Coconut Grove is back in the city, with delicious coastal fare

High up in the air on the Santhome High Road, a green light beckons. “Coconut Grove” it twinkles, over the rooftops past the Chennai lighthouse. You stop at a crowded side lane that leads to the Santhome beachfront and enter through another popular South Indian eatery. The lift that takes you to the fifth floor is so slow that if there were a pregnant woman, she would have given birth by the time it reaches the fourth floor. There’s a “Hurrah!” moment when you get to the Coconut Grove. The sea stretches out forever at one end. At night, the blue-robed statue on top of Santhome Cathedral is etched in the darkness. The Lighthouse blinks it’s warning.

“I started the first Coconut Grove on Church Street, Bengaluru way back in 1987” says Raju Thomas, 
the owner. There have been many transplants from the first tree, the most recent one at Sydney.   “I  really wanted to have a first class sea-facing restaurant for Chennai,” he explains for why he has chosen such a crowded location. I agree, once you  are up there, the soothing music, the hanging brass lamp with real oil wicks, the curved outline of a snake boat suspended from the ceiling, suggest the sea and sky of the Malabar coast.

There is also the food. Coconut Grove in all its avatars has kept to certain high standard of Kerala style specialties. The appams, the coconut based fish moilles and spicy mutton stir-fries have been all time favourites. The menu however suggests a different story. There are it tells us, items from Coorg, Mangalore, Chettinad and Malabar. “I wanted to make it representative of the coastal cuisine of the South,” says Thomas. When I murmur that I don’t see anything from the Moplah cuisine of Kozhikode famous for its “Calicut Biryani”, he directs me to the large selection of fish dishes and those from his own family cuisine of Kottayam. 

This is what we choose on our first night out. We have their spiked-with-spices buttermilk, while fingering a platter of mutton fry with slivers of fried coconut. The appams appear like flying saucers to be eaten with the creamy fish items, the fishing nets of parothas with chicken.The sweet and sticky pineapple halwa, the thick jaggery, dhal and coconut fudge end the meal with a resounding bang. Coconut Grove rocks at Santhome.

Expect to pay Rs 500 per head for a non-veg meal. Less for veg. Open for lunch and dinner.Details: 48510004