Enjoy a relaxed, Asian-style Sunday 'slunch' at Chennai's Black Orchid resto-bar

CHENNAI: Sundays do not have to be the same anymore. With lip-smacking delicacies, handcrafted cocktails, and mocktails with your friends and family, Black Orchid, in RA Puram, is all set to deck your Sundays up with their new-found 'Slunch' menu.

“The basic idea is to have a relaxed lunch or early dinner between 1 pm and 6 pm. Sunday is the only day in the week when we can spend quality time with our cherished circle. We wanted to incorporate our fine dining concept into the Slunch menu, featuring small plates, sushi, retro cocktails and light eats,” says Ronald Dsouza, operational manager at the diner.

Interestingly, the one-stop dining hub is adding a Japanese touch to their cocktails. “The main idea behind the menu is to keep it simple,” he adds.

Chennai has seen an expansion in the number of resto-bars. The owners are focusing on not just giving good cocktails, but also great ambience and food. “When it comes to restaurants, the culinary market is diversified and a lot of regional and forgotten cuisines are getting the spotlight. But the challenge here is to maintain the authenticity and there is hardly any space to play up. As we are a resto-bar, we have an upper hand in experimenting with the flavours,” he shares.

Black Orchid aims to cater to guests from all quarters, including family, friends, kids and also the elderly. “Chennai’s crowd was quite conservative. But now, people have started coming out of the shell and competing with other metro cities, when it comes to socialising. Our menu features an array of unique dishes like blue cheese chicken tikka, strawberry sushi and more. Coming up with innovative dishes is not an easy task, as there will be trial and error methods before achieving that perfect flavour. Not diverting from the basics is the key and using local ingredients helps chefs to test their creativity,” Dsouza states.

Among all the dishes we relished, the mango and avocado sushi was mind blowing. The honey mustard chicken and avocado salad was light and filling. The taste of pesto-grilled cottage cheese was different and appetising. The meat pieces in wok-style chicken teriyaki and Thai-style chilli chicken were succulent and the flavours of the sauces were also subtle and balanced. Tempura prawns paired well with the soy sauce. The crispiness of the outer covering complemented the well-cooked prawn.

The curry in the tofu and broccoli teriyaki was quite sweet but was good with rice. However, the Thai chicken curry with rice emerged as the true winner, with its delicious curry.

Mango cardamom cheesecake should be on the list of all the sweet-tooths. The jackfruit pannacotta was bland and required more flavours. Among the mocktails, we really liked the lychee-flavoured drink.

Slunch at Black Orchid is open to the guests on all Sundays.