Best of the Best: Avartana, ITC Grand Chola

Avartana, ITC Grand Chola, Chennai serves tasting menus having Modern Indian cuisine foods. These are what I had during my visit on 14/10/2023 to one of the best 50 restaurants In Asia, 2023 as part of their Anika vegetarian tasting menu.

Rasam

Rasam distilled and uniquely served like a drink. An Avartana signature beverage, which greatly helps to cleanse the palate before having each item in the tasting menu!

Rating: 3.5/5

Amuse Bouche

Pickled cucumber lollipop dipped in buttermilk and coated with rice crisps.

Rating: 3/5

Tempered Bottle Gourd

Bottle gourd cut like spaghetti, tempered with mustard seeds and accompanied with chunky plum chutney & crisp thin bread. Never liked bottle gourd personally but this can be tried once.

Rating: 3/5

Cauliflower Crunch

It's a combo of deep fried & extra fried crunchy cauliflower served with pomegranate seed & mint leaf yogurt.

Rating: 3/5

Beetroot and Curd Cheese

Curd cheese topped with pickled beetroot and rice crisps. Not bad.

Rating: 3/5

Drumstick Dumpling

Drumstick dumpling served in moringa broth. Not so good.

Rating: 3/5

Jackseed Fritter

It's a fritter made with jackfruit seed and served with tempered pineapple. It felt repetitive after the first two items in the menu.

Rating: 3/5

Orange and Ginger Sorbet

Orange and ginger sorbet with hints of lemon and dark chocolate. Pretty refreshing before getting to the main course!

Rating: 3.5/5

Spiced Aubergine

It's stir fried aubergine uniquely presented and served on byadagi chilli emulsion and sago crisps. The combination was spicy & sweet, crispy & smooth and resulted in a fine blast of tastes & textures!

Rating: 3.5/5

Asparagus and Coconut Stew

Idiyappam with turmeric & asparagus coconut stew. Delicious!

Rating: 3.5/5

Crackling Spinach and Sweet Potato

Sweet potato cake drenched in fermented sesame & jaggery sauce, topped with crackling spinach leaves. Weakest item in the menu!

Rating: 3/5

Uthukuli Vegetable

It's a creamy vegetable curry served with mini malabar parota, potato crisps, uthukuli butter toffee wrapped in edible beetroot wrapper! This curry is usually made with morels but I was offered the vegetable variant as I don't eat mushrooms. They took a bit longer to serve this but it was the best item in the menu and totally worth the wait!

Rating: 4/5

Colocasia Rice

Steamed colocasia root and rice served with okra spiced yogurt.

Rating: 3/5

Raw Mango Pudding

It's raw mango pudding and edible ghee candle accompanied with a light crispy papad. It was the most unique item in the menu!

Rating: 3.5/5

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Citrus Coconut

Coconut citrus cream & chocolate topped with sugar droplets and accompanied with coffee creme anglaise & ice cream. Very well presented!

Rating: 3.5/5

Paan

Liquid nitrogen fried paan puree served on a betel leaf. Apt ending to the meal.

Rating: 3/5

Ambiance: 4/5

Service: 4/5

The staff described each item while serving, how best to enjoy it and also made sure to minimise the wait time in between. The entire experience didn't even feel 3 hours long. I wouldn't generally mention price but bottled water at Rs. 400 + GST felt like a bit too much.

Menu: 4/5

This place offers 4 different tasting menus for vegetarians. I tried the biggest menu but a few unique items were left out in the smaller menus. It would be great if we can swap the items between menus as it wouldn't be practical to have the entire tasting menu for 1 or 2 items.

Food: 4/5

Overall Experience: 8/10

Location: Guindy, Chennai

See you soon after my next trip. Cheers!