‘For gourmet and good eaters’, says the menu card at Coconut Grove in Bangalore. Consider yourself warned. Because if you’re nursing a mild hunger or just happen to be passing by, it isn’t the place for you; if you’re looking for a quick nibble, it isn’t the place for you; and if you’re looking to get back to work after having a meal here, it most certainly isn’t the place for you.

What it is, instead, is a haunt for food connoisseurs, a place to meet friends and unwind, slowly, over a few drinks, with lots to eat and plenty of time. You can’t do a quickie at Coconut Grove; it calls for a long-drawn, well-planned, courtship. Preferably one spread over several hours, couple of days a week.

Coconut Grove takes you (in its own words) ‘beyond the universally popular idlis, dosas and rassams’ to open up your taste-buds to a ‘spectacular gourmet cuisine redolent with evocative fragrances, age-old recipes and exotic cross-influences’. If that doesn’t get your taste buds in a stir, then nothing else can.

Succumb to fine cuisine from the highlands of Karnataka, the seacoasts of Kerala and the dry plains of Tamil Nadu – identified as Coorg, Konkan, Malabar and Chettinad. Each region lures you with its uniqueness. A wide assortment of vegetables, meat, chicken and seafood turns into lip smacking dishes, liberally seasoned with pepper, cloves, garlic, tamarind, raw mangoes and curry leaves, all tempered with the delicious and heady taste of a coconut base.

Spend time with the menu; seek assistance, which is gladly given. The perfectly-curried, piping-hot, tangy creations should only be pursued on an empty stomach. Every dish pairs off with the slightly-sweetish appams. Take a side order of pickled prawns, pork or bamboo to complete the gastronomic experience.