Poetry can jump off a page. Or, your plate... we discover at the newly-opened Pan Sauce Poetry, which is located in RA Puram. Owned by chef Saravanan K and partner, Guru Prakash, we’re told that this 54-seater (indoors and outdoors) restaurant has been in the making for over a year and has gone through several delays and iterations before arriving at the concept: fine dining in a casual restaurant setting. This means that if it’s your first time visiting after spotting the signage on Second Main Road, you’re likely going to flip open your menu expecting to see pasta and sandwiches. Instead, you will spot a name like: Pepper duck confit rillettes phyllo with a chilli orange and citrus glace. Looking across on the right side of the menu, we are pleased to find that though this dish sounds straight out of a five-star hotel, the pricing is on par café standards.
Eurotrip
Meanwhile, the European cuisine on offer is straight out of chef Saravanan’s zone of expertise given this is what he handled during his stint at The Park Chennai. We particularly enjoy the Norwegian Citrus Salmon which is paired with grilled polenta and asparagus fricassee. This is finished with a confit of naval orange, saffron beurre blanc sauce and a garnish of fish roe that looks straight out of a painting and by no means need the aid of Instagram filters to pop.
Pâté starter
From the appetiser section, the Wild Mushroom Pâté Cigars with truffle oil and porcini dust impresses with flavour and presentation, while the Baby pumpkin gnocchi stuffed with basil creamy bocconcini, sprout and pepper coulis is a delight. Sadly, the Deconstructed sous vide Buffalo Wings that follow are a bit of a let down, serving up a pasty texture instead of that juicy bite we were hoping for.
Dessert makes up for this though. Currently, there are 10 options available off the shelf but chef Saravanan tells us this will soon be a brand of its own called ‘Textures’. We sample airy choux buns filled with a coconut cream blended with fresh passion fruit. Even more indulgent is the German Chocolate Cake made with a decadent Valrhona ganache. The real big daddy of this line-up however, turns out to be a plate called Textures of Chocolate inspired by Peter Gilmore’s Eight Textured Chocolate Cake on MasterChef Australia. Imagine this: layers of chocolate in sponge, mousse, ganache, a chocolate slab and then, the final texture — hot chocolate poured on top — for a blissful melt-in-the-mouth finale.
Meal for two at INR 1,200.