Restaurant Chef Pillai Trivandrum

"I think the food here is not up to the hyp. I don't think the fish was fresh enough. The service and ambience is great. But the foood is not there yet. Most dish we tried lacked the flavour and taste that we were hoping to see. Tried the Koonthal fry, fish nirvana, beef curry and at best it was average. The egg appam, parotta and soups were good. Tawa fish was fresh but the nirvana wasn't. I think they should focus on the quality and taste."

"If ever you want to experience a restaurant built on hype, then this is it. At the outset, the only thing good going for this restaurant is the excellent service from product knowledge to engagement. The only dishes which was good were the fish tawa fry (seerfish) and the 'appams.' All the rest was mediocre to the point of bad. At a restaurant of this class, when you serve crab it should be deshelled or soft shell crabs. The crabs served had little meat and would challenge a chainsaw! The starters from the prawns to the chicken lollipop were very average and the gol gopa fusion with 'morru' curry is an experiment which should have remained in the lab. The prawn coconut soup was so salty, it had to be returned. The mutton was more like fibrous beef and the chicken curry had the masala overpower the dish. The Quality of the ingredients is key and that was missing. Nirvana is losing is its luster ( having had this at the LeMeridien in Kochi as well). However the only non kerala dish we ordered (the pasta with prawn) was a surpassing winner, cooked right (al dente) and with right balance between pesto and cream. The traditional Trivandrum dessert, the Boli did come in an interesting avatar, but have this only if you want the fusion version, else the pomegranate etc added may be a put off to the original taste. This is a harsh review but only because there is big gap between the persona and his promise on great culinary experience with the actual reality we experienced."

"We had a wonderful experience at this restaurant! The food was overall very good and tasty — especially the seafood platter, which was fresh and delicious. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, making it a great place to relax and enjoy a meal. A special mention to Saji chettan, who served us so kindly and made sure we had everything we needed. He was very friendly and attentive. The chef also came by to check on us and was just as friendly, which made the experience even more personal and enjoyable. Overall, we had a great time and would definitely recommend this place to anyone who loves good food and great service!"

"We loved the appetizers and dessert, especially the pazham pori chaat and pani puri. Very unique dishes! Our server Parthasarathy was very friendly and attentive to our party, he made our experience very enjoyable. For a big group, they need to have more servers since there are so many people and dishes. Overall we enjoyed it and would recommend this restaurant"

"Upscale family style, almost fine dining vibes, nice interior, lovely decor, service was all right but lacking, food was ok ( one was pretty bad, most were ok and a few pretty nice). Menu was really refreshing, nice mix of traditional stuff with a new and unique twist, pan indian (not everything, but a few things here and there) and other continental stuff. Also I want to say the plating was good, very very rare thing to see nowadays, some places just over do it, some places keep it minimal and or traditional (nothing wrong there), but the plating here wasn't over the top, was nice and very pleasing to the eye. You can call in advance and order so that it takes less time to get your food, now whether we actually got our food earlier due to that, or if they rushed it when we cam, or if it was the normal pacing i can't tell you, but it didn't take long which is nice. Honestly wish we could have tried almost everything on the menu, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Eri pulli wings were nice imo, some ppl weren't particularly fond of it cause it had that raw pulli taste. Prei peri spiced fried prawns were ok very much lacking in peri peri but was nice and hot and crisp, the mayo on the side was 100% from a jar wasn't too good, avoid this dish. Porotta (strangely spelt paratha in the bill vs parotta as it is in the menu, no biggie) both nool and regular was good, egg appam was disappointing but subjective, some ppl prefer a soft appam, but i feel a one which is soo crisp it can hold it's shape right out of the pathram it was cooked in is superior. Nirvana fish was good, i was rather sceptical initially but proved wrong, would recommend. Wok tossed chilly chicken was just normal chilli chicken, no wok hei or anything, skip this. Mutton galouti kebab (bastardisation of the original name which is actually galawat ki kebab ) it was nice imo, might be biased cause i was really looking forward to trying this, others weren't very fond of it, but still would recommend. Fish pollichathu was ok, wouldn't get it again. Mutton stew was absolute trash, no spice or seasoning, pieces were just horrid, NEVER GET THIS. Beef carbonara was good, not authentic but good, and that's what matters. We actually ordered the passion fruit mojito but we got the mango instead, no biggie was still nice, not overly sweet from too much syrup. But the Lotus biscoff cheese cake, my man you must try, pretty good. Also cool thing they gave the bill in this really cute box, which was nice lol. Overall food is good, service is ok at best, could have been more attentive and better in general, pricing is a bit up there, but not too bad, they could have gotten away charging a lot more, some items did seem unreasonable, but you get over it when you realise you're paying for more than the food, nice place for a group outing, or actually any occasion, would defo come again and recommend."