We were roaming around the city late in the night wondering where to go for dinner, when suddenly we realised we haven’t been to one of the much hyped places in the city recently. Café TVM, located in Vazhuthacaud, has been the talk of the town for a while now and the moment the name popped up we knew where we were going to have our dinner that night.
While the restaurant is in the basement, the part of the building, facing the road, serves as their take away counter. As we walked down the stairs, the place felt quite welcoming.
I loved the cheery, orange walls and the framed pictures of Trivandrum landmarks that adorned each table. Since it was quite late in the night, the place wasn’t quite crowded and we made ourselves comfortable in one of the corner seats. As we sat waiting for someone to assist us with placing the order, we drooled over all the lovely items listed in the menu, confused about what to order. Although the place was empty, it took a while for the staff to come over to our table to take the order. Sadly, though, half the dishes that we asked for weren’t available – The Vazhakkappam with beef, God’s Own Chicken Fry and even Pathiri. Finally, after much dilly-dallying with the menu, we placed our order for a Veg Kothu Parotta, chicken Kothu Parotta, Parottas, Chilli Chicken and Schezwan Noodles. A few minutes into placing the order, we were told that the Kothu Parotta and Parotta too isn’t available – a moment when we almost thought we should maybe come back to this place some other time and have dinner elsewhere that night. However, finally we were told that we could be served our order including the Kothu Parotta and Parottas.
All the dishes came within a reasonable time period and we started greedily digging into the dishes. Considering the disappointing start we had, we had a wonderful time tasting all the dishes that we ordered. The Parottas were flaky and layered well and it perfectly paired up with the saucy, spicy, Chilli Chicken. We sat there having countless parottas and fighting for the last piece and it was indeed worth the wait. The Schezwan Noodles too were commendable. I loved that it was not too oily as compared to many other places and the heat was well balanced too. The portion size is reasonable and can be shared well between 2-3 people. What stood out to me, though, was the Kothu Parottas. I may be a bit biased here, since I am an ardent fan of Kothu Parottas, but I must say, these were amazing. Perfectly shredded and mixed well with the chicken, the Kothu Parotta was definitely the star of the day. I loved how they had the veg version of the usual chicken Kothu Parotta and I am happy that the Veg Kothu Parotta was not a let down as compared to its chicken counter part. Rather, it was at par with the chicken Kothu Parotta in terms of taste and balance of flavours.
This place is quite famous for their Monster Shake, but sadly that wasn’t available for the day. We ordered a normal chocolate shake drizzled with chocolate sauce. This was just ok – I’ve had better ones – and there was nothing great about it. You wouldn’t be missing out on much.
The service here is slow but the food is good. It is quite reasonably priced too and definitely a good value for money. The ambience is a pretty chilled out one with graffiti walls painted orange in colour and of course, the photos too. The staffs are courteous and try to provide a good dining experience to the customers.
I was sad that we weren’t able to try even one of their signature dishes but that’s ok. With this restaurant, I am sure that there is going to be a lot of next times as the flavor is always a winner!
