#blahvsfood goes to Nila, Bangalore

Tasting menus get slammed a lot nowadays, with frequent proclamations about how they are bloated/wasteful/pointless/tiring. 

I disagree. 

While most chefs and most restaurants really shouldn’t even be thinking about a tasting menu, there are also some chefs where a tasting menu is the only way to fully understand their brilliance. Because it is a tasting menu that allows their imagination and their narrative skills to find their truest expression.

I’ve known Rahul Sharma from his time with Prateek Sadhu at Masque. His first solo restaurant, Araku Cafe, was excellent when he was in charge. Clean, ingredient focused, casual food that was up there with the likes of Navu as one of the best restaurants in the city. 

With Nila, he’s finally found a space that really does justice to his talent. This is an extremely brave restaurant. Rahul takes inspiration from different parts of India and comes up with a menu inspired by one specific region every three months. What makes this task even harder is that it’s not the dishes that necessarily inspire him as much as the produce. So the easy option of recreating or reimagining dishes doesn’t exist. Every dish is created from scratch with the ingredients as the only starting point. And if that’s not enough, he has chosen to launch in Bangalore, a city that loves its big, punchy flavours, with Ladakh and Nagaland as two of his first three regions. 

Fortunately, he has the talent and the skill to pull it off. I went for his Ladakh menu and I had done trials for the Naga menu. It’s hard to make sweeping statements about where Nila stands compared to the best in the country after one meal. But if this menu is indicative of the level of the restaurant, I genuinely feel that Nila is going to be right up there with the best of them.

This specific menu managed to take me back to Ladakh and its flavours, the sense of closeness to the terrain, the sense of communion between people and place. It starts when you walk into Nila because the space itself is transportive. Before you are led to your table, you sit in a stunning foyer, sipping a welcome drink, while someone explains the ingredients that will be used in your meal and the idea behind the meal itself. 

Turnip custard 

The meal itself doesn’t go anywhere near dishes like chutagi or Yarkhundi plov. Instead Rahul takes apricots and serves an apricot leather with herbs. The hardy turnip turns into a custard with rehydrated turnip pickle. The Ladakhi obsession with buckwheat manifests itself as a buckwheat taco. 

Hand tacos 

Khambir toast 

Smoked Pork belly 

The non vegetarian courses, with one exception, use Ladakhi ingredients to hero a meat or crustacean from other regions. A perfectly roasted lamb chop comes with khambir toast. The nicely charred, smoky prawns are a filling for the aforementioned buckwheat taco. The pork belly, beautifully smoked, is served with an achar made of Thara Kushu, a Ladakhi apple. The best course, however, features a Ladakhi fish as its star. The fennel-cured, smoked Ladakhi trout with an almond cream and tomatillo salsa was my dish of the night. I am certain that there will be customers who will claim the fish is raw because this is not how fish is cooked in India. The fish is treated with so much respect and restraint, it is almost like eating a lightly smoked akami sashimi, meaty and rich and celebrating fish in all its glory. This isn’t just a technically skilled dish, it is also a brave one, and it really is an example of Rahul at his best. 

I find that chefs often make better desserts than trained pastry chefs. I remember, when Rahul was at Araku, I once told him that I wanted to have a dessert that made me feel a certain emotion. He created it from scratch using a few simple ingredients and gave it to me in thirty minutes and it made me feel exactly the way I wanted to. He shows the same skill here, with desserts that are subtle, not too sweet, not trying to do too much… but still memorable. My favourite was the apricot cake, a dense apricot cake with an apricot salsa, complemented by a black pepper ice cream that I assume was inherited from the last Kerala menu. 

Apricot cake 

Chamomile. Fresh cream tart

There will be a rush to compare Nila to Farm Lore and other legendary tasting menus. I think it’s important to let Nila stand on its own and evolve and grow on its own. Most tasting menus typically take some time to find their rhythm, whether it was Masque or Farm Lore. The meal I had at Nila was excellent. It holds its own against the best the country has to offer. But it’s possible that the next menu may not be as brilliant. Rahul is a young chef and the thing about young people is their fearlessness and audacity. The food and the ambition at Nila already showcase both and thankfully they also demonstrate the ability and skill to match his audacity. But if by chance he ever falters, I hope that we as a community support him, support his courage, his ambition, his brilliance.. because he is a special chef and as he and Nila continue to get better and better, India and its culinary story will be richer for it. 

LIVING ROOM

I — MINGLE
Raktsey Karpo apricot (12000ft)
Apricot leather with apricot achar and micro herbs.
Ladakhi Turnips (10000ft)
Fresh turnip custard with rehydrated turnip pickle and charred spring onion.
Hand Taco (12300ft)
Zanskar Valley buckwheat taco with prawn. 
Khambir Toast
Sesame curd and chilli chutney
Roasted Lamb Chop 

II — SHARING
Churpi Broth (10000ft)
Fresh herbs, radish, pepper, fermented Korean chilli and preserved lemon.
House bread and condiments

III

FEAST

Tsampa (13500ft)

Juniper Smoked Trout

Fennel-cured trout, almond cream and tomatillo salsa.

Black Peas

Smoked Pork Belly

Smoked pork belly with Thara Kushu achar.

⸻

IV

SWEET

Apricot Cake

Dense apricot cake with apricot kernel salsa and black pepper ice cream.

Sham Valley Walnut

Walnut tofu with water-shocked salted chocolate.

Chamomile . Fresh Cream Tart

Chamomile made into tea and served with a tart of fresh cream and berries.