As always love your write up. IMHO I do think the cuisines of Sri Krishna Bhavan and Calicut Paragon are completely different - the former's strength being Karnataka & Andhra vegetarian cuisine (trust me very, very different to Kerala or Tamil vegetarian fare - the Dosas alone are so different in each state!) whereas the latter from Kerala's carnivorous region Malabar. The one thing I like about Calicut more than any other Kerala cuisine places in the city is the consistency - their Biriyani, Porotta, Appam, Beef, Fish curry, Prawn fry etc taste the same every.single.day. Having worked in restaurants I know how hard it is to achieve consistency on a daily basis and for that alone CP has my respect. It's almost like they have frozen their dishes forever because the taste never changes. And then again, to remain in business for 86 years that's something else. Forever queues outside their outlets be it India or Dubai and it is no marketing strategy, just love to eat their food.
I agree with every word of all of this. I just found it safe and a bit boring, which can be the downside to consistency. I’ve had versions of these dishes in other places where those plates had more personality and the restaurant felt less like an industrial turnstile. The dishes felt three out of five or 6 out of 10. It felt like there were some easy options to dial things up a little. But everything you’ve said is correct. I’m sure the consistency is on point. It has that feel about it. The fact that it is enormous and accommodates for hundreds of people with a queue half an hour long tells you everything you need to know about a restaurant. It’s like the old saying that 50 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.
It’s an opinion to be honest. Take McDonald’s. I don’t have a problem with McDonald’s. I think that more restaurants should do more things like McDonald’s (controversial, perhaps).
But they do a lot of stuff in the name of consistency.
The downside is that I would never credit McDonald’s as a great best burger or best in class, but I would credit it as being the benchmark for burgers because of consistency.
You could almost call it the Big Mac Index because if I asked you whether a burger is better or worse than a big Mac, we all know what that means and that’s because we’ve all had a largely consistent experience of it, which makes it a frame of reference.
But it doesn’t make it exciting. It just makes it reliable, and reliable is enough to be popular (hence the queues, together with pricing etc.)
Now that you explain it that way - yes! CP is not known for its breakthrough dishes or creativity but it's a place we Malayalis will associate with consistently good/familiar dishes. On a side note 'Keralan' is not a real word (me thinks Jamie Oliver made it up lol) - it is Keralites who are people from Kerala or Malayali(s) from the language Malayalam for the people who speak it.
A table of two halves really. Talks to the point of context, I suppose. I obviously enjoyed it like the second coming of Ram - its almost time for Diwali and all that.
I enjoyed it! I just thought some of the dishes were underpowered and under seasoned. The banana wrapped fish tasted great but was not cooked well. But the pricing is good and it’s a place that I would go to discover dishes new to Me. You should write about it though because my opinion is not the final word on the Restaurant. Not that this restaurant needs a final word. The population of a small country passes through here every day so that tells everyone everything they need to know!
Yeah quite fair I think. It does feel like they have had to carry the weight of pleasing a large audience and they have settled on not offending anyone. Which is what I believe could explain the risk aversion and under seasoning.
I think that is precisely. I think they aim to please everyone and therefore you end up with this sanitised version of things. I get the approacher obviously financially it seems to be working out for them. However between 180 dishes on a menu, there is more than enough room to take some risk.
As always love your write up. IMHO I do think the cuisines of Sri Krishna Bhavan and Calicut Paragon are completely different - the former's strength being Karnataka & Andhra vegetarian cuisine (trust me very, very different to Kerala or Tamil vegetarian fare - the Dosas alone are so different in each state!) whereas the latter from Kerala's carnivorous region Malabar. The one thing I like about Calicut more than any other Kerala cuisine places in the city is the consistency - their Biriyani, Porotta, Appam, Beef, Fish curry, Prawn fry etc taste the same every.single.day. Having worked in restaurants I know how hard it is to achieve consistency on a daily basis and for that alone CP has my respect. It's almost like they have frozen their dishes forever because the taste never changes. And then again, to remain in business for 86 years that's something else. Forever queues outside their outlets be it India or Dubai and it is no marketing strategy, just love to eat their food.
I agree with every word of all of this. I just found it safe and a bit boring, which can be the downside to consistency. I’ve had versions of these dishes in other places where those plates had more personality and the restaurant felt less like an industrial turnstile. The dishes felt three out of five or 6 out of 10. It felt like there were some easy options to dial things up a little. But everything you’ve said is correct. I’m sure the consistency is on point. It has that feel about it. The fact that it is enormous and accommodates for hundreds of people with a queue half an hour long tells you everything you need to know about a restaurant. It’s like the old saying that 50 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.
Ha ha ha - I never equated consistency to boring, there you go, I learnt something new to think about today!
It’s an opinion to be honest. Take McDonald’s. I don’t have a problem with McDonald’s. I think that more restaurants should do more things like McDonald’s (controversial, perhaps).
But they do a lot of stuff in the name of consistency.
The downside is that I would never credit McDonald’s as a great best burger or best in class, but I would credit it as being the benchmark for burgers because of consistency.
You could almost call it the Big Mac Index because if I asked you whether a burger is better or worse than a big Mac, we all know what that means and that’s because we’ve all had a largely consistent experience of it, which makes it a frame of reference.
But it doesn’t make it exciting. It just makes it reliable, and reliable is enough to be popular (hence the queues, together with pricing etc.)
Now that you explain it that way - yes! CP is not known for its breakthrough dishes or creativity but it's a place we Malayalis will associate with consistently good/familiar dishes. On a side note 'Keralan' is not a real word (me thinks Jamie Oliver made it up lol) - it is Keralites who are people from Kerala or Malayali(s) from the language Malayalam for the people who speak it.
A table of two halves really. Talks to the point of context, I suppose. I obviously enjoyed it like the second coming of Ram - its almost time for Diwali and all that.
I enjoyed it! I just thought some of the dishes were underpowered and under seasoned. The banana wrapped fish tasted great but was not cooked well. But the pricing is good and it’s a place that I would go to discover dishes new to Me. You should write about it though because my opinion is not the final word on the Restaurant. Not that this restaurant needs a final word. The population of a small country passes through here every day so that tells everyone everything they need to know!
Yeah quite fair I think. It does feel like they have had to carry the weight of pleasing a large audience and they have settled on not offending anyone. Which is what I believe could explain the risk aversion and under seasoning.
I think that is precisely. I think they aim to please everyone and therefore you end up with this sanitised version of things. I get the approacher obviously financially it seems to be working out for them. However between 180 dishes on a menu, there is more than enough room to take some risk.