Kalpakavadi

This is a Keralan restaurant in York that opened in 2019 in what used to be a bookshop, the restaurant's name meaning “land of coconut”.  The restaurant is larger than it looks from the outside, seating up to ninety diners. There is a short wine list, but with no vintages shown. We drank Kingfisher beer instead.

The meal had a very mixed start. Meek porichathu was three pieces of tilapia with a spicy kick of chilli. The problem was that something had gone badly wrong with either this particular piece of fish (which is what I suspect) or the cooking, because the fish had a quite unpleasant flabbiness of texture (9/20). To be fair, the waiter noticed and offered to replace the dish or take it off the bill, without us saying a word. This was unfortunate, but such things can happen in kitchens, and they handled it well.

By contrast, utthapam was very good indeed. This Keralan dish is usually served at breakfast in India rather than for dinner, at least in my experience. It is often described as a kind of Indian take on pizza, but it is really a pancake. The batter is made from fermented urad dal and rice. The batter is fried on a hot griddle, then topped with green chillies, onions, curry leaves or other toppings. This one had very good texture and came with the traditional accompaniment of sambar and chutney, in this case, two different coconut chutneys. These were both good, one mild and one spicy, and the sambar, a stew made with lentils, tamarind, spices and mixed vegetables such as potatoes and a spice mix of sambar powder, was unusually flavourful (easily 13/20).

A masala dosa was also nicely made, the thin crisp cylinder made from a batter of urad dal, rice and optionally additional ingredients such as fenugreek seeds. The mixed vegetable filling with potatoes and spices worked well, and it had the same excellent sambar and chutneys that came with the uthappam (13/20).

Kozhi malli peralan (“chicken”, “jasmine”, “covered in” is the literal translation) is a Keralan curry made with onions, curry leaves, tomato, and coconut, the pieces of chicken having been previously marinated in a blend of spices and cooked slowly. This particular version of the dish used green peppercorns additionally. The sauce was good, the chicken itself a touch drier and stringier in texture than ideal. This was still a tasty dish, though (12/20). On the side, we had a very good channa masala, the classic Punjabi chickpea curry made with tomatoes, spices and onions. Here, the chickpeas were tender, and the sauce had good complexity from the spice mix (13/20).

The thing that impressed me most was a side dish of what was described as a paratha. In a paratha, the unleavened and layered flatbread, the layers are created by folding the wheat flour dough multiple times. The dough is cooked in a skillet and enriched with ghee. A good paratha has multiple layers and a soft dough, with a golden exterior. This bread can easily be too greasy if too much ghee is used, or too dry if not enough ghee is applied. This particular version, though billed as a paratha, had a texture more like a root canai, a similar unleavened layered bread made with refined white flour rather than wheat flour, giving a soft, flaky interior. Whatever flour was used, the result here was a lovely bread, light in texture (14/20).

Service was very friendly from all the staff that we encountered, and the bill came to just £36 per person. Despite the one poor dish, the rest of our meal was of a good standard, and I would happily come again just to eat the uthappam and its sambar, and enjoy the lovely bread.