Around Town: With an ingredient-forward menu, Araku brings its first-ever restaurant to Mumbai; here’s what to expect

The restaurant is conceptualised by chef Rahul Sharma and restaurateur Aditi Dugar.

The outpost in Colaba’s century-old building Sunny House also offers a peak into the terroir of Araku Valley with a 3D relief map.

Recognising the application of the Arakunomics model, the Rockefeller Foundation selected the Hyderabad-based non-profit Naandi Foundation as one of the ‘top 10 visionaries’ in the world for the Food Vision 2050 Prize in August 2020, for facilitating the soil revolution in Araku and thereby paving way for regenerative agriculture. The restaurant, conceptualised by chef Rahul Sharma and restaurateur Aditi Dugar, boasts of the same approach.

Rhubarb cream cake, eaturing a very soft Araku green pepper cake served with fresh cream and rhubarb sorbet on the side.

“In a way, it is a showcase of our food and sourcing philosophy,” stated Dugar, adding that at the farm level, they are changing the topsoil, adding bio-nutrients into the compost to make the soil richer. When it comes to sourcing ingredients, Dugar added that about 10-15 per cent of ingredients like cascara, green pepper, kidney beans, and a variety of millets and ancient grains are coming directly from Araku while the rest of the produce comes from urban and rural farms that the Naandi Foundation closely works with.

The focus at the restaurant is not on the cuisine but on the ingredients. Expect local everyday ingredients presented in imaginative ways.

Peas and yoghurt, steamed and cooked with house-made butter, served on a bed of garlic yoghurt and topped with juice of pods.

We began with focaccia of the day (Rs 300), made from peanuts, vegetables and whole wheat flour, and served with cream cheese and olive oil with crushed pepper. Next came peas and yoghurt (Rs 450) which put the spotlight on one of winter’s favourite produce, peas. Here they were steamed and cooked with house-made butter, served on a bed of garlic yoghurt and topped with juice of pods, which are often discarded in our kitchens, and adorned with its shoots. Not only did it look beautiful, but it was also an interesting pairing that worked very well for us. We then moved on to very comforting purple corn grit (Rs 500) that saw spicy purple corn porridge – which had the consistency of Rajasthani’s go-to winter dish of pearl millet rabri. It was topped with charred yellow corn and served with corn crisps. It was finished in no time. Giving us the perfect company was its light vanilla iced latte (Rs 340).

“We apply a minimalistic approach in terms of how we use an ingredient,” said chef Sharma, adding that most dishes focus on one ingredient and seasonality plays an important role in the food they offer. He also shared that they work closely with various farms across the country, which present them with an interesting range of ingredients. “Just yesterday we got a variety of rice called Kalanamak from Shravasti, a region in UP. It is one of the most ancient varieties of rice, with records of it being first cultivated in around 600 BC,” he added as he brought to our table crispy pepper leaves and pepper aioli (Rs 350) from the snacks section which featured deep-fried green peppercorn leaves from Araku. It could have been a lovely dish to munch on but the leaves were too oily. The accompanying egg yolk aioli with pickled cucumber and green pepper in the centre was lovely.

The restaurant opens with its signature Modbar and a wall rack highlighting all the varieties of Araku coffee. It also features customised bamboo lamps crafted by local artisans from North East India.

Moving on, we liked the presentation of hot-sauce noodles (Rs 600) where hand-cut noodles came with a broth of house-made butter on the side. A few minutes after the sauce was added, the dish came together beautifully. However, it fell short on flavours. We rounded off our meal with rhubarb and cream cake (Rs 500) featuring a very soft Araku green pepper cake served with fresh cream and rhubarb sorbet on the side. The rhubarb slices on the top of the cake were large enough to not be had as a whole and the form was such that it couldn’t be cut with the dessert spoon either. It acted as an obstruction to an otherwise perfect dish.

The restaurant, which opens to the public Wednesday (December 13), will serve only lunch (noon to 3.30 pm) and dinner (7 pm to 1 am) with cocktails at the beginning. Going forward, it also plans to start coffee hour during the day.

Price for two: Rs 3,500 with alcohol

For reservation, call 7337205222