Arisii, GK II
I didn’t expect a South Indian meal to open with pineapple. The Coconut Breeze Chilli Pineapple at Arisii is fresh and lightly spiced, with a little heat that sneaks up on you, and it turned out to be a fitting introduction to a menu that moves between Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Chettinad without ever forgetting where it comes from.
I’m vegetarian, so that’s the side of the menu I worked my way through, and there was more than enough to keep things interesting. The Coastal Spice Roasted Nuts Masala had exactly the kind of warmth I look for in South Indian food, and the Dosa were fun, a little cheeky, but still tasted like the dishes they were riffing on.
That said, it would be dishonest to pretend Arisii isn’t really built for seafood lovers. Curry Leaf Calamari, Coastal Ghee Roast Lobster, Coastal Prawn Biryani — these are the dishes that give the place its identity, and even from across the table I could tell what makes them special. It’s seafood cooked the way the coast cooks it, with the roasting, the spices and the curry leaves doing the talking.
And that’s really the thing about Arisii. Plenty of restaurants try to modernise South Indian food and end up flattening it. Here, Chef Rajesh seems to have made a point of protecting the flavours. The curry leaves, the roasted spices, the depth, all of it comes through, even in the more playful dishes. Nothing tastes like it’s been diluted to make it “contemporary.”
The room is small, about 40 seats, done in terracotta and green with artwork that leans traditional. It’s warm and easy to settle into, and it doesn’t try to upstage the food, which I appreciated.
The desserts were where the meal got genuinely interesting for me. Instead of wandering off into something generic, they stayed South Indian. The Payasam Kunafa is an odd pairing on paper that somehow works, the Banana Jaggery Roti has that comforting, slightly homemade feel, and the Banana Caramel Crepe was my favourite of the night: warm, sweet and very hard to stop eating.
Then the filter coffee arrived, strong and aromatic, and that was that. It’s the right way to end a meal like this.
Arisii has only just opened in GK II, which is hardly short of places to eat. What sets it apart is that it knows exactly what it wants to be. There aren’t many restaurants here doing coastal South Indian seafood with this much care, and fewer still that manage to keep the food this honest while playing with it.
It also seems to work for very different people at once. Younger diners will probably go for the inventive dishes, while anyone who grew up on this food will recognise the techniques underneath them. There’s plenty for a vegetarian like me, and if you eat seafood, there’s even more reason to come back.
What I took away wasn’t one showpiece dish but how consistent the flavour was from start to finish. Arisii knows where its food comes from, and it lets you taste it.
