In a NUtshell:

A nice new restaurant that serves very good and interesting healthy vegetarian fusion food from across the world

Address & other details: Sante spa cuisine

Meal for 2: ₹1000 onwards

Cuisine type : 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 restaurant in the social media and decided to pay a visit. The concept sounded very creative and distinct, in addition to being relevant to a new generation who are conscious about their food.

BeFore I talk much about the restaurant, I would like to share this about us – We love good food and are not biased towards vegetarian or non vegetarian, cuisines etc. we have a wide palate – we appreciate thin watery flavourful Chinese soups as much as we love a good fiery laal maas or an authentic kashmiri pandit version of no onion no garlic mutton roganjosh. We love a good kerala kari meen potichattu as much as we like a baked Atlantic salmon or a steamed Boston crab or an awesome panki or a mocha (banana flower curry). We love overnight (12 hrs) slow cooked nihari as much as uncooked / raw sashimi of fatty tuna (fish) and salmon roe (raw eggs of salmon fish). Great food is what matters. We have no bias.

We super love our food at traditional vegetarian restaurants like soam, swati (gujarati), Prakash, vinay, aaswad (marathi), anima Madhava bhawan, Murugan idly (southern Indian), gangaur, Balaram mullick radharaman mullick (north Indian and Bengali) etc.

We love authentic food made in the traditional way and also good fusion food . We dislike food made with shortcuts and random things being called ‘authentic’.

Food at sante was good in general but for some of the fusion food we have had better in their original avatars. We are not used to eat some of these items in a vegetarian form e.g. a dimsum with a scallop / seafood / lamb filling made reasonable well will taste better than a brilliantly made dimsum with veggie fillings. An eggless cake will not necessarily taste as good. A virgin sangria will b similar to the real one by just the looks – taste and feel will always be miles apart ….. and so on.

With the theme of healthy, vegetarian , fusion food from across the world, I think the chef has done a great job. If one is to judge the food on purely taste parameters, some will make it and some will not. When seen thru the screen of the theme, food is probably as good as it could get.

my recommendation – highly recommended for all vegetarians, specially those who are open to trying new dishes beyond their traditional cuisine, all healthy food freaks, all people who eat non vegetarian food but appreciate good food. Also, my sense is that the items on the menu that were ‘born vegetarian’ are better than the ones which were inspired by something that originally was a non vegetarian dish.

Staff – we called on an evening in a weekend. The person who picked the phone said 8.15 to 8.30 i will get you a seat for 2. When we reached at 8.20 we were told ‘it will take 45 minutes’. Either there is a booking system or there isn’t. Anyway we waited for 20 minutes and we were given a seat. The gentleman managing the floor was very good to talk to. The lady who took orders helped us in selecting. Rest of the guys did not interact much.

Loved the wooden cutlery. Was super impressed with the handmade straws made from leaf.

When we were finally moving out close to 10 pm, people were still coming in groups. The restaurant seems to hv started off very well, thanks to the unique concept.

Detailed description- in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

We started with Beetroot and spinach hummus with multi grain khakhara chips and extra virgin olive oil. It Looked very beautiful. The colour of beetroot and spinach was fully there but neither of these ingredients did have any impact on taste or flavour. The hummus was Super smooth , yet thick and lumpy, directionally very good to taste. There was a mild sign of fermentation that had started ….. I remembered the tip we got when attending One of chef moshe’s classes where he had mentioned that while making the hummus paste if temperature is not kept low, then it might easily turn bad (start getting fermented) in less time.

Rate the hummus 3.75/5

Khakhara was excellent. Loved every bit if it..

Rate it 4.5/5

Overall rating averages out to 4.1/5

Next came Chilled avocado soup with green peas, cucumber, mint, tahini and lemon. Looked inviting. We were stunned after putting a spoonful in our mouth. The lady had recommended this but it was not worth a recommendation – I guess we were victims of an execution error at the kitchen. The soup was bland, no particular flavor, nice creamy texture , bland taste with a hint of bitter!!! Rate it 2/5

The third dish we had was Sour and spice mushroom dimsums with White fungus, shiitake, chestnuts and carrots. This came with a soy sauce and a ginger based dip that kind of reminded of Japanese gari. The outer transparent layer of the dimsum was superb – Translucent, uneven, soft and very nice. The filling was good but we were not wow ed.

Coming to what was inside – No comparison to a seafood filler or minced meat filler that our tastebuds r used to, simply because a carrot and other veggies cannot compete with those In terms of sheer taste and flavor. Chestnut added a lovely twist to the texture. However the dimsum tasted great when dipped in the soy and when accompanied with the gingery dip. Rate the dimsum combo 4.25/5

We were recommended the Bajra riso with mungo, spinach and green beans. Loved every bit of it. The chewiness of the bajra, the flavours of spinach and the texture of the cheese. Rate it 4.5/5

Salted caramel mud cake was made with whole wheat flour, jaggery, caramel and pink Himalayan salt. It was not mentioned but it felt like an eggless cake. With The whole wheat flour base, it was a tough job to match texture with any maida base cake. I thought the texture could be better.

All elements of the cake mentioned above , expressed themselves pretty well. I would have surely liked the chocolate to be much more dark – the one that was used here did not have much of a strong character. Rate it 3.75/5

Almonds muesli ice cream with honey and roasted nuts was a low sweet great dessert. Flavours of almond were expressed very well and muesli gave an interesting texture to the ice cream. Rate it 4/5

Pineapple spinach spearmint was recommended by the lady fom the restaurant. Outstanding is the one word for it. It was just perfect and it had totally unexpected nuances. Rate it 4.5/5

Chilled vegan turmeric coco latte was also very good. Subtle & very nice to taste. Rate it 4/5

Overall rating of food at sante averages out to 4/5

Wud revisit, when in BKC, to try out a lot more interesting items on the menu.