Where to eat… this January

Going easy in January is not an option with Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Goa getting a bunch of F&B action as the new year begins. In Bengaluru’s Nagarabhavi, a massive new brewery may as well be a resort. In central Mumbai, three new bars provide wild sensory escapes from the chaos (and air quality) of the city. And in Goa, Bonobo brings its music and mood to Anjuna after 17 glorious years in Mumbai. Bengaluru also gets a bar that distracts us from our deeply digital lives with an error code, as well as an Italian restaurant by Italian owners and Italian chefs. Delhi’s Lohri celebrations are in full swing, celebrating this season’s largesse. And next week, Mumbai will have the second edition of The Gathering, an ambitious and delightful three-day food and cultural festival that set a new benchmark with its debut in Delhi last year. The big party season may be over, but our appetites carry forth, undaunted. 

Openings

Goa

Mumbai

Bengaluru

Openings

Bonobo, Goa

Fifteen days before the year turned, during peak party season, Mumbai’s beloved Bonobo made its debut in Goa. Bonobo Anjuna carries all its signature spirit from 17 iconic years in Mumbai–a lively local and international music scene with gigs, DJ sets, and dance nights, a community-driven vibe, open-air energy, solid cocktails, chilled beers, and delicious comfort food designed for drinking and dancing—all of it here layered with Goa’s easy pace. Somehow in Anjuna’s tiny lanes, it has also managed to replicate the parking woes of Bandra’s Linking Road. Recently, their opening party felt like a grand reunion of Mumbai settlers. This Saturday, they kick off with their first gig of the year with Chhabb and Paper Queen. 

Sabores, Goa

Just before the village of Siridao, in lush Bambolim, in Clube de Palma, a new 60-seater spot set in Goan-Portuguese architecture is inspired by the mid-century sophistication of Goa’s erstwhile Rio Rico restaurant. Indeed Sabores’ owner Akshay Quenim is from the same family as the Mandovi landmark. The menu is a sophisticated spin on Goan-Portuguese food, via the the state’s Hindu and Christian traditions. This translates to bacalhau, bulhão pato (clams in garlic, coriander, olive oil), Lourenço Marques, a dish of spicy, coastal, vibrant prawns, named for Mozambique’s Portuguese moniker. There is also hot prawn balchão, sweet-spicy tender coconut carpaccio, rissóis de camarão, chicken cafreal, multiple Goan curries, wood-fired seafood, choris pulao. Goa’s bakery culture shows up in Sabores’ bread program of poie, onde, pao and dinner rolls alongside house-made butters that include a choris flavour and a Café de Paris. Countertop India’s Pankaj Balachandran has built a beverage menu with drinks like Toasted Banana Bread (toasted poie, whiskey banana, coffee liqueur, chocolate, espresso), Mango Verde (a mango tequila highball), and Flor De Palma (frangipani flower infused vodka). Full review here.

Soraia, Mumbai

What is neo-botanical cuisine? At Mumbai’s Soraia it is a chaptered menu, its sections with names such as The First Flush, The Seed, Light, Fire, Earth, and Air. Its seasonal dishes include shiso-leaf chaat, phyllo pastry wrapped around brie with apple coulis and chili maple nut crunch; forest mushroom risotto with enoki, shimeji, shiitake, and morels, and a sitafal tres leches. All this is served in a space designed by Gauri Khan that has vine-draped pillars, a fountain in the centre of the room, and a glasshouse, set within Mahalaxmi Racecourse. Soraia also has Mumbai’s first omakase bar, and its chapters are named The Mountains Roars, The Valley of Voices, The Great Indian Plains, The Plateaus, Coast to Coast, The Deserts, and The Ghats. The names indicate the provenance of ingredients that make it to the table: there’s chhurpe, plum, and butter tea from the mountains to toasted sorghum millet tequila, ambemohar rice milk, and dagad phool from the plateaus, and wild blackberries, green peppercorns, kachampuli, and Coorg coffee reduction from the ghats. 

Fielia, Mumbai

Also in Mahalaxmi Racecourse, also designed by Gauri Khan, and also by Afsana Verma, Amit Verma, and Dhaval Udeshi, the owners of Soraia is its sibling Fielia—an invite-only ‘cocktail-forward aperitivo bar’. The concept is Cocktail as Cinema, with dress-circle seats, a double-height ceiling, mezzanine balconies that evoke theatre boxes, and a bar where the screen would typically be. Soraia’s beverage director Fay Barretto has a menu that plays to this theme, with cocktails inspired by infamous global scandals, heists, affairs, and paparazzi moments, all hinted at via props and sensory cues, with bartenders taking on characters. Here Hitesh Shanbag (who is also Soraia’s chef) brings seven aperitivo-style dishes which invoke the seven sins. Sloth is sage chèvre gnocchi, Greed is sous vide tenderloin, Gluttony is pork belly, and Lust is burnt Basque with cacao textures. 

Aahii, Mumbai

Prabhadevi’s rapidly emerging culinary corridor gets a North Indian restaurant that is not above serving chilli cheese churros and thhecha dahi alongside butter chicken, smashed burrata chakhna chaat with Amritsari fish and chips, and mascarpone mushroom kulcha on the same table as Old Delhi mutton nalli nihari. At Aahii, chefs Vikram Arora and Ganesh offer refined comfort classics alongside some seriously mischievous modern riffs on old favourites, while leaning into traditional techniques throughout. Bartender Santosh Kukreti and bar head Bhavesh Jamdade pair these dishes with libations such as smoked ghost pepper picante, Surya Sol (gin, fresh turmeric, smoked rosemary, citrus), Jasmine’s Secret (rose-infused gin, jasmine, delicate florals) served in a softly glowing lamp, and Banarasi Sour (a gin sour but with lychee, lemon, and in-house Banarasi paan). The tables are marble, the upholstery has Indian-inspired prints, the lighting is amber, the bar is jewel-toned and chandeliers and mirrors add to the mood. 

