There are always many good reasons to visit Goa – some better than others. If you’ve had your fill of December’s sunburn lists, DJ wars and frantic parties, let the restaurants be your reason to visit the state this year, as we usher in 2022.
Nearly three years of the pandemic have changed Goa almost beyond recognition. High rollers from New Delhi, Mumbai have now parked themselves at Assagao Villas for major part of the year, if not permanently, trying to escape the monotonous greater ‘calamity’ of their earlier lives. The earlier trend of migration from the metros has thus turned into a spell, driving up property prices but indelibly changing the psyche of that signature Goan segado.
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These native (North) Goans from elsewhere as well as well-heeled domestic tourists who have replaced former Israeli backpackers and Russian charterers are increasing the demand for high quality, even luxury food in Goa. Gunpowder first arrived as it turns into the restaurant capital of India – trading Hauz Khas village for Assagao way back in 2012.
Ten years have changed the landscape and tastes; The pace of change is accelerating through the pandemic. Even now, there are new restaurants and chefs coming up for the sunny part of the market, where you can charge as much as you can in the NCR (with the highest per capita spending in the country) without nervously looking openly on the right side of the dinner menu.
There are three chefs on my flight from New Delhi alone, and an interior designer handling restaurant projects. All roads lead to Asagao. “This year alone, we hear, about 600 new restaurants have opened in Goa… Obviously many will not survive”, warns Ashish Kapoor, restaurateur of Antares in Goa for seven years, and previously One of the national level restaurant takers to the state.
Twenty years ago, when I first encountered Goa, it was at Mrs. Fernandes’ pension in Miramar, eating her egg and fish curries, choosing poi, bebinca or pastis de nata from the bakeries of the south, munching on long kingfish lunches. Spending time at Mandovi’s cafe. Some days, we would catch a bus to the beaches to the north, but were turned back after sunset with no public transportation available.
Now there is traffic jam. The restaurant scene is buzzing, generating more jobs and revenue from tourists. Only, as locals say, the relaxed ‘Goa-ness’ that used to make the state unique is being lost.
Hausa(nna) to new
Arguably India’s most successful restaurateur Rohit Khattar has opened Hausa, a world-class South Indian restaurant in Siolem. Hosa is nestled in a beautiful heritage house adjacent to a creek and a church, and is filled with serious art from Ravindra Reddy to Thota Vaikuntham by Chennai-based Apparao Gallery. “Even if one sells, he can make more money than the food”, jokes Rohit, as we tour several rooms where the food space is broken; Its centerpiece is a grand bar, high arches, chandeliers and all.
Rohit Khattar in Hausa | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
This is not your quintessential “Goa” of T-shirts and shorts. Guests prepare for Chef Suresh DC’s dinner, a deep dive into the cuisines of the five peninsular states, presented with deceptive ease. “I didn’t want it to be another Indian accent, I wanted it to be somewhere between an Indian accent and Comorin (the more casual restaurant led by their bar in Gurgaon),” says Rohit. Suresh’s plates display detailed nuances in regional southern Indian, without the formality of other similarly deeply researched icons – Southern Spice, South or Karavalli, all hotel restaurants.
Suresh serves us snapper carpaccio with curry leaf oil, served with the “juices” of sol kadi (a dish more elevated than the similar ceviche with sol kadi memorably made by the late Floyd Cardoz), “cashews 65 accompanied by a spongy curd rice, and a whole range of breads such as Nool Parotta that can be pulled from its string or akki roti Served under gravid-vada inspired by his mother’s cooking.
Cocktails relive nostalgia: modern rum-and-(kokum)cola, beer shandy as well as internationally chic low/alcohol sodas, tonics and infusions by Comorin’s renowned Varun Sharma, who is also Hausa’s mixologist a whole host of. There is no effort. But everything is “serious” in terms of craft and ambition.
Luxury dining is on the rise in Goa, evidenced by the Taj Fort Aguada, the first luxury player in Goa to open up to the high-wattage Milanese restaurant brand, Peppermoon (which is located in the Churchill-era Old War Office in London was also started in) is poised to launch. building this October) here, instead of Delhi-Mumbai.
A snapshot from Gilte | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
However, this winter Is Industry people say that the restaurant business has seen some decline as there is chaos in the market and unlike the last two years, domestic tourists are now traveling internationally as well.
