Among all the cooking styles, one of my favourites is barbecue. While the city has many food trucks offering barbecued and grilled meat and vegetables, few leave a lasting impression. But Smoke N Grill, a food cart, is different.
You can find Smoke N Grill stationed at the Andhra University Road, running parallel to the Beach Road. It was started by a team of enthusiastic foodies — M Abhishek, Villuri Venkat, M Naresh and M Abhijeet. As I try to decide between Duke of fusion, tear and share platter (the dishes have quirky names), Abhishek explains, “We wanted to create something different in the grilled food scene. Instead of investment in a food truck, we thought of the food cart. The investment was less and we had the scope to bring about other kind of innovations like the barrel shaped grill that increases the available cooking space and also enhances flavour.”
With a tagline ‘Grills Gone Wild’, the food cart has indeed been dishing out flavours with a difference. From their menu, the smoky fiery grilled chicken is a must-try. The marination is subtle and just rightly balanced. For those preferring a milder dish there is the rust barbeque wings. The spicy grilled tandoori salmon is juicy from within with a crispy exterior and grilled to perfection. It is served with mint chutney, tandoori mayonnaise, vegetarian salad and a boiled egg. It is very difficult to stop at one!
A separate vegetarian section serves up a limited but tasty menu. You can select from spicy tandoori paneer, veg cheese burger and veggie fajita.
The secret is in the marinade say the partners.“The marination recipe is our USP and we want to make it our trademark. So we are in the process of creating a powdered version of it, like what bigger chains do, and provide it to our franchise partners,” says Abhishek. Smoke N Grill has another outlet in MVP Colony and is in the process of finding a suitable location in Seethammadhara as well. Very soon, it will be coming up in Kakinada with the same barrel shaped food truck, the design of which the owners claim to be the first of its kind in the country.