Chef Khetle knows just about every cuisine in detail: his is a work of passion and really offers a huge respite after the horrible pandemic years we have endured. He has travelled across the world and certainly crisscrossed India and his food, occasionally vegetarian and vegan, shows all sorts of wonderful influences.

Some specialties: A really light and delicately spiced Gnocchi Patate with bright green pea and spinach sauce, momos, biryani with soya 'meat substitutes' and a garlicky yogurt raita. We asked about milk substitutes since so many today are either allergic or fresh vegans who try to be as animal-free as possible. He said he was looking into that.

Apart from a good gnocchi sauce, there was an outstanding jelly made with coconut water: sublime, delicate and tasting softly sweet, (Coconut Pannacotta). A very gentle refined taste! Another great taste was Tres Leches: 3 types of milk desserts in a cylindrical jar with rasmalai at the bottom. Yes, while this is heavy, the taste is rich and very good. The chef suggested chocolate cheesecake but since we make our own cheesecake, we were a little hesitant to try it. Yes, it was rich, deep and satisfying like a good friendship!

A romantic place, nice for a tryst in the evening and full of novel vegetarian options! Healthy smoothies had fruits, coconut, litchis, green leaves and lemon. One hopes to return when the strawberry and kiwi season has matured a bit. (Off topic grumble: India used to have superb strawberries which were small, delicate and full of flavour and only available for a short time. Too many in the market today are big, fat, hard and often tasteless.)

Chef Krishna Khetle is definitely an F&B innovator. Besides being a chef, he is an entrepreneur, in the media often and has a huge passion for cooking. He has developed restaurants across India and in Doha (Qatar), Singapore, London, Budapest …. One of the most well-known faces among the top 50 in India’s culinary world and an active member of the Western India Culinary Association, he has 20 years of experience.

Chef Krishna’s cooking is certainly on par with good food anywhere.