Its been a while since my last visit to Kaffeehaus, the Swiss Cafe here in Trivandrum… I had heard for quite some time that they have introduced some new options in their menu and the owner had been inviting me to check them out for more than a month and it was now that I finally got to go back there and try the new options…
From the menu, I found out that since my last visit, they have introduced new Coffee and Milkshake options, new Pasta options, even brought in some from their former Christmas special menu (like the Carpaccio) and on the board, I found 3 new options namely a Soup of the Day, a Grilled Chicken option, a raw Rosti option, some new Sandwich options and Crepes…
So, for this time, I went for their Soup of the Day, which was Pumpkin Soup, followed by the Grilled Chicken in Butter Sauce and then for dessert, got Crepes as well…
So, first, lets talk about the Soup of the Day… They informed me that the Soup of the Day changes on a daily basis and it ends up being the soup that their Chef chooses to make for the day… So, this time, the soup that was available was a Pumpkin Soup… It came as shown in the pics below garnished with Parsley, Chives and Onions along with some fried Croutons…
First of all, the soup was quite thick, kind of like almost a Chowder… Quite rich and creamy… The Soup was made with cream and had quite a strong flavour of Onions, Garlic, Parsley, Chives, Rosemary and Pumpkin and was seasoned really well with Pepper and Salt… So, essentially felt like a the creamy French Onion Soup but with the taste of Pumpkin puree in it thats equally strong as the onions… 🙂 The Croutons were fried with butter and was incredibly crispy… Everything worked so incredibly well together that I must say that this soup is definitely one of the best vegetarian soups that I have ever had… The only issue I had is that I felt it was a ever so slightly a bit too salty for my taste… However, for people who are too used to our Indian levels of saltiness, you won’t have a problem with it…
Once I was done with the soup, they brought in the main course which was the Grilled Chicken in Butter Sauce… As per what the waiter said, its a platter having a couple of pieces of Grilled Chicken breast essentially finished off and served in a creamy butter sauce… It came as shown in the pics below, served topped with some Parsley and along with a couple of pieces of Garlic Bread, some Grilled Veggies and some Hash Browns…
First of all, its been quite too long a time since I received a piece of perfectly cooked piece of Chicken Breast and this visit to Kaffeehaus puts an end to that streak… The two Grilled Chicken Pieces that I got here was cooked to absolute perfection where it was so delicate that it came apart at minimal effort with the table knife that it pretty much felt like melting in my mouth as I was eating it… The Chicken itself felt seasoned perfectly with just the right mount of salt and pepper… The Butter Sauce was a rich and creamy sauce tasting of of-course Butter, Cream, Rosemary, Garlic and Lemon (the owner confirmed that its a Lemony Garlic Butter based sauce)… The Hash Browns were grilled perfectly with Oregano and Rosemary and had a thin crispy outer layer and was incredibly soft inside… The Grilled Veggies too was done with Oregano and Rosemary… The Garlic Bread was toasted on the grill with Garlic, Salted Butter and Oregano and was incredibly soft and fluffy inside with a incredibly crispy outer layer… Altogether an awesome platter with a very slight problem that the sauce, just like the soup was a bit too salty for me… Once again, for the Trivandrumite palette, it won’t be a problem at all… Its just me who prefer the Western lesser salt level… Inspite of that I must say that this is definitely one of the best Grilled Chicken options I have ever had and I am looking forward to having it again soon… 🙂
As I was having the Grilled Chicken, the owner walked in greeted me as usual… Next up were the Crepes that I had ordered for dessert… For those who may be unaware, Crepes are very thin pastries or rather pancakes which are served with a variety of fillings both sweet and savoury… When properly made, its so thin that if you take it up (which is not an easy thing to do) and hold it in front of your face, you’ll find it to be translucent… However, whenever I have had Crepes in India it was never like that and they are sort of ended up being thick as a Dosa which is not right at all… So, to be frank, I was a bit skeptical when I heard they have Crepes here… But still I had to try it at-least once… 🙂
So, while ordering, the waiter informed me that I could have the crapes with filling options of Nutella, Peanut Butter or a combination of both along with add on Fruits where options include sliced Bananas, Strawberries and Grapes… I went for the Combination of Nutella and Peanut Butter and among fruits, since I personally don’t like to have Bananas, I asked for just Strawberries and Grapes to be included which the waiter agreed to… When the Crapes arrived, the owner came out with it and informed me that she had prepared it herself 🙂 It came as shown below… Essentially the plate had two Crepes with the fillings as mentioned before and was topped with some Chocolate Sauce and Condensed Milk and then it also had some Powdered Sugar sprinkled on top of it all…
First of all, unlike the other Crepes that I have had in India, this one is by far the thinnest and hence closest to the read deal you can find abroad… The Crepes itself was quite crispy and I think it had just the right amount of Nutella and Peanut Butter inside that the taste of the Crepe itself was not diminished… The fruits, ie the slices of Strawberries and Grapes felt fresh and were slightly cooked inside the Crepes… The combination of the Nutella and Peanut Butter along with the Strawberries and Grapes along with the Chocolate Sauce and Condensed Milk topping seemed to work incredibly well for me… The quantity of each of the component was just perfect so that nothing ended up overpowering anything else thereby making it a perfectly well-balanced dessert… The powdered sugar gave this that slight extra kick of sweetness and altogether this felt like an awesome and lite dessert that I will definitely be having again when I get back to the place…
So, altogether it was a really enjoyable lunch that I had today… I wish to thank the owner for being such a wonderful host and cooking me the Crepes herself and I am looking forward to go back there very soon and try the rest of the new options in the menu…
