Since it opened in March this year, Nadodi has brought a new dimension to KL’s fine dining scene. Named after the Malayalam word for ‘wanderer’, this progressive Indian restaurant aims to bring diners through a gastronomic journey that stretches from the southern Indian regions of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and into the Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka. There’s no shortage of ambition here; when it opened, the restaurant offered diners a choice of 11- or 15-course tasting menus; by October, it had revised its menu to include 15- and 17-course tasting menus. In between those months, chef-owners Johnson Ebenezer and Sricharan Venkatesh also worked with DC Restaurant’s Darren Chin for a three-night collaborative dinner that was sold out within days.
The dishes here are impeccably executed and stunningly plated; more importantly they present a whole new side to Indian cuisine never seen before in KL. Some of the standout dishes they’ve made this year are the yoghurt spheroid wrapped in gold leaf, Hokkaido scallops served with tamarind froth, and What Came First – a combination of moussed kalaki (Chennai-style scrambled eggs), topped with a chicken 65-spiced cracker. Their cocktails aren’t shy of spectacle either; try the Cocktail with No Name, which is made from trufflesteeped gin and bruised basil, and Vodka in the Woods, a burst of a vodka-based drink encased within a mango gel sphere.