However, new entrants are undeterred, betting on food and drink quality to differentiate themselves. “There has been a big change in what people are looking for from Goa,” says Raksha Dhariwal of Jamun & Saaz By The Beach. “Earlier, it was all about the nightlife… Titos, Club Kubana etc. Today, people are not coming to party, they are coming to eat. You have all the best restaurants in all Indian cities and you have great local locations… Any holiday home that was lying idle before the pandemic is now unused. You have a huge influx of non-Goans with huge disposable income who go out quite often,” says Rakshay who opened his place a few years before the pandemic.
local, vocal
While brands and restaurants/chefs from other cities are making their debut – the latest being Chennai’s Kooks, in a sprawling, green space in Vagator – local businesses are upping their game too. The result is a ripe market that’s a melting pot of all kinds of formats, some that you’ll be hard-pressed to find even in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Foodies will already know about restaurants like Cavatina (Goan food in a contemporary format), but there are other local “must-see” experiences. Sopo (Konkani for “lazy bench”) serves Burmese and displays contemporary pieces of art by artist Siddharth Kerkar, son of Subodh Kerkar. There At Mapusa (the name of the restaurant owned by Alton D’Souza) sits in a charming area, with chef Christopher Fernandes (“Chris”) turning out perhaps the best cured, grilled meats in the country. Sit down for brunch with a perfect plate of brisket accompanied by local Goan gin. Miguel’s in Panjim is also an experience to be had – the art-deco inspired cocktail bar set in a heritage building, drawing inspiration from Fontainhas, and serving Konkani-Portuguese fusion bites.
Lawyer-turned-chef Sai Sabnis | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In Assagao, wedding and tech entrepreneur Ginni Kohli recently opened Gilte, another niche cocktail bar serving batch drinks and one shot martinis (including a bacon flavored one). Ashish Kapoor, meanwhile, is building a boutique hotel called Mademoiselle (run by women only), which includes a French-style boulangerie and patisserie: “Amidst Delhi-Mumbai influx, Goa’s European-essay lost I want to bring it back,” he says.
arty meets quirky
Goa has long ceased to be a hippie paradise, but a new hipster vibe is more than evident as young chefs, creative entrepreneurs and arty émigrés have taken refuge here.
as a friend takes me around his “beat” (each area of Goa is a different beat, from heritage Panjim and Old Goa to Dona Paula, where four of the country’s top bartenders and barpreneurs live in adjoining houses who play badminton every morning and hang out at beach bars. Ans) I hear about holistic lifestyle which includes 4am club (people who wake up early), “shala” (yoga school), work of breath (no Pranayama), and cafes like Mojigao with freshly brewed coffee and tapas perched on a rolling green hillside that’s a haven for creative types.
Priya Thakur’s boutique hotel in Ashvem | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
I met actress-turned-entrepreneur Pooja Bedi, who runs a wellness cafe, and is now working on a wellness center with yoga in the pool And A healthy gin bar. Priya Thakur, behind the Larissa chain of eco-resorts in Manali and Ladakh, has set up a boutique hotel in Ashvem, set in an orchard she planted herself, with bamboo showers and outdoor baths. “Once the vegetable garden starts, guests can pluck what they like and our chefs will cook it,” she says. Priya moves to Goa after her filmmaker husband Ronnie Lahiri (like behind the movies) Madras Cafe, Vicky Donor, Piku) was stuck in Mumbai during the lockdown and decided to move to Goa to be amidst nature.
Lawyer-turned-chef Sai Sabnis, who has studied Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, immunity building, is launching a new mindful food concept called Sana near Artzuna (a Portuguese-style cafe focused on wellness) in Anjuna. She calls me “my lovely corner for sunsets by the fields,” although the place is not yet open to the public. There’s another level of boho-chic in Goa.
Food in Gilte | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
An intrepid traveler may want to come back, as Farhad Mehta, the Pune guy who settled in Goa this year as a “W Insider” curating experiences for hotel guests, comments: “People are different. Seasons come looking for different experiences. In December, it might be parties, and I would be expected to take them to most happening events, but monsoon is different, March, another crowd.
As I sit down for my only Goan meal of the week in Goa at the new Evo’s kitchen in Assagao, which maintains a Goan vibe while not being a shack – and digs into a scrumptious fish platter Chonak, the third and an extra plate DestinyI decide that no matter what the weather, the food is the reason for being here.