Hours before the restaurant opens for diners, the servers at Ryan and Keenan Tham's restaurant KOKO go through the drill of "role-play". In these sessions, held daily at the Lower Parel outpost, the staff is trained by the chef to "read the table" through dramatised actions. "Being friendly and hospitable to guests, and knowing your menu inside out is part of the training. But there's also the question of 'how do you make them order something they hadn't originally planned to try out?'," says Eric Sifu, the restaurant's Chinese executive chef. "You want them to sample dishes that represent the restaurant," he adds.

It's no secret that restaurateurs and chefs want their diners to order more. But a hopeful bump in revenue is not what always drives them to suggest dishes. In a menu that runs into pages, it could be a dish that s/he, as a chef, is simply proud of and would want you to try out. Sifu's words remind us of the numerous times when we were sold a dish that was alien to us. Rarely was the decision regretted.