The fish-dom of taste: If you’re a fish aficionado then this restauarnt in Mysuru is a place you have to visit.

NT Features

This Mysuru restaurant Seafood Restaurant is a large, well-lit place with functional seating. The palace is all about fish food. The rope-netted ceiling and the rope-twined hanging lamps, and the mild wafts of fish aroma instantly create the ambience of a fish stop. Where’s the fish?

But you don’t get to it right away. Your appetite is first teased with an exotic salad of sliced cucumber and pineapple, sprinkled with peanuts. This simple salad is a perfect combo of citrusy and watery bites that aids digestion and gets you ready for what is to follow. The owner-chef, Siddique Hamza, says that he keeps changing the opening salad for variety and he enjoys the challenge of coming up with new interesting variations.

Then the appetisers – Angel Tawa Fry and Prawns Kandari – are served. Angel Tawa Fry is seer fish marinated in red masala and a cocktail of spices that tease the taste buds. Prawns Kandari is a singular experience – the prawns are marinated in a divinely creamy coconut sauce and the shell cover is left on. So when you bite into the soft crunchy layer (a textural experience) you are hit by the preserved pure taste of prawns and then it all mixes with the creamy sauce. A taste bomb, indeed.

For the main course there was the goldenish creamy Mango Curry with mango slices and various secret ingredients attacking your palate. The other dish Fish Moly was made of lavishly creamy, (yes, again) coconut milk and seer fish combined in some secret way of which you can’t see any evidence – the fish pieces (neatly mixed in the gravy.) This was accompanied by neer dosa, coin parothas, wheat parothas and ghee rice.

And then there were the beverages – fresh guava juice, lemon tea and fresh soda lime. Couldn’t help noticing a cherry reclining at the bottom of the soda glass – nice touch.

Just next door is Fresh Catch where you can pick up any fish you like and get it to the restaurant to be prepared for you. And if you don’t want to do that, rest assured you’re still being served the freshest of fish that comes from the same outlet.

The signature taste of the menu is the thing that fish dishes are loved for – the teasing of tastes with variations of tangy, spicy sweet. The secret masalas and other ingenuities applied make this menu a special fish feast. Hamza, who has worked decades in the industry, has tweaked traditional recipes to give them a contemporary appeal.

The smiling staff is eager and ready to serve and the bonhomie of its chef-owner (who attributes the success of his restaurants spread all over to teamwork) makes this experience a memorable one of taste and service. Hamza says he judges his dishes by the look on the faces of his patrons while they are relishing the spread. Now that’s the best index.