white pathiri melts in the mouth, aided by a thick and creamy mutton stew with moderate dollops of potato and carrot. The well-cooked meat pieces seem to be in competition with the rice pancake for which is tenderer. However, the light-brown homely beef roast, unexpectedly with quite a bit of onion-infused gravy and fine green chilly chops, proves a spicy foil to the succulent but mild-tasting stew.
Pathiri and beef roast | Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA
The chef’s recommendation of the day — the Kottayam-style pidiyum kozhiyum — comes calling next. Not a dish you would easily find in the city every day, this scalding gravy-rich delicacy lives up to its reputation with globs of pidi (rice balls equivalent to kozhakkatta) dunked in coconut milk-rich Kumarakom-style chicken curry topped with creamy residual sauce from the pidi. Wheat porotta, often cherry-picked as a healthier alternative to its otherwise unbeatable maida cousin for the Malayali, may be the only item tasted and tested that scored a low, only for its moderately high oil content. Nonetheless, it’s not a deal-breaker.
If the chef insists on trying out the day’s special, you can’t outright say nay, especially if your taste-buds have not demurred yet. Hence arrives the poori bhaji masala set, with three impeccably inflated pooris and a generous bowl of yellow, mellow mashed potato curry. Something simple to write home about. Enough is not enough and you can’t help but want to polish off the remainder of the stew and roast gravy when you scrutinise the menu again and see the spirit-lifting word ‘kallappam’. But blame it on transliteration as a double check with the waiter after the order clarifies any misgivings. Kallu-appam. One should have read ‘stone’ and not ‘toddy’. However, no blame on the chef as the flat dosa-like appam passes muster.
Pidiyum Kozhiyum | Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA
Shyam Lal, the chief chef, says Sunday Breakfast serves as a perfect choice mainly for church-goers on a Sunday morning. “Also, the idea of small and large portions for some of the dishes helps reduce wastage and spices up choices for the customer,” he adds.
Sunday Breakfast may not be the once-in-a-month, spoilt-for-choice meal plan you wouldn’t mind splurging on but it is certainly a toothsome idea for a no-frills but hearty kick-starter with minimal garnishing and maximum satisfaction that saves you the hassle of cooking on a day you would prefer to take it easy.
Cost for two can be as low as ₹200
Timings: From 8 am to 11 am on Sundays