In a nutshell:

Intrigue, surprise, theatre, show, joy, blown off, warmth, unexpected, artistic are words that come to my mind as I sit to write about Cavatina. What an evening.

Address & other details:

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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.

YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives 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

A week before our trip to Goa, we met our Goan friend Crescentia Scolt Fernandes at a social gathering in Gurgaon. Crescentia had been running a Goan restaurant Bernardo’s in Gurgaon for almost 2 decades in Gurgaon. Crescentia said she doesn’t get to eat out much when in Goa since she spends a lot of time visiting friends & relatives. The other reason is that she herself cooks Goan food at home regularly. She said Cavatina stood out in her memory since this was a different & very good modern take on traditional Goan food. Hearing this, cavatina secured a place in our itinerary. We had not known about this restaurant before.

We called a day in advance & booked a table for two.

On the scheduled day (a weekday) we reached to find a beautiful restaurant with warm staff, with many vacant seats. By the time we left, most seats had filled up.

The attention to detail by the interior designer is commendable. Local elements brought together & presented in an artistic way.

The miniature objects in which each tapas was served was unbridled imagination – wow. see pictures in detailed description section below.

Unlike most cafés these days, the attention to detail extended to the kitchen as well. Each & every dish we had was either good or very good or outstanding. Nothing average or bad.

While making this post, I was looking at their Instagram handle & saw many posts & videos about local people who serve real home grown / foraged/caught (seafood) ingredients – could relate to that on spot. Just skills & imagination do not make such great food – ingredients have to be the best.

The presentation & imagination of the dishes was intriguing to begin with & would eventually end up with joy to the eyes, the mind & to the taste buds.

The menu card was descriptive, with no food pictures.

Our server patiently came back & explained each & every dish in detail & answered all our questions in detail.

Food here was pure love. Thank you for the recommendation Crescentia. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY YUMMRAJ.

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

As we waited for the tapas to arrive, these came to the table

An outstanding Salsa that was juicy & perfectly seasoned. Right balance of salt & sour.

Smoked eggplant was really nice. We could not stop eating it with the breads

Kalchi kadhi, a local Goan style kadhi. Simply unstoppable.

We were also given a tiny bread basket with tiny Poi, a local hard crust bread that reminds of a baguette & a focaccia. Each & every one was really good. The attention to detail in the breads was evident as well.

We asked for different items from the tapas menu. After a point it seems we forgot clicking some pictures. So please bear with no pictures for some dishes.

Koyloleo came first. A compete black Rice pancake (looking like a taco) with Goan choriz filling. Super Smokey flavour, insane flavour & intense taste of choriz. What a start to a fabulous evening. Rate it 4.95/5

Ros omelet is Goa’s popular street food, & is usually served with a chicken/ mutton or pork broth on the roadside. Read our experience of a fabulous Ros omelet here – gopal

The Ros omelet inspired dish at Cavatina had an extreme crisp bun, soft & juicy layers of omelet in the middle, with Flavourful eggs. The eggs were not over cooked like in most places since India. Loved that bit. The crisp vs juicy contrast worked very well. Rate it 4/5

The dish was served with vegetable broth which was good. The bone broth at Gopal’s was many times better (of course, not fair to blame the culinary artists of Cavatina).

Choriz and bacon pao was pure love. Loved the caramelised onions in it. Outstanding 4.75/5

Nest in the woods came in a huge root-branch restored on the table. The nest was Crisp roesti potato. cafreal of pulled chicken & quail egg sat in the middle . Nice nest. Very good cafreal. The overall taste & texture of cafreal was somewhat distracted / shadowed by the crisp nest. The meat did not complement. It took away. Rate it 4/5

Chicken Albondigas (Meatballs) cooked with cream cheese, crisp lotus stem & served with lemon pickle aioli was a pleasant surprise. Who said chicken tastes like tissue paper most of the time? (not much taste of it’s own). The Chefs did magic with the chicken ball. Rate it 4.5/5

Beef chili fry galouti was served with Pao crisps & green chili aioli.

After eating it we conclude that we like our Lucknow Chowk galoutis or even the one at Kitchen of Awadh way better than this . The Cavatina one is good but too sophisticated for our taste. Less fat. Less juiciness. Too serious. Too nerdy for our liking. Rate it 3/5

Kulli cutlets were made using Brilliant crabmeat. Natural sweetness of the crabs was so beautifully preserved in the dish. Flavours intact. It was Cooked like a tawa made tikki. Rate it 4.75/5

Cavatina chirut (Cigars) had Prawns and Goan choriz, with bimbli jalapeno relish. Once again, a reason for celebration for our taste buds. Rate it 4.25/5

Neuri came next. It had Pork and waterchestnut, with bacon & cream reduction. Loved it. Rate it 4.5/5

Tonnantle bangdo was Hay smoked mackerel that arrived on a stack of hay, still smoking, to the table. Fabulous, fantastic to taste. The strong flavours, the usual hard & flavourful mackarel fish & and lovely smokiness made it a memorable last tapas dish we had that evening. Rate it 4.75/5

Usually that much tapas is as good as dinner but out of pure greed we ordered the Filet Mignon. It came with Mash potato, red wine reduction & truffle mushroom ragout. Loved the medium rare steak to its core. Only Tres Delhi (that we know of) does a steak close to this, these days in Delhi NCR. The one at Tres is made from Buffalo meat. The Cavatina one is the real thing & is better than the one at Tres. Rate the filet mignon 4.5/5

The Most 5 stars in Delhi NCR have dropped having steaks on the menu in fear.

Drink

We tried Tambde Roza Tuje Pollea – it had Urak, chepdne-torr, kokum, jalapeno, mint, salt, lemon . The basic balance of taste (Citrus salty sweet ) was unbelievably good, almost unreal. Kokum gave it a different twist. Jalapeño tickled the taste buds. Rate it 4.95/5

We also tried Urak grenadine bitters cocktail. Unlike the chatpata, chatterbox Tambe roza, this drink was way more refined & had an understated confidence – layers of flavours & taste. Really good. We should have had this earlier than the Tambde Roza. Rate it 4.75/5

We had Raw honey flan for dessert. Speechless. Not too sweet. A hint of salt. A dreamy texture. The right amount of browning. Rate it 4.75/5

Overall rating of food & beverages at Cavatina averages out to 4.45/5

Look forward to surely revisit.