Our first night in the south we headed to the Terrace seafood restaurant at our hotel and thought it odd when we arrived at 730pm that they said they only had one table left--the place was empty and there were at least a dozen tables. Five or six tables did ultimately get occupied, but there was no way they were fully committed!
The way the menu works here is you order a main course and automatically get a set starter of delicious Mahi-Mahi cooked with grated fresh coconut, a small cup of their famous Prawn Bisque which was indeed heavenly and then you main with rice and veggies.
Will chose the Ft. Kochi(the hotel is located where the British fort was) style Lobster Masala with onion, tomato and coconut milk curry, which was delish, but needed more sauce. The veggies were way overcooked to boot and had no flavor. My Njandu Curry was a crab and tapioca black pepper curry that had a ton of tiny pieces of crab shells in it with virtually no meat. The Terrace is quite dark, and we needed flash to photograph the food for FB as well as to read the menus, but this beautiful clay pot used for cooking was so dark, I could not distinguish the shell from the meat. They took the shells away and brought back a plate of empty shells with about an ounce of crab. What a waste. They could see I was upset, and I suggested that their crabs are quite sad, and they asked how it could be fixed. I said that the red snapper looked fab and a couple of pieces of that cooked in the local oven would be great. It arrived fast and I popped it in the black pepper curry, and it was FABULOUS. The Fratelli Indian Sauvignon Blanc was so refreshing as the temps here are in the 80's and we were quite hot on the outdoor terrace!
Will had the custard Pasteis (famous in Lisbon) for dessert which he liked alot and said was as good as the originals--this area was under the Portuguese before the Brits and Vasco de Gama was buried here before being moved to Lisbon!) and I had a local cake of chocolate and raspberry that was nice but won no prizes. The staff were very apologetic and sent a bottle of wine to our room today to make up for it, but tonight we shall try another nearby hotel instead!
