A new restaurant in Bandra creates sensorial, ambitious food drama with a theatre seating around the glowing embers of a grill fire
Scallop & Crab
If you stare long enough at the embers, you might slip into a trance. As the fire crackles and cooks the meat or vegetable cooked on the grill, it’s magical to watch it develop a charred skin. At HOM, the fire takes centre stage to serve Indian subcontinental flavours in a theatrical setting. The 42-seater restaurant in Bandra, launched by first-time restaurateur and well-known Mumbai nightlife curator Pratik Gaba, is named after the Sanskrit word for the fire ritual. The interiors are dressed in earthy colours, with stucco tiles and red burgundy and the theatre seating as its focal point. The outdoor vibes to a modern brick garden with plush seating.
Broccoli Almond
For Saurabh Udinia, its culinary director, it’s a homecoming after 18 years — after stints at Indian Accent and Massive Restaurants, as well as earning the nod of World’s 50 Best and Michelin Guide with projects, including Revolver (Singapore). Udinia tells us how he roped in a Thrissur-based friend who specialised in smokers, to design the grill. Beside it sits a plancha salamander (a high temperature overhead grill), and a handmade tandoor with a copper outer body.
Ashish Tamta makes Not A Picante and A chef plates Bharwan Morel. Pics/Satej Shinde
Taste theatrics
The team moves like clockwork, working the tandoor, grill, and plating food art. The Bhalla in our chaat is made from canister-stored batter dispensed in an air fryer to attain an ever-light texture on the palate. The chutneys are bang on — spicy, sweet and tangy. The Punugulu (R315) is an Andhra-style bonda filled with prawn recheado and injected with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with a house chilli dust.
The interiors highlight the theatrical vibe of the restaurant
The crisp brioche in Pork Tartine (R325) has a slather of purple cabbage coleslaw made tangy with yuzu. The pulled pork is cured with a mix of three sauces he calls MoSaMa — Moily, Sonth and Makhani. The amalgam conjures umami. The Bharwan Morel (Rs 395) stuffed with cheese is served in a pool of mushroom nihari with coriander oil and chilli oil. The earthiness of produce and slow cooking combines comfort with indulgence.
Bhalla, Ashes To Oolong and Saffron
With the Scallop & Crab (Rs 1245), the scallops are cooked directly on coal to get a gentle burn, extracting the flavour of the fire and retaining the plump flesh inside. Served with mud crab cooked Kerala-style, with coconut, garlic, curry leaves and black pepper. Broccoli Almond (R495) is a filling vegetarian main that resembles a broccoli tree peppered with a crispy spice crumb of almond, pista and cashew in a chilli oil mix. The creamy almond korma is lightened as an espuma foam but in a parallel universe, it matches with an old-school malai gravy. Dishes represent strongly rooted Indian flavours where modern techniques are applied only to mark a progressive landing.
Clean cocktails
As we watch the kitchen prepare our meals, Beverage Head Ashish Tamta arrives, bearing a fruit basket filled with Valencia oranges, plums, clementines and grapefruit. “The idea is to sweeten the drinks using fruit. “We ask our guests if they prefer sweet or citrus drinks and choose the fruit accordingly,” Tamta reveals. The cocktail programme, designed by Pankaj Balachandran of Countertop is ‘smashable’ — spirit muddled with fruit and served on ice. When we peek at his bar counter in a corner, there are batched concoctions steeping in the corner, while pour overs clarify the drink Mango Bell.
Pratik Gaba and Saurabh Udinia
The Ashes to Oolong (R1050), a whiskey highball with Hojicha Japanese tea with passionfruit and pandan, has undergone a 12-hour carbonation. Good news for teetotallers: the bar pays equal attention to its zero proof-programme. Not A Picante (R400) plum and pickled tomatoes in jalapenos with a rim of kaffir lime. Complex in its making, both the drinks are balanced and easy to drink.
The desserts are equally dramatic. Chocolate (R550) is a 55 per cent dark chocolate mousse with nut nougat drenched in a caramelised white chocolate. A savoury sprinkle of sea salt balances the chocolate overdose. Saffron (R 550) is gajar ka halwa, topped with rasmalai soaked in saffron milk and a cold dollop of vanilla pod ice cream. A ghoonghat of agar agar milk sheet tempers the drama. It’s curtains, in a good way.
HOM
AT Shop no 1, Zindagi, Pali Road, 15th Road, Bandra West.
Time Dinner (Tuesday to Sunday): 7 pm-1 am
Call 9892776672
Cost Rs 3750 to 4750 (tasting menu); a la carte available
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