New Spring and Shoots on the Caara Plate
If you are a person who does your research before stepping into a restaurant, you will be well served by visiting the Caara Instagram where the new spring menu is being beamed – another reason for taking a table at Caara’s newest outlet, a 38-seater, that opened at Khan Market atop Pure Home, a premium interior décor store, just last month.
First things first. What is new and good? Start with a Mini Herb Sourdough Pizzetta (Rs 525) for a fresh mozzarella, herby butter and aged Parmesan taste as first bite, then get the seasonal Carrot Slaw (Rs 350) made of black, orange and yellow carrot, julienned, that you can toss with a tahini and garlic dressing on your plate. For a big meal, try the Green Shakshuka (Rs 595) made with organic eggs baked in a bed of spinach and kale with garlic, or a Pesto Alla Genovese Rigatoni (Rs 725) laced with Caara’s signature fresh basil pesto and enriched with a Parmesan cheese cream sauce. “For us it’s all about the ingredients. Every month we change the menu depending on what comes up in our research and what falls on our lap…. I saw a post from someone about carrots growing in the hills and we got them. Each of them is there on the menu as a dish in its own right, not as a bystander,” says Ambika Seth.
Seth, who along with Alice Helme, co-director and co-founder, Caara, makes the menu, points out that 70 per cent of the menu remains the same since they began Caara 10 years ago. “The smashed chilli avocado toast, the carrot cake or the basil pesto burrata pizza are not going to disappear — we also change the menu according to location or clientele, a dish that does well in one outlet may not do well in another,” she says.
Caara started off as a catering business and has grown to three verticals now – restaurants, catering and easy dining. Seth classifies her restaurants as “approachable dining. We’re neither a stuffy, stiff-white-tablecloth fine dining establishment nor a café, but a hybrid”. This hybridity with an unchanging soul —its base is European food — is what Caara faithfuls come for.
Twenty per cent of the menu is from around the world, particularly Asian. For example, you can get Udon noodles with chicken or a salmon with a miso dressing and bok choy. How far will Caara go to customise? Can you get salmon done with pesto instead of miso? “We can give pesto on the side, but clients usually trust our judgment and the judgment of the chefs,” she says. “I encourage our chefs to be ‘front of the house’.” What’s also upfront are Caara products — little jars of pesto, Asian chilli dressing and fermented chilli sauce can be seen behind the glass counter. I tossed my Superfood Salad (Rs 750) with the tangy chilli dressing; it made a delicious side dish.
That the menu also lists out the allergens and trains its staff to be able to serve delicious food around it is also another pull for diners. “It is no longer a USP, people have calorie issues and allergies and you have to deal with it,” says Seth.
Meal for two: Rs 2,000 (approx)
