In a NUtshell

Rarely everything on a randomly chosen long menu is great – this one was an exception. The food was a source of immense joy to our taste buds.

Address & other details: umami kitchen

Meal for 2: ₹1000 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian & non vegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

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 were at Auroville to attend a workshop named Givers Meet Edition 2 – An event where everyone participating explores ways to give back to the society. This was organised by exotic echo, the organization whom we came across in late 2018 in Nagaland. In the last decade they have revived a dying tribal weaving art, loinloom weaving. The lunch was organised by team exotic echo & they paid for it to the restaurant. We, the guests, paid an overall amount to exotic echo.

Chef Leonardo, an Italian by birth, runs this cafe. We saw a glimpse of him as he got out to leave, after the lunch hour. As soon as we got to see him, we actually physically stood up & started clapping. It was a real standing ovation.

The restaurant has some seating in the open & some more inside. The interiors look more like a cafe that also sells designer clothes.

The looks of the cafe were very cool but I would have seen something similar elsewhere in india. The service was good but we have seen better. The food was surely among the top 5 (in its genre), that I have had in india.

The outdoor area where we sat, had pebbles on the floor & we sat in relaxed cane chairs – great for eating food , relaxing & also catch up with friends.

The menu was written with chalk on a green board.

Absolutely loved the food.

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

Auroville cheese platter was fab. Unfortunately, not too many restaurants (outside of 5 stars) sell a good cheese platter. Serving that in the right texture is even rare.

With the platter came honey that had super high viscosity & an outstanding orange peel marmalade that was bursting out with flavors

The platter was pure joy. Rate it 4.5/5

Mahi Mahi fish fry had a crisp rawa coating & that helped the flaky fish retain its juices. Perfect balance of taste it had.

This came with a super smooth, dense & fab tasting mashed potato.

Rate the platter 4.5/5

I did not know see Pork curry rice on the menu on the black board. I guess it was a special request by exotic echo team.

The pork curry had loads of pieces of boneless pork. Very good to taste. Rate it 4/5.

Homemade gnocchi was a rockstar of a dish. Super soft, melt in the mouth gnocchi with a fabulous tomato sauce that retained full flavors of tomato yet did not feel tomatoeeee. The balance of the dish was excellent. Rate it 4.75/5

Cheesy beef burgers were very good. Absolutely loved the super juicy & flavorful beef patty. Rate the patty 4/5

The burger bun was good but we have surely had better. It felt a bit dry. Rate it 3/5.

Overall rating of the burger averaged out to 3.5/5

Beef & pork meat loaf was crazy good. Did not have anything so good (from the same cuisine) in the last five years in india.

Super soft, bursting out with meaty flavors. Perfect to taste, optimum balance of taste, an awesome tomato based sauce – all of this put together did the magic. Rate it 4.95/5

Roast beef was again another outstanding dish. Super juicy & intense flavors of meat were the highlight here. Loved the large grains of hard rock salt as they contested with the soft meat slices. Rate it 4.75/5

Tiramisu was excellent. It was subtle, had the right texture & was very enjoyable. Rate it 4.5/5

Lemon cheese cake was wow. It came in a glass jar – the balance of the lemon cream to the rest was just too good. Rate it 4.75/5

We heard ‘Kombucha’ & ordered it. The bottles that came were ‘kajimba ginger ale’. Good to taste. Liked the hibiscus one & the classic one. Not rating this as it was not from the restaurant.

Overall rating of food at umami kitchen averages out to 4.5/5

It got added on my re-visit list for sure. Look forward.