It was only a few days ago that I noticed this new place on the NH Bypass called “The Brickhouse Oven” as I was passing by and it did surprise me because these days, I get to know about any new restaurants that open in Trivandrum thanks to my membership to the various Trivandrum based foodie groups on Facebook… But not a word was seen on this one… Yet out of curiosity, decided to check it out and so, finally went there yesterday…
First of all, I wasn’t sure if the place was yet open but turns out it was and has been open for a couple of weeks as one of the owners mentioned… As I walked in, I was very impressed at the decor and I could say that its easily one of the best looking restaurant that I have seen in quite a while… This unison with nature approach is something I like seeing and it kind of gave me this feel of being in a garden… I also found that they put in a spring of mint inside the water bottles, which is something I don’t think I have ever seen in Trivandrum…
Btw, the owner also mentioned that they are in a bit of a struggle phase after a chef whom they hired had bailed on them immediately after inauguration and so the owners themselves are managing everything over there including the kitchen… Hence the temporary reduced menu based on their current capabilities… This had me worried there for a bit, but I must appreciate the honesty from him… So, the menu has a limited selection consisting of Sandwiches, Burgers and Pizzas along with a few starters and beverages… Hopefully once they get the issues sorted out, we’ll see more like salads and maybe options of fish other than Basa and also some dessert options as well… 🙂
So, the first thing that caught my eye is the Peanut Butter Honey Shake, which is something I have not seen elsewhere and so had to try it… Then I went for their Fish & Chips starter and then their TBO Non Veg Club Sandwich as the main…
The milkshake was the first to arrive… It was served in a small milk bottle as shown in the pics below… This is not the regular size milk bottle but about half of that… The owner had mentioned that all their milkshakes are thick ones and this Peanut Butter Honey shake was no exception…
This milkshake was indeed thick and creamy with a very strong presence of the taste of Peanut butter… However, what I was missing in this was the honey as I couldn’t taste any of it at all until I reached the very bottom of the bottle where I found all the honey settled down there… 🙂 I guess they didn’t blend it well enough… Had it been done so, I felt this would’ve been an amazing milkshake to have… So, I showed it to the owner and had one more milkshake, which was absolutely perfect… He has promised to never repeat that mistake again… 🙂
After the milkshake was served, I was expecting to see the starter that I ordered, but as fate were to have it, I got served my main course first, which was what they call their TBO Non Veg Club Sandwich… According to the menu, this sandwich consists of Chicken Peri Peri, Egg, Mayo and Veggies including Lettuce, Capsicum (Green Bell Peppers), Tomato and Cucumber… It got served on a wooden board as shown in the pics below…
To be frank, I had mixed feelings about this sandwich… The bread was very light and soft but the crust was incredibly tough to chew into… The veggies felt fresh and the omelette felt light and seasoned well especially with ground pepper… However, the Chicken Peri Peri felt bland… So, the dominating flavour in the sandwich turned out to be of the egg and the Mayo and the Peri Peri flavour was missing… As I opened up and inspected the sandwich as shown in the pic, it was clear that it could use a lot more of the Chicken Peri Peri and when I tasted the Chicken alone, I found that it was indeed bland… Once again, I showed this to the owner, who agreed with my observations and promised to make corrective measures immediately and I saw him ask the cook to season the Peri Peri sauce… So, hopefully, the customers who came after me got it proper…
Next came the starter, which I chose to be the Fish & Chips… As per the menu, they use Basa fish for this which even though is quite popular in Trivandrum these days is not a fish that I like to have… The reason I still went with it is because I have never had Fish n Chips made with Basa… Restaurants here have been making Fish & Chips with fillets of Pomfret or in some rare cases, the Cobia/Kingfish usually… So, this was a first for me… It came served with their Homemade French Fries and some Mayo as can be seen in the pics below…
This was indeed a surprise as I found myself liking every bit of it… The fish was cooked perfectly with the batter and crust being thin and light while being crispy… The French Fries were seasoned really well that I could eat them on their own any time… However, I wish they had served tartar sauce instead of just Mayo to go with it… In-spite of it, I could with all certainty say that this is indeed one of the best Fish & Chips options in Trivandrum right now… So, I wonder how better it would’ve been had the fish been not Basa but say Pomfret and was served with Tartar Sauce and/or Coleslaw… 🙂
After the meal, I saw the waiter coming towards me with a bread basket and it surprised me because I wasn’t expecting any bread to be served to me at that point… Turns out it was the bill and on seeing that served in the bread basket, I couldn’t help but laugh a bit 🙂
Anyways, the place indeed looks promising… I am hoping at this point that they will be sorting out their issues soon and will be a great asset to the evolving Trivandrum food culture… I for one will be visiting again shortly to try their Burger and also their Pizza… Fingers crossed 🙂
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