Fort Cochin Seafood Specialty Restaurant, Cochin, India: Indias known for its spicy delicacies and Eastern cuisine showcasing various meats and mutton, but seafood is also big in India. Located in Cochin, Fort Cochin Seafood Specialty Restaurant is one such restaurant that narrows down its offerings to just seafood. Dining at a specialist restaurant like this should guarantee an experience of food as only handled by professionals, and the Fort Cochin Seafood Specialty Restaurant certainly achieves this.
The Fort Cochin provided a casual dining affair: sit for your dinner, and the restaurant’s windows are covered with mosquito nets. Tables have plain looking white tablecloths, simple white plates and inexpensive glassware. Despite all these things, the restaurant have an elusive charm that make you feel both curious and enchanted at the same time.
The restaurant does not have a menu. For the appetizers, he just gives you some options, such as “How does calamari with a little lemon and butter sound,” or “How about some oysters? We can do them baked or raw!” When you hear something that you fancy, all you have to do is give a resounding “Yes, that sounds good! I’ll have that,” and the dish is served in a jiffy. It’s quite an experience!
For the main course, the waiter comes out with a trolley and he digs through the ice and starts pulling out fish and shrimp and crabs and oysters and shows them to you and says “How does this look?” and “How do you want it cooked?” Basically, you go through the cart looking at all the choices and then you tell them how you want them cooked.
Try a local butter fish, half of it grilled and the other cooked in a curry sauce for that distinct taste of India.Spicy and tender, truly some of the best fish one can ever have. Along with the curry and some Nan, the dinner was top notch.
The wine selection had a nice offering and a decent selection of Indian wines. Go for a Sauvignon Blanc from Sula Vineyards, which is a perfect match with the extra-spicy (be careful!) dishes.
The Fort Cochin Restaurant brochure describes their service best : “If you’re ready for seafood that’s freshly grilled, broiled, stuffed, scampied, popcorned, steamed, Rockefellered, fettuccined, stir-fried, baked, iced, creoled, garlicked, pestoed, linguinied, brochetted, gingered, gumboed, fried and oh so very fresh, we’re ready for you.” The overall experience of service and ambience is always rated high and yet preferred by creme de la creme in the city and around the world.
