It’s impossible to not be awed by this now absolutely famous food destination right beside The Leela Palace Bengaluru. With an address like that and three floors of what we could call one of the city’s most beautiful ambiences, Koko Bengaluru already has a lot going for it.
It only helps that you’re helplessly mesmerised by the beautiful interiors the moment you enter. With three different vibes on three different floors, each uniquely curated for a vivid and diverse experience, we immediately chose to get comfortable on the open-air terrace with cabanas and group seating arrangements for choice. It took us a while to settle in. The aesthetics are breath-taking and we were there after a busy day at work. But a few minutes after we sunk into our comfortable chairs, we began our meal with the most refreshing Mogo Mogo tea. Bursting with tropical flavours like banana, mango and melon, the green sencha-based beverage is now a favourite.
Palate soothed enough to begin our gourmet journey, we called for our first few dishes — the Koko-San Salad and the Smoked Duck Salad. The former, with its mix of crunchy and fresh ingredients, is an immediate favourite, while the latter is an absolute bomb, with heady flavours that mean to impress and manage to do so too, quite smoothly. We paired these winners with three equally delicious cocktails from their Koko Premium Menu — the vodka or tequila-based The Leaf Game, the gin-based Bombyx Mori and the vodka or gin-based Doucai.
Pretty mind-blown already, we then moved to soup and chose to go with the Edamame Nutty Soup and the Laksa Soup. Edamame is always a great choice and so was this earthy soup, but the winner was the Laksa, which we tried with prawns and chicken and were left craving for seconds. We paired them with three cocktails from the Koko Collaborations Menu — the whiskey-based South China Iced Tea, the whiskey-based Miso Caliente and the gin-based Muzzle Flash. Deeper in flavour, these cocktails complemented the rich laksa perfectly and set the tone for the rest of our meal.
It was now time to get to our actual meal and we went slightly berserk. We ordered a Sake Salmon Sashimi, a Hamachi Yellow Tail Nigiri, a Hamachi Yellow Tail Carpaccio, a Koko Signature Carpaccio, a Black Rice Edamame Roll Sushi, a Koko Signature Roll Sushi, a Wild Morel & Truffle Dumpling, a Prawn & Lemongrass Dumpling, a Chicken Longhai Dumpling and a Belgium Pork Cheung Fun. That might seem a lot, but with three/four pieces per portion, we polished off most of these in a few minutes and how!
The real surprise among these treats, however, was the Koko Signature Carpaccio that was made with slivers of tender coconut! We paired this fresh bounty with cocktails from the Koko Top 10 Menu — the prosecco based Koko Bellini, the vodka- based Konomi, the rum-based Funky Buddha and the rum-based White Day. The four drinks were a choice made in heaven and while they complemented our last course perfectly, they also paired really well with our desserts — but that’s a tale for another telling. We managed to only cover starters and small plates in this review, but look forward to another review soon where we promise to attempt to cover the rest of the insanely huge menu at Koko.
Meal for two: INR 6,000 onwards. At Old Airport Road.
Email: romal@newindianexpress.com
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