A new restaurant in Lower Parel serves the kind of Indian food that makes you ask for seconds

In Mumbai, Khattar had to forego the height enjoyed by Comorin in Gurugram. He agrees, though, when I point out that by Mumbai’s standards, the space is a steal. Conceptualised and designed by Rishiv Khattar with London’s Russell Sage Studio and Gurugram’s Incubus, its orangery extends into the newly opened Nilaya Anthology, India’s largest design store. The bar at the front is intentionally disjointed, with mixed seating areas leading to a hidden room at the back.

The community table at Comorin

The cocktails are a different story. Varun Sharma, the head of bar, learned the art of sous vide from chef Manish Mehrotra, the former culinary director of Indian Accent, and applies it with full force at Comorin. Traditionally, sous vide, a French technique, is used to cook food in low, controlled temperatures for a prolonged period, usually encased in glass or a plastic pouch. In the world of cocktails, sous vide is quick and efficient for everything, from infusing spirits with flavouring agents like herbs to making syrups with precise concentrations to even fat washing and clarifying. “It’s interesting how we look at the West to understand these techniques when we’ve been doing this in our kitchens for centuries,” Sharma points out. “For instance, ghee. It’s just clarifying butter, but when the West serves us a clarifying cocktail, it’s suddenly something new.”