after a gap of 4 years, i finally visited kahawa again to try how it works now. well, i must say, its has gone even better in terms of taste. but in terms of vibrance, crowds and overall ambience, there is a rapid reduction.
i am a hardcore foodie, so not much worried aboutambiencefactor. so coming to taste, it has gone even better than previous innings. i tried chicken steak sizzler (which happens to a favourite meal for me) and belgian chocolate shake.
coming to sizzler, its prefectly cooked, well grilled and topped with prefect flavourful brown jus well cooked with pepper essence and laced with peppercorns and chilly flakes. it gives a burst of flavours unlike bland pepper sauces which normally comes for such steaks. a bit of some spice hints were in the sauce as it wasn't typical western kind one. but anyways, it was really awesome. the mash was well cooked and perfectly balled. no lumps and so smooth. i loved it. they provided extra pepper sauce which went well with the mash, giving more flavourful taste. the only drawback the bread toast served along with this. it was so amateurish and its only because of that, i reduces 0.5 points. the bread toast is just ordinary bakery bought sliced bread, with a bit of butter spread on it and slight toasted on pan, as if its for some school children lunch boxes. actually the bread spoiled the beauty of the dish as such. i suggest, either offer one slice of garlic bread or texas toast (thick bread sliced, well toasted to brown) or just a small dinner roll with butter. or avoid this bread as whole itself.
okay coming to drinks, i had belgian chocolate shake, which was really bliss. never hard so thick shake back in kochi. normally in kerala, we get loose shakes. but this one was really thick, as good as shakes you get in american joints like johnny rockets or shake shack... i loved it. so overall, food was really good and i am really pleased.
now coming toambiencefactor. well i am not much into it. but just for others. i felt, the store has gone more darker than previous.... it looked so dimmed, that there is absolutely no vibrance beyond the loud music they play. the main counter looks very dull and there was just 2 cakes in it. it gives a lack feeling. some more lighting is required to give cheerful youthful ambience. it looks more like a scaled down bar than a youthful cafe. kahawa has a reading area with mini library kind of stuff where you can get books and read. but now it looks as some old magazines hub with fwd and other local magazines as old as july 2013. infact every magazine on top was last years one. ideally replace with some new ones, some books etc. and today the wifi wasn't connecting. so these all make theambiencefactor dull for me and there was lack of life in the restaurant. but food was really great.