Pinochhio, Bengaluru

Bengaluru gets an Italian restaurant owned by Italians and run by an Italian chef—a rare feat to achieve in the country. It’s also named after a beloved Italian fictional character from 1883. Owners Giancarlo and Sara Calderoni founded Milano Ice Cream and Milano Pizza 14 years ago, and have multiple stores across south India, at each of which, fresh gelato is made every day. They come from Parma in Emilia Romagna, one of the culinary capitals of the world. Chef Giuseppe Mandaradoni (previously from Le Cirque at The Leela in Bengaluru) and his wife Cynthia are from Calabria, run Pinocchio Ristorante with the Calderonis.

Mandaradoni’s menu is a tribute to his roots. Meals typically begin with crowd-favourite focaccine available as Margherita or the Taste of the Sea. Then there is burrata Pugliese and panzanella salad. Pastas are handmade fresh every day, to order, as they would be in a small trattoria in Italy. Crab Calabria is rich and full of southern Italian spice, and potato gnocchi comes with basil pesto. Among mains, there is pan-seared seabass alla ghiotta, and roasted chicken farm cockerel. Of course there is a Pinocchio Tiramisu (no lies here), but also a bigné with ricotta and pistachio sauce for folks craving something more nutty and decadent. Diners can watch the action through the open kitchen as the chef and his team roll pasta and toss seafood in sizzling pans. 

403 Forbidden, Bengaluru

In these tech-laden times, India’s OG tech city Bengaluru gets a bar inspired by a digital error code. Digital veterans will remember the HTTP 403 Forbidden error, which indicates that the server (online, not IRL) understood our request but refuses to process it. It’s a code that means access is denied. At 403 Forbidden, founders and hospitality professionals Aman Dua and Rachit Saboo, reinterpret it as “an invitation rather than a restriction, where distractions are denied by design”. 403 is meant to be a bit theatrical, with dim interiors, and lighting, sound and service designed to draw quiet focus, to abandon devices and be present. A double height bar connects both levels, and behind it is a dramatic, unreadable, backdrop inspired by a digital error. Should tipplers choose to pick up their phones to take a photo, it, like much of our world, reveals itself through the screen. 

In keeping with the theme, cocktails here are meant to be elegant and approachable, with one “by-request-only personalised cocktail ritual” which claims to make a “personalised liquid portrait”. On the menu are 20 small plates to match the drinks. Expect rosemary-scented garlic salt nuts, avocado and coconut ceviche, Nikkei lamb chops, red shrimp ceviche. Mains feature Forbidden Chicken and Nihari Noir and dessert has miso Basque cheesecake.

Suka Brew & Kitchen, Bengaluru

Only in Bengaluru: a 1.8-lakh sqft, 2,000-seater, Zanzibar-inspired brewery that doubles up as a tropical escape within the city, in Nagarabhavi no less, a neighbourhood surrounded by universities and colleges. Suka, which means happiness or bliss in Kannada, looks like a resort, with flowing water bodies, palm trees, botanical clusters, and an indoor waterfall. The menu is as vast as the space with chickpea pancakes sitting comfortably alongside South Indian meals and shahi korma paratha. There are also pizzas, burgers, soups and bar bites that are very ‘luru, like kori kempu bezule, and podi corn masala to go with a roster of craft beers. 

Events, special menus, and festivals 

Lohri at Ikk Panjab, Chandigarh and Delhi 

Across all its locations in the capital region, Ikk Panjab is celebrating Lohri with a tasting menu offering all the seasonal deliciousness. There is saag gosht, slow-cooked meat with mustard greens finished with white butter; charsi tikka with its minimal spicing, comforting broths like makai da shorba and kharode da shorba, and a warmly spiced finish with adrak ka halwa, a Lohri special to celebrate the new harvest and the advent of spring. 

Lohri at Loya, New Delhi

At The Taj Palace in Delhi, Loya’s winter-warming Lohri menu celebrates the bounty of lush leafy seasonal greens with sarson da saag with challi ki roti and kanji; chollia served three ways; kadam gosht slow-cooked with kohlrabi, rai-wala murg with black mustard greens, saat anaaj khichdi and bathua raita, alongside nostalgic cold weather sweets like gud wale chawal and gajrela. 

The Gathering, Mumbai

The Gathering’s second edition launches next weekend at Mumbai’s Mukesh Mills, a sprawling old textile mill set by Colaba’s seaside, a place so stunning, that it has been the venue for countless film and fashion shoots over the years, including The Nod’s shoot with Vedang Raina. Across three days (16th to 18th Jan), The Gathering, a culinary and cultural festival, will bring chefs, artists, designers, and significant voices from the world of food, beverage and hospitality here for dinners, arena performances, panel discussions, salons, workshops, delicious food and drink, and so much more. Five chefs will collaborate with five artists for five entirely unique, one-time dinners. Bookings are in The Gathering's link in bio. Check out The Gathering’s website for complete details and programming.