Stranger & Sons backed Johri & Sons and 22 more restaurants and bars to try in 2023 – Moneycontrol

Mumbai Restaurants

1. Julius: Ever wondered what royal feasts across Europe tasted like? Julius’ food is a modern take on the royal feasts of 49 BC – 44 BC, from regions such as Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Sicily, Greek, Regional France, South Germany, and Turkey.

The cooking and ingredients are informed by the seasons, and the age-old recipes have been given a modern twist. Expect a range, from roasted vegetables to market salads, soups, pasta, and assorted grilled meats and fish.

You dine in what are modern renditions of regal dining halls with sapphire Chesterfield sofas and gold-framed mirrored accents.

Address: Second Floor, Phoenix Palladium, Senapati Bapat Marg, above Apple Aptronix Store East Zone, Lower Parel.

2. Native Bombay: Mumbai’s newest opening sits within IF.BE, a gallery space housed in a 143-year-old ice factory, and introduces us to contemporary versions of India’s regional cuisines.

Exposed brick walls, wood panels, and elements of the original architecture, such as a tiny wooden door, mark the interiors. The piece de resistance is the Native negroni bar with shelves of Campari, gin, and vermouth, and a cocktail menu curated by mixologist Denzil Franklin.

Negronis are infused with coconut and curry leaves, passionfruit, pandan, and such. The extensive food menu spans regions such as Rajasthan, Nagaland, Kashmir, Kerala, and Uttarakhand. There are also Native Sets — curated menus for those who opt for sit-down dining without having to choose.

Address: 10, 12, Cochin St, Ballard Estate, Fort.

Native Bombay Bar at Ballard Estate

3. Ekaa: Ceramic glass jars stuffed with foraged herbs, roots and fruits that are being fermented, and sculptural pumpkins are signs of the R&D in Ekaa’s kitchen.

Head chef and co-founder Niyati Rao cooks with ingredients such as Uni or roe, the edible part of a sea urchin, known for its buttery texture.

If you are looking for an experimental food and drink experience, make a reservation at Ekaa. House Sausage from the tapas menu is made entirely in the restaurant kitchen. Needle Fish on the a la carte menu is fried and stuffed in steamed bao.

The cocktail Petrichor is a blend of mezcal, coconut vermouth, gooseberry, calcium stone, and a spritz of petrichor ittar on top. Nilgiri is a drink inspired by the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats, known for its eucalyptus oil tea. You get the drift.

Address: Kitab Mahal, 1st Floor, D Sukhadwala Rd, Azad Maidan, Fort. Tel:  9987657989

Chimbori Aani Chaha at Ekaa

4. KMC*: Fort’s newest space, KMC*, is a community and culture hub where food and drink form a fraction of your experience. The restaurant, co-owned by Sagar Neve and Chef Niyati Rao, hosts events, offers networking space and streams mellow music.

The name KMC* comes from the century-old building Kitab Mahal where the restaurant is located, while the ‘C’ is left to interpretation — it could be a cafe, a creative hub, cultural spot.

If you are looking for a café to end the year in, or even begin the new year, KMC* is your spot—there is wine and beer; the coffee is sourced from Chikmagalur; Poached Pear, a cocktail of creamy, Christmas-y eggnog and whisky-poached pear is served in a bowl. The brioche is generously laden with ghee and podi masala, while the fried chicken batter shatters to reveal juicy chicken marinated in a sticky shrimp sauce.

Address: Kitab Mahal, 1st Floor, Shop No.2, Azad Maidan, Fort. Tel: +91-99876 53397

KMC* Brioche Podi

5. Noon: Named after a Kashmiri word for salt, Noon is Chef Vanika Choudhary’s ode to the best of Kashmiri food, served with a modern flair. The minimal restaurant is designed by architect Ashiesh Shah.

Expect to dine on Smoked lotus root fritters, purple bean tacos, rainbow trout, handmade buckwheat noodles and desserts such as raw cacao and sea salt ice cream.

Noon is driven by its choice of ingredients that include lesser-known millets, grains and vegetables sourced directly from farmer’s collectives across India. Chef Vanika is big on fermentation and Noon makes its kanjis, kombuchas and keffirs and, also, misos, kimchis and coconut milk yoghurt.

The ingredients find their way into the cocktails too. For instance, Kale-Arity is vodka-based and showcases kale as a primary ingredient, besides sweet basil, kaffir lime, Gondhoraj lime, and raw sugar.

Address: Ground Floor, Unit B-102, ONE BKC, Bandra Kurla Complex. Tel: 75066 77720

Bengaluru Restaurants

6. Record Room: This vinyl bar is a nod to the growing vinyl culture in India. It is positioned as a craft beer and vinyl bar. The split-level vinyl room and bar stocks 200 vinyl across several genres. You can groove to jazz, blues, rock, and pop.

