Ekaa, Fort, Mumbai

Restaurant Name: Ekaa, Fort, Mumbai
Phone: +919987657989
Address: Kitab Mahal, 1st Floor, D Sukhadwala Rd, Azad Maidan, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001 India
Time: 12:30 PM – 15:30 PM, 19:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Meals for two: Rs. 1,800
Cuisines: Continental, Seafood, Beverages
Facilities: Home Delivery, Takeaway Available, Full Bar Available, Table booking recommended, Indoor Seating

Alleluia! A star is born! This is it. This is my most significant delicious discovery of the year. It’s making waves, it’s blazing trails and it opened less than four months ago. Aptly enough, its name Ekaa means ‘matchless’ and ‘the one’. It sure lives up to its name. I’m all admiration. For the sheer guts and the brilliance of the vibrantly young team led by 27-year-old (you read it right) Chef Niyati Rao and the equally young business partner Sagar Neve.

Chef Niyati and her dream team deliver masterpieces. Aptly enough, we dine with the creator of masterpieces, the globally renowned artist Jaideep Mehrotra. His canvases hang in global art capitals’ galleries. Creativity runs in the Mehrotra family genes. Freelance screen writer, the brilliant young Anushka’s show recently premiered on an international channel. Equally gifted interior designer Mallika is with Mumbai’s best interior design firm. We flag off Seema’s landmark birthday celebrations, very patiently she looks after this creative family with panache. The creative, gourmet trotting family approve of Ekaa over a fab fun a la carte dinner. For the 10-course tasting menu, a totally different experience, ace golfer and discerning foodie buddy, Shyam Ghia and I go back for a leisurely lunch. As always, I pay my bills both times. Our consensus: Admiration! We will be back again and again!

Ekaa, Fort, Mumbai: Zen And Minimalistic

Walk one floor up the side entrance of the office building in the Fort area. Walk into a high ceilinged, Nordic and Japanese minimalism inspired large space. Natural materials, earthy tones, handmade wooden furniture and moulded lamps spin an aura of calm in the four spaces.

The high glass sky ceilinged large central dining room is done up with wooden shelves stacked with fermentation jars and foraged flora. They have a tapas bar with an open balcony. A private dining room open and a walkin kitchen, too.

Ingredient Inspired Cuisine

It’s a revelatory experience. Fun,nostalgia,wit,philosophy, local foraged ingredients, science, art, stories… copulate to produce masterpieces in texture and flavour. Ekaa’s chef’s interpreted ingredient inspired cuisine has roots in the local. Each dish tells stories (without being cerebral, thank God!). The Tasting Menu dazzles. As does the a la carte.

Many a dish evokes memories, be it the Cheese Toast (a smokey cream filled crisp star cookie filled smoke cream) served on a Tinkle comic page, evocative of the cheese toast Niyati’s mom made in her childhood. Dishes which evoke travel in the Rajdhani train, ice golas and more. Succulent is the name of the brilliantly crafted avocado ice cream dessert: velvety delicious. Space constrains me from describing more dishes here. Suffice it to say, they are inspired by the diversity of ingredients and cultures. The potential of every ingredient is explored and new flavours and textural combinations created. Many a surprise explodes on the palate, be it Coconut Sprouts from Kerala or Jasmine Pearls. Even the cocktails dazzle with unique ingredients.

Ekaa Means Matchless

Ekaa does not break rules, it simply makes its own. I love that! Firstly, it defies Sir Conran’s success mantra of location. It perches itself on the first floor of a 131-year-old office building in Fort.

It’s amazing how Chef Niyati manages to orchestrate light moments of fun, nostalgia as well as serious futuristic dishes, but above all, delivers deliciousness. Vegetarians, this is your Mecca. Gourmets opt for the Tasting Menus. In the midst of this unequivocal excellence, there is only one downside: the acoustics! Dinner can get really noisy!