This is a video of Naan being made in Casino Hotel

Three days back was the inauguration of another ‘naadan’ restaurant called Ela in Kochi city. The restaurant is located at Menaka, opposite Bay Pride Mall and under The Attic restaurant. In fact Ela restaurant is run by the same people responsible for Attic, which is one of the few places that serves good steaks and sizzlers.

Nadan Restaurant Ela in Cochin

One thing that we definitely welcomed was the menu outside the restaurant, by the foot path. So you dont have to wait till your server gives you the menu to decide what your going to eat or if the place is too pricey! The menu at the street definitely looked appealing, though once inside we were quite surprised that the interiors and the ambiance did not match what you would expect in a naadan restaurant. The interiors were somewhat modern, swanky looking and played some western pop music in the background.

Interior of ELA Restaurant

The same menu that we studied by the footpath was produced by the Captain. But we did get pretty disappointