» Food & Drink
Andrew Kay gets a taste of Kerala at Rasa in Brighton
New Indian on the block is Rasa. It comes with a long track record and a chain of sister restaurants that stretches to the far north east. Taking over the space left by Momma Cherri is bound to prompt comparisons but there are none to be drawn. The decorators have been in and painted the place pink, and I mean PINK. It’s the house look and, although unusual, is fun and effective. But before I dwell too long on the decor, making you think that I was not impressed with the food, I will move on.
It was a pretty bleak evening, the kind that makes people stay home, but Rasa was already buzzing when we arrived. The cuisine is southern Indian and specifically Keralan. I have some knowledge of the style from years living in South London where the Tooting Bhel Poori mile was a massive draw.
“Special note must be made of a delicious bread, a spiralling flaky dough that was buttery and sweet and left me almost whimpering with delight”
The menu at Rasa is refreshingly short and far more in line with better Indian restaurants where you are less likely to be treated to the dubious delights of what I would describe as the old school brown curry. You know what I mean by that, a standard sauce into which various extras are thrown at the last minute. I am confident that there was none of this going on at Rasa.
I handed the gauntlet to the very competent waiter, asking him, or the chef, to choose a meal for us that would be balanced and not too large. He smiled, clearly delighted to have been asked. First out was a basket of crisp nibbles
that included spicy and plain popadoms. Excellent as they were, they were eclipsed by a pretty flower-shaped crisp and some ragged-edged crunchy things. All were great and served with some really top notch pickles, yoghurt, lemon, garlic, mixed vegetable and chili among them. I polished off the garlic almost single-handed.
To follow came four fat, deep-fried prawns in a lightly spiced batter. Good prawns too, with taught flesh and a rich flavour. The batter was thin and delicately spiced, not overpowering. With them came a dish of fried slices of aubergine. I love aubergine cooked almost any way you like. I say that with caution as I have had some truly repulsive aubergine dishes, but this was good, very fine slices with what was turning out to be a signature delicate touch with the spice box.
Our main course was perfectly balanced. I had asked for there not to be too much food and they came up with just the right amount of. Let me start with the rice – lemon rice that hummed with the aroma of citrus, really first class. The vegetable dish of very finely diced carrot, green bean and coconut was dry and yet strangely refreshing, crunchy and sweet and utterly moreish. Alongside that was a dish of yoghurt with mango and green banana to add that soft creamy element to the meal.
My curry of spiced crab claws was good too, again dry, again expertly spiced, and if I had any complaint it would be that it was not easy to eat. Mr R gets a little impatient when I order crab as it always takes so long to eat.
His curry of lamb was amazing, the meat slow cooked so that it fell apart at a mere whisper; rich, dark and very satisfying. Once again it was a fairly dry dish too, which meant that there was more meat than gravy, something all too common in some Indian restaurants.
Special note must be made of a delicious bread, a spiralling flaky dough that was buttery and sweet and left me almost whimpering with delight.
To finish, a small dish of scented rice pudding made me grin, and Mr R was won over by a halva-like sweet made of carrot and served with mango sorbet. By the time we had finished, Rasa was full on the ground floor but with room still upstairs. It’s a big space to fill completely and always has been. That said, Rasa is very keenly priced with no scarily expensive dishes that I could see. And given that plenty of passers by were reading the menu and coming in, I would say that most people were finding the menu inexpensive enough to give it a chance.
So Rasa won me over, and I will certainly be back to have another rummage around a list of unfamiliar dishes in the hope of finding more delights. Oh, and for lots lots more of that heavenly bread.
Rasa, 2-3 Little East Street, Brighton, BN1 1HT, 01273 771661, www.rasarestaurants.com
