In a NUtshell:
An Asian cuisine restaurant that thankfully serves real Asian food the way they are ( non indianized), with great attention to detail on food, in addition to having a nice unusual decor and good staff.
Address & other details:Typhoon shelter
Meal for 2: ₹1000 onwards
Cuisine type : vegetarian & non vegetarian
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I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster
Short description- in case u r in a hurry
We read about this place in the social media and also saw an installation by them in the atrium of palladium mall. They were also serving sample dimsums to people st the atrium during launch.
Out of curiosity, I started checking what is typhoon shelter as a concept. Here is a just – Typhoon shelter is a man made bay or cove with a small opening to the sea, which was used as a shelter for boats during typhoons. This was in late 1800s. However over time people (mainly fisherfolk) started staying here and over a century they developed their own culture, food, rituals etc. 1990s onwards many of them started moving ashore to find jobs and stay there.
There are typhoon shelter restaurants in hongkong and the next time i am there I will surely visit. Strange that I hv never been to a typhoon shelter restaurant in hongkong inspite of endless visits to hongkong.
This restaurant has a unique feature. The entire roof has a projection of typhoon like skies and the video keeps playing throughout. So in a way it gives illusion of one dining sitting inside a typhoon shelter.
There is a common hall area with seating of 4 chairs each around tables. There are 3 side covered rooms with sofa seating for 6 and then there are bar chairs. Decor has strong visual elements of a typical premium touristy Asian restaurant in hongkong.
We went there on two occasions. Our server incidentally was the same on both days. Great guy with ample knowledge of what was on offer. Very warm and took great care.
The menu card is detailed and self explanatory. It has sections of small, medium and large plates.
We usually never repeat going to the same restaurant. Loved the first visit and hence made a revisit to try out different options in day 2.
Thankfully the kitchen did not attempt to indianize the food. It was pretty close to the original i have had in hongkong, China, Vietnam etc. Hence loved the food a lot.
Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
Day 1
We started with Squid ink dumpling. It was outstanding. Juicy, busting out with flavours and just too good to taste. Rate it 4.5/5
Tuna tartar (raw tuna) with avocado , boiled eggs, fish roe was served on a plate that was made from Himalayan salt chunk!!! So the saltiness of the salt plate was only source of salt in the food. Our server suggested that we shud hv The salad fast – else it wud soak up too much salt. Photography took a bit of time and yes he was obviously right. Some parts from the bottom were slightly more salty.
He then mixed the salad for us.
Loved every bit of it – from the pungent fish smell to the interplay of textures of fish and avocado to the sheer taste. Rate it 4.5/5
Yuan lamb claypot was super interesting – its thin soup was full of meaty flavours , the veggies were crunchy and retained their texture quite a bit, meat pieces were very good. Rate it 4.5/5
Seafood rice had the perfect flavour, great taste but suboptimal texture. Thankfully it was not made with basmati like most places but it was not sticky rice either. Rate it 4.25/5
Zen was a super interesting dessert – a plate came with grey coloured pebbles in top. Some of these were real pebbles and some were the dessert. So one had to tap on top of each, feel the softness and then dig in. Loved the taste of this not so sweet dessert. Subtle flavours and a lovey filling. Rate it 4.5/5
Day 2
Chilled Soba noodles with pickled carrots, Lichis and pickled ginger emulsion, king oyster. Lichis were silent. Rest made their presence felt. Excellent. Served chilled. Perfectly seasoned and made. Very enjoyable. Rate it 4.5/5
Cha sui Bao Cantonese barbecued pork bun. It was a super soft thick shell of super soft, fermented and fluffy outer layer. The filling was a sweetish barbecue pork. Loved it. Rate it 4.5/5
Zin jiang Lamb chops – grilled cumin, leek ash rubbed. These were outstanding. The meat was from a small animal and hence tender. It was super juicy and the flavours of meat were very well expressed. We were speechless as we started eating this – started talking only after finishing. Rate it 4.75/5
Tsin Tao scallops – scallops steamed in ysin Tao beer, dried home made XO sauce. Insanely good XO sauce and perfectly deep fried garlic that did not go bitter. Scallops were outstanding. 4.75/5
We also made our version of fried rice by mixing the plain Jasmine rice with whatever remained at the bottom of the plate after we ate the scallops. Mind blowing !!!!
Sous vide duck legs in chilli plum sauce was a French way of cooking duck with Asian flavours . Crisp outer layer, super soft and juicy meat inside, dried up sauce stocking to the body of the duck, full blown flavours of meat. Meat and sauce complimented each other well in terms if taste. Rate it 4.5/5
The lost salmon – 3 bean glazed pink salmon, sunflour leaves, cured radish. Super juicy, bursting with flavours, distinct layers with melting fish fat between the layers , wow. The fish was cooked with skin and that made a great impact on the texture and the taste. Rate it 4.5/5
Overall rating averages out to
Wud look forward to revisit