Record Room’s interior designer George Attokaran has created what he calls a ‘chandelier’—long birchwood blocks arranged like scaffolding and doubling up as a display shelf for vinyl art.

Locally brewed craft beer from breweries such as Toit and Geist and Great State Ale Works introduce guests to Bengaluru’s brewery culture. The food is very brewery-ish: Mini waffles, spiced chicken, Goan sausage Croquette, Tandoori Chicken Milli Fuellie, and Hasselback Potatoes.

Address: 2nd and 3rd Floor, Ram Kunj, 16/3, Magrath Road (Opposite Garuda Mall), Ashok Nagar. Tel: 8792107222/8792108222

Record Room, Bengaluru

7. Boteco – Restaurante Brasileiro: Chef Guto Souza, a Brazilian living in Bengaluru, has given the city one of its finest new restaurants, Boteco. Dine on Pao de Queijo, a bite-sized bun filled with cheese, accompanied by a tall glass of Caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail. Chicken Coxinha is like a samosa; Bolinho de Aipim is deep-fried cassava and cheese croquettes; Bruschetta de Inquica is a French baguette topped with pork sausages; and the Polenta Cream and Mushroom Ragu is creamy and rustic. Botecos are traditional neighbourhood bars that line street corners across Brazil. The name translates to a place for great drinks and easy conversation, and this is conveyed through the restaurant’s design.

Address: Ram Kunj, 16/3, Magrath Rd, Ashok Nagar. Tel: 8792045444

Delhi Restaurants

8. Fig at Malcha: This café in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi features Japanese and Nordic design elements. Fig at Malcha’s owners calls it ‘an eco-contemporary and conscious food collective”. The food includes GMO-free meat, cage-free eggs, farm-to-cup speciality coffee from Marc’s Coffees (Auroville) and the produce of a Parisian-style bakery.

On the menu are dishes such as Shakshuka Eggs, breakfast bowls and platters, hydroponic salads, Wood-fired Pizzas, French-grilled lobster, Za’atar Roast Chicken, and classic dishes such as Shepherd’s Pie and Prawns Ceviche.

Address: 3/48, Malcha Marg Market, Diplomatic Enclave, Chanakyapuri. Tel: 8447872226

9. Bergamo: There are so few European restaurants in India that a new addition to the list is always welcome. Though Bergamo looks like a medieval Italian bistro with its white and golden interiors, it serves European food and offers largely Mediterranean cuisine from some non-Mediterranean countries. The cocktails on the menu are a-plenty, and the food ranges from Ratatouille Lasagne, Patatas Bravas,

Address: The Grand, Gate no -2 Nelson Mandela Marg, Pocket 4, Vasant Kunj II, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. Tel: 9090900822/9090900522

10. Maruchi: If you like Delhi winters, Maruchi has an expansive outdoor space where you can dine on Japanese cuisine and enjoy Lado Sarai’s bohemian neighbourhood. The bar-and-restaurant also has a swinging Teppanyaki bar. Even as you get the bartender to make your favourite drink, order dishes such as Crab Tempura Rolls, Pork Gyoza and Japanese Fried Chicken Karage, besides the regular sushis, dim sums and gyoza.

Address: Sri Aurobindo Marg, Kutub Golf Course, Lado Sarai. Tel: 9910425070

11. People of Tomorrow: At this quaintly named restaurant in Chhatarpur, Chef Sambhavi Joshi serves up “glamorous and delicious” vegan food.

Only three of the ingredients are imported in a nod to the earth-friendly restaurant culture that is taking root. The rest are sourced from farms and markets around.

Some of the populist dishes on the menu include pizzas, plates of pasta, iced teas and smoothies. Condiments and masalas are mostly made in-house.

The menu is divided into small plates, tacos, burgers, pizzas, pasta, risotto, and desserts. A part of the menu is much more complex: Aubergine rolls with walnut butter that is reminiscent of muhammara; Green beans come with makrut-spiked sambal; yam and zucchini kebabs taste like galouti and come with jamun gel.

The cheese on the pizza is made of almonds and the drinks include iced teas, lemonades and smoothies, and coffee. There is no alcohol on the menu.

If your idea of a New Year’s Eve or the January 1 morning is to eat, and drink, green, planet-friendly, and healthy, you know where to go.

Address: Shed 33, The Dhan Mill, 100 Foot Road, Chhatarpur.

People of Tomorrow, Chattarpur

Chennai Restaurants

12. Pandan Club: I first tasted Chef Sashi Cheliah’s flavoursome Malaysian-meets-Sri Lankan-meets-Indian food at a W Goa pop-up and have been a fan since. The Singapore-born, Indian-origin winner of Masterchef Australia, opened a restaurant in Chennai, the city his ancestors come from. On the menu are dishes that draw from his ancestry, his roots in South Asia, including Malaysia, and his home in Sydney.

