I’m back at Cafe Cocoa Bean again and this time for lunch after attending my music class which I started going for again recently… One of my friends recommended that I try their burgers and sizzlers and so, basically went there having decided to do just that…
So, ordered a Classic Fish Burger, a Chicken Steak Sizzler and having been familiar with their portion sizes, I asked the waiter to list the specials for the day and got informed that the special for the day is called a Grilled Chilly Chicken, which shocked me quite a bit as thats not something you could ever imagine having at an Italian restaurant… And of-course to wash it all down, I also ordered one of what they call the classic Iced Tea…
So first, the appetiser called Grilled Chilly Chicken came and I was really surprised, primarily because being a starter, that name gave me the impression that it will be a dry dish… That is, pieces of grilled chicken at best tossed in the chilly sauce… However, what came was basically the indo-chinese chilly chicken curry, but made with pieces of grilled chicken… In other words, it had some gravy in it as shown in the pics and so, the moment I saw it, I felt like it needed some fried rice or noodles to eat it with, both of which are not available in the menu…
Coming to how it tasted, again I was surprised, because this is an Italian restaurant making their first attempt at doing an indo-chinese dish… This is because to me, it tasted awesome… The pieces of grilled chicken were perfectly cooked (which is rare these days) and the chilly sauce tasted absolutely perfect with the flavours of chillies, spring onion, garlic, ginger, onions and coriander… I must mention that I really craved to have some fried rice with it as I think it would’ve been heavenly to have it like that…
As I was done with the chilly chicken, the burger arrived… The burger which they call Classic Fish Burger came as shown in the pic below i.e. in a tray having some french fried and some salad (somebody really needs to let their chefs know that salad doesn’t always have to be just chopped cabbage 🙂 ) along with some mayo based sauce, which kind of reminds me of the thousand island dressing, but am not 100% sure as at some point I also felt that it might be just paprica-mayo… The burger itself was made up of a single bun cut into 3 slices that have been toasted with some butter, stacked together with lettuce, slices of onion and tomato along with a form of coleslaw in between the bottom two slices and then a sizeable fish patty with the cheese in between the top two slices and with the patty and the top bun held together using a toothpick thru a slice of tomato… Also, the same sauce that can be seen at the side was also there on top of the patty as shown in the pics below…
Now coming to the taste, the french fries were absolutely perfect, as in perfectly crisp on the outside with a soft inside and the sauce served turned out to be a great combination with the fries… Coming to the burger itseld, the vegetables, the slaw and even the bun tasted great, almost as if it was freshly baked… However, what proved to be a dissapointment was the fish patty… I couldn’t get any taste of fish whatsoever from the burger when I took my first bite… I even wondered if they, by mistake gave me the vegetarian burger instead of the fish option… But, when I tasted the patty by itself, I could sense a very faint flavour of fish, however, the dominating taste was of the potatoes used in the patty… I wish the patty had more presence of fish as I think that would’ve made this burger the best fish burger option in Trivandrum… I hope they correct this asap…
Once I was done with the burger, the waiter with my permission took out the sizzler that I ordered and it was indeed as sizzlers usually go, a treat for the eyes as well… Heres a small video clip of it taken immediately after it was placed in front of me:
The sizzler plate had one chicken breast that was stuffed with some cheese and vegetables and along with that were some mashed potatoes, some boiled vegetables as well cabbage leaves have been used as the base on which everything rests, on the sizzler plate…
Now coming the taste, the chicken breast was cooked perfectly, as in easy to cut with the fork… The steak sauce felt like an earthy variation on the barbecue sauce but thankfully without the sour component thats quite prevalent in most places here in Trivandrum… Rather than a sauce, as mentioned by the waiter, for me, it rather felt like a gravy instead, made from the juices left over by the chicken and I think I sensed the presence of mushrooms, especially the morell mushrooms, which is known to be used for making sauce/gravy for dishes like these… The sautéed vegetables with cheese stuffing inside the chicken appears to have been given a generous portion of the gravy as well, I assume… 🙂 To go with the stuffed chicken, there is the mashed potatoes… However, this is not simply a mash, but rather appears to be seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley as well as some cheese as well, which at this point I guess to be parmesan, which I also think is the same thats part of the stuffing as well… So, essentially the Chicken Steak Sizzler at Cafe Cocoa Bean appears to be made of a version of Chicken Parm served along with boiled veggies, mash and gravy 🙂 Either ways, I loved every bit of it and I am looking forward to having it again soon… 🙂
For those who are wondering, I must say at this point that although this meal looks rather big and rather extravagant, it really is not… As mentioned in my previous posts about Cafe Cocoa Bean, this place is one where prices are quite low compared to other places serving what they have in their menu and clearly how they make up for the lower price is by giving much smaller portion sizes compared to other places… I mean in those other places, 3 courses would be way too much for a single person to eat and in many of the places, I personally can’t finish even one whole course by myself, whereas here, having 3 courses would be just enough for a person…
Now, along with this meal, I got myself a glass of their Classic Iced Tea, which was served just before they brought out the sizzler… This is a regular sized glass and came with a slice of lemon on the edge as seen in the pics…
The iced tea basically tasted like any other iced tea, except one thing and its that unlike the options I have had before, this one has higher sourness to it, i.e. to the point at which it almost tastes like a mojito, but with the taste of the tea… 🙂 Anyways, was indeed refreshing considering how hot the climate is these days here… 🙂
To summarise, altogether yet another wonderful meal from the Cocoa Bean Cafe… Dish of the day for me was definitely the sizzler with the chilly chicken coming to a close second… Burger as I mentioned definitely needs improvement, which I hope they do very soon…
