Spice Trail By Avoki: The First Time – Rice and Noodle Bowls For Lunch

Today, when searching for options of food to buy for lunch here, I stumbled upon a new name called “Spice Trail by Avoki”… When I checked the menu, it was a surprise cause their entire menu consists of Rice/Noodles bowls and of-course the pics shown seemed promising… So, decided to place order cause I have always been a fan of Asian noodle and rice bowls from having had a few before outside Kerala and also from seeing the numerous food shows online… 🙂 So, placed the order for all 3 of us and the food was delivered as shown in the pic below as basically 3 bowls (cause some “pramugha” places have a habit of having the “bowl” in just the name lol) with of-course the ketchup sachets and disposable cutlery…

Now the main reason why I decided to go for food from this place is because among the menu items, there was one item which peaked my interest, cause it was an item that I had been in the search for for many years and thats the American-Chinese dish called Orange Chicken… So, I went for Fried Rice with Orange Chicken bowl and for my extremely vegetarian mom, the Chow Mein Noodles with Hot Garlic Paneer (they had some Indian bowls as well but my mom was in the mood for Chinese today) and for my dad, since he likes a bit more spice than the rest of us, it was the Butter Garlic Noodles with Dragon Chicken… 🙂 They were as shown in the pics below and of-course the quantities were more than enough for all of us that both me and my dad got the chance to taste everything and here we are… 🙂

So, lets start with the vegetarian bowl which was the Chow Mein Noodles with Hot Garlic Paneer… To give you an idea about the quantity, the bowls are as big as the containers in which we see many places pack Biriyanis and so pretty much half of this bowl was leftover after my mom had her fill (so, pls don’t complain)… The aroma from the bowl was just awesome with that perfectly caramelised hot garlic sauce along with the aroma of the chillies and also the fresh vegetables used in the Chow Mein noodles… Coming to taste, the Hot Garlic Panner was clearly the best tasting version of the same for me… It was cooked and seasoned perfectly with the pieces of paneer having that slightly crispy layer outside… The noodles felt like a Hakka Noodles sautéed with a touch of Tomato Sauce for me… The vegetables were indeed fresh and aromatic as well… Altogether we all loved this bowl and based on this, I am hoping to get Hot Garlic Chicken next time for me 🙂

Next up, lets talk about the Butter Garlic Noodles with Dragon Chicken… The noodles kind of looked the same as that used for making the Chow Mein but here the noodles had a nice fragrance of Butter in it along with Garlic staying just behind… Noodles were cooked perfectly and the vegetables were crunchy and fresh and aromatic at the same time… The Dragon chicken was one of the best versions of the same that I have had with that flavour of the Hot Garlic sauce, Chillies and Cashews along with the vegetables used… The Chicken was cut as strips and were fried to be crispy outside and also well cooked inside… Overall it was a perfect balance of sweet and spicy for me, and it worked incredibly well with the Butter Garlic Noodles… Essentially it felt quite rich to eat…

Last but not least, lets talk about the Fried Rice with Orange Chicken bowl that I got for myself… For those who may not be aware, Orange Chicken is a dish that is mostly unknown in India as its not a product of the Indo-Chinese cuisine but rather came from the American Chinese cuisine created based on the Hunan cuisine by the popular chain of restaurants called Panda Express and it has been their signature dish for quite a long time… Orange chicken as the name suggests is basically cubes of battered and fried chicken thats sautéed with what they call as the Orange sauce, which is basically a sweet and spicy sauce, typically made using Sweet Orange Juice (sweetened with sugar or honey if needed), Soy, Garlic, Ginger, Vinegar, Chillies, Orange Zest and cooked with Sesame and/or Sesame oil…

Coming to the taste of the Orange Chicken that I got here, personally, I felt that it needed more flavour of the Orange as I felt the Garlic and Chillies ended up dominating the flavour profile… The sweetness felt just right though… The pieces of Chicken was cooked perfectly and I felt the overall consistency of the sauce to be spot on… Coming to the fried rice, that was just like any other typical hakka fried rice, but thankfully not Indianised using spices and too much seasoning… It was just as it is supposed to be ie, subtle and clean flavours with minimal seasoning and of-course everything was cooked perfectly as well… Loved every bit of it… 🙂

That being said, I do have one grievance, which is that I felt that the quantity of the Orange Chicken was too less for the quantity of rice that came with it… I think they could’ve at-least reduced the quantity of rice to balance with the given Orange Chicken as I felt that the quantity of rice given was more than enough for 1 person… So, I hope they correct the ratio asap… The ratio of the other noodle bowls was also off but at-least it was better than this one which desperately needs a revision asap… Or if for business reasons, you can’t change that, then at-least please include the option in the menus to be able to buy extra or the dishes separately… Right now, the menu only lets us order the bowls as it is… So, at this point, do hope that my grievances get addressed by them soon… Fingers crossed 🙂

So, thats it for today… It really was a welcoming surprise to see these rice and noodle bowls and everything tasted so good and both me and my parents loved it and we are hoping to try more from their menu soon… I think the food here is a must try if you haven’t already and so, please feel free to check it out and let me know in the comments section below 🙂

Update [19th Jan 2021 – 10:30AM]: After receiving a number of enquiries, asking for where the restaurant is located, I tried searching for the place but sadly nothing showed up… Then I tried searching for Avoki and found that there is a resort inside Kinfra Film & IT Park near Kazhakuttom called Avoki Resorts… Now is this restaurant the restaurant of that resort??? I am inclined to say that it looks like it because of the name, but at the same time, I can’t at this point be 100% sure because the resort’s website as of now doesn’t mention their restaurant’s name… Hoping to get clarity on the matter soon…

Update [19th Jan 2020 – 11:15AM]: Got confirmation that the restaurant is indeed the restaurant of Avoki Resorts as mentioned by their comment below… 🙂