At Pandan Club, he focuses on Peranakan cuisine that brings together Chinese, Malay, Javanese, and South Indian culinary traditions, and highlights the commonality between them. Look at dishes such as Black Nut Lamb Curry, Nasi Goreng Kampung, and a very delicate Roti Jala.

Address: 39, Bazullah Rd, Parthasarathi Puram, T. Nagar.

Pandan Club, Chennai

Kolkata Restaurants

13. The Bhawanipur House: The all-day café is a new-age ode to the addas of the past, when Kolkata was known as Calcutta. It is housed in an old heritage villa, a throwback to the colonial-era Calcutta, and has a terrace where you can sip on teas and nosh on salad bowls and sandwiches, wood-fired pizzas, pasta and more. Towered by a majestic mango tree and set next to a limpid lotus pond which sets the mood for every visit, The Bhawanipur House is a setting that makes you want to linger.

Address: 13/B, Priyanth Mallick Road, Bakul Bagan, Bhowanipore. Tel: 9051413136

The Bhawanipur House, Kolkata

14. Sorano: The restaurant is inspired by the town of Sorano in Tuscany, and features hidden nooks, verandas, arched passageways, a bar and a private dining room, much like a rich man’s Tuscan villa.

The food, of course, is Italian but not strictly the pizza and pasta variety. Dine on Quattro Formaggio Ravioli, classic Italian Tiramisu, and cheeses made in the in-house fromagerie. Sage & Passion Fruit Cured Anchovies looks like artwork on a plate due to passion fruit cured anchovies that are accompanied by lemon gel, hay pepper coulis, olive tapenade and hay potatoes that lend it a certain crunchiness. The pasta is all hand-rolled.

Address: First floor, 8 Ho Chi Min Sarani, Harrington Mansion. Tel: 9831818192

Sorano, Kolkata

Goa Restaurants

15. Cavatina: One of the hottest culinary names to come out of Goa is Chef Avinash Martin’s Cavatina. His network of producers includes almost 300 farmers and local fishermen, artisans, toddy tappers and coconut-pluckers.

His reimagined Goan dishes from the Saraswat and Catholic communities are informed by local culinary traditions and ingredients.

There are so many flavour profiles to choose from: Black Rice Pancakes with Prawn Balchao, Breadfruit ‘kababs’ on skewers, a re-imagined Goan prawn curry served in a coconut, Chicken Cafreal in a Potato Rosti Nest…

Address: Taj Hotel Road, near Joecons Beach Resort, Benaulim. Tel: 9767813482

Chef Avinash Martin’s Cavatina, Goa

16. Hosa: If walls covered with contemporary and modern art from the south of India and inventive cuisine drawn from the region’s traditional food that eschews all stereotypes of food from the south, inspire you, Hosa is your ideal year-end destination.

Chef Suresh D.C.’s ‘traditional recipes with a twist’ are small bursts of flavours. The menu features south-inspired dishes such as a crispy and peppery Plantain Pepper Roast, Wild Mushroom Sukka, which is the chef’s take on traditional Sukka dishes with a masala of green chillies and dry masalas, and delicate Banana Blossom cutlets served with sweet-spicy chilli jam and sweet pickled onions.

Varun Sharma, who heads the bar at Delhi’s Comorin and helms the Hosa bar, serves up classic, tiki, and modern interpretations. His bar is his space for experimentation with tinctures, infusions, and house-made sodas.

Address: House no. 60/1, Vaddy, near St. Anthony’s Church, Siolim.

At Hosa, Goa

17. Thyme and Ash: The world cuisine restaurant at The Westin Goa is a minimal setting in which Chef Nishant Diwakar serves his take on European and continental cuisine, many with a hint of thyme.

An earthy Wild Mushroom Soup, Wasabi Asparagus, Woodfired Quattro Formaggi; Peated apple and beet with rosemary diplomat cream; Batter-fried prawns come with a marmalade base, and a big dollop of wasabi; and Sofrito chicken marinated in chilli and coriander, with black rice pappadams and a butternut puree.

The cocktails-forward bar serves Popcorn-flavored Cosmo; Mogra made with Maka Zai’s Gold Rum, triphala, pineapple crush, sesame oil, and mogra essence; and a breakfast-themed cocktail made of vodka with a dash of orange marmalade served with bread sticks and sliced oranges. The restaurant has a lovely outdoor deck, and a great space to hang out with your gang.

Address: Survey No 204/1 Subdivision 1, Dmello Vaddo, Anjuna.

Photo courtesy Thyma and Ash, Goa.

18. Slow Tide: Neil D’souza was once part of the Anjuna commune, the one founded by the hippies and Indians who put Goa on the world map. He continues to live in Goa, has a high-end travel business, and just took over the first shack in this beach stretch to convert it into a modern version of what once stood here.

