After I failed to locate Kokkarakko last time, a couple of friends and I made a more focused effort this time and finally spotted it, tucked into a building called Velvette House, which looked quite deserted. Actually I was surprised by the location, and the lack of prominent name-boards. It was definitely not easy to spot!
The restaurant is located on the first floor and a narrow flight of stairs leads you to it. The absence of a lift was quite obvious, and people with difficulty to climb stairs may not find it appealing. We entered into a rather nicely done restaurant. The interiors looked pretty good and the seating was comfortable. On a Saturday evening, around 20:00 hrs, walking into an empty restaurant wasn’t a very nice feeling, but then, we thought we were probably a bit early.
Settled down and after a quick look at the menu, we were ready to order. Meanwhile we were served a complimentary plate of crispies with a dip, it was good.
There were three soups on the menu, one veg and two non-veg. We ordered all the three. Tomato Jeeragam Soup was good, friend liked it. I had Kokkarakko Kozhi Rasam, the soup was a bit too hot (as in heat from chillies) and I wasn’t too pleased with the chicken pieces in the soup, they had this smell that I have been assuming, is because it wasn’t thawed properly. Actually I am always skeptical about chicken pieces in soup, this is not the first time I have encountered this. I did finish the soup, but had to leave the solids in it untouched. Nattu Kozhi Egg Drop Rasam was good, I tasted a bit of it and the egg in it added to the flavor.
We ordered a Tandoori pookosu which the menu said, was South Indian marinated cauliflower finished on charcoal. This was so hot (again the chilli-heat) that the flavors barely made an impression. It was a struggle and we needed a generous dose of water to douse the heat.
Having heard about the Kadaknath chicken, about its black-colored meat and bones, I definitely wanted to give it a shot. We ordered a Kadaknath Pepper Fry and Muttai Milagu Varuval. Little did we realize that they would be so close in flavors, introspecting on it, we felt we should have changed one of them. Muttai Milagu Varuval according to the menu, was batter-fried eggs tossed in a peppery masala, but I didn’t see batter anywhere in the dish, they were plain boiled eggs tossed in peppery masala. Kadaknath Chicken was black and different. It felt a bit harder to chew than the normal chicken, and as I mentioned earlier, the peppery masala was quite similar to what we got for the egg. So it didn’t live up to the hype. Priced at 359, it was definitely not that special!
Friend wanted to try Kaadai Fry and he seemed to like the deep-fried Quail. Since it is normally served as a whole bird (in its full shape), I am not a big fan of it, I didn’t try.
Proceeded to main-course – We ordered 3 Poricha Parottas, 3 Madurai Bun Parottas, Chettinadu Urulai and Royal Simha Kodi Pulusu to go with it. Don’t know why, I thought poricha parottas would be smaller in size, but they were quite huge and it was certainly a bit too much for us.
Not blaming the waiters, but it would have been great if the waiter had told in advance that they would be serving a huge bowl full of Chicken salna and Poricha Parotta would taste great with it, instead of making that same recommendation after we’d ordered two gravies. It was clearly too much.
Poricha Parotta was yummy, and with the salna it tasted good. Midway, it was too cloying (as they say Thevittugira in Tamil). It was a struggle to complete it. Madurai Bun Parotta was soft and good, just tasted a little from my friend’s plate. Chettinadu Urulai was good, liked the flavors and small baby potatoes. Royal Simha Kodi Pulusu, not sure why it got that name, perhaps it was meant to be Rayalaseema, comprising of districts of Anantapur, Chittor, Kadappa and Kurnool. ‘Rayalu’ referred to kings and ‘Seema’ as in the region or the extent under their rule. Perhaps that dish had its roots from here.
We had to bring our dinner to a sudden stop after the Poricha parotta, and asked the rest of the dishes to be packed. We decided to finish with some drinks on the menu. I opted for Neer Moore, friends had a Kulki Soda and Padhaneer. Friend was disappointed with Padhaneer as he didn’t quite read the description that said Tender Coconut Water, and on top of it, it was served with Karuppatti Vellam I think, it looked brown, tasted too sweet and was okayish it seems, not remotely close to padhaneer though. Neer Moore was good, and so was kulki soda.
We were there for close to two hours and left close to 10PM, and we were the only guests for the whole evening! Their marketing team has a Herculean task on their hands I would presume. Overall, we paid a little less than 1.8K, and I would call this experience a mixed bag. It definitely wasn’t something that would make me go back at the next possible opportunity.
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