Slow Tide is a new-age shack, open to the sea, but with an old vibe. You see photographs of the original flower children, and their progeny, on the wall.

The “Haute hippie kitchen”, as it is often called, serves coastal cuisine — East Indian, Goan, old Mangalorean, and particularly, Sri Lankan delicacies. Think Pol Roti, Kadgi Stew, Amshi Tikshi Fish Curry, Jaffna Crab, and such.

The cocktails and many of the dishes are named after the people who once defined the Anjuna Commune. There is one called Sailor Fred, named after a sailor who sailed off to Africa from South Anjuna beach on month-long catamaran trips for fun; the original Santa Claus ‘Acid Erick’ and many more.

There is nothing better than bringing in the new year from a modern shack that reminds you of the times when Anjuna was the flower power outpost.

Address: Dmello Vaddo, Anjuna. Tel: 8055255266

Slow Tide, Anjuna, Goa

19. Edge – Tropical Bar & Kitchen: Designed by architect Ayaz Basrai of Busride, Edge – Tropical Bar & Kitchen at Alila Diwa Goa, has the vibe of a beach lounge with a live bar and a show kitchen, and views of bucolic south Goa landscape-dominated paddy fields.

The bar is curated by Arijit Bose and Pankaj Balachandran from Countertop, known for their award-winning Tesouro. Edge serves cocktails such as Queen’s Park Swizzle, Northlander, Edgy Negroni, and Corpse Reviver Number Blue. The menu is designed for comfort and shared dining. Expect comfort food such as Som Tam Salad, Varuval Tart, Button Idli Chaat, Edge Egg Florentine, and Rawa Fried Fish among others.

Address: Alila Diwa Goa 48/10, Adao Waddo, Village Majorda, Salcette. Tel: 8322746800

Edge – Tropical Bar & Kitchen at Alila Diwa, Goa.

20. Half Pint: Indian breweries are pushing the boundaries with collaborations, and Half Pint is India’s first collaborative taproom by Pune-based Great State Aleworks and Bengaluru-based Arbor Brewing Company India.

The new craft taproom in Vagator is inspired by Greek cafes. Dense trees shelter Half Pint, which is set in a garden. The craft beers are not just by the two breweries, but also some more. The food is a take on the Goa-Portuguese cuisine and largely confined to canapes and small plates that go well with the beers. Order some of the fish dishes: Pan-fried Herb Mackerel served with confit tomatoes and salsa verde and Seafood Stew with clams, prawns and red snapper in a tomato and lemon broth, for instance.

Address: House no. 639, Little Vagator, Near Rudy’s Front, Vagator. Tel: 8837248273

Half Pint is a collab between Great State Aleworks and Arbor Brewing Company India.

21. Fig and Maple: Chef Radhika Khandelwal brings Fig & Maple from Delhi to Goa. The airy, leafy restaurant serves her signature salads and elaborate brunch menus, G&T bowls, blue cheese kulchas, Pandi Curry and Konkan ceviche, or seasonal fish cured with Kokum served with a coconut emulsion with Khakra. The experimentation reflects in the drinks, too: Tequila and dry shrimp, and gin with balsamic and tomato.

Address: 140 Bairo Alto, Assagao. Tel: 7678665130

22. Makutsu: Chef Pablo Luis de Miranda’s version of a Japanese Yakitori is one of the most exciting openings of 2022. The ‘Den of Thieves’ (which is what Makutsu translates to) is a low-lit, cave-like room with Japanese lanterns and red doors. The focus is entirely on yakitori—marinated meat and vegetable charcoal-grilled on a hibachi grill. There are 26 kinds of Yakitori to choose from: Chicken thighs, wings skin, heart-to-beef tongue, duck, okra, broccoli, silken tofu, and more. Book in advance.

Address: Sao Tome, Rua 31 de Janeiro, Altinho, Panjim. Tel: 8767102401

Chef Pablo Luis de Miranda’s Makutsu in Panjim, Goa.

Jaipur Restaurants

23. Johri & Sons: The chic cocktail bar within an equally stylish The Johri Jaipur hotel, co-founded by Gem Palace’s Munnu Kasliwal, is a collaboration with Stranger & Sons brand. However, it serves more than just gin and gin cocktails. Among its highest-selling drinks is a classic Negroni, inspired by Jaipur’s ruby-coloured Manik stone that’s traded in the bazaar. The cocktails are served in a cozy, dimly lit bar with brass and wood design features, lamps, candles, and antiques. The signature cocktails are designed by Arijit Bose and Pankaj Balachandran, the folks behind the bar consultancy Countertop.

Address: 3950, MSB Ka Rasta, Johri Bazar, Ghat Darwaza. Tel: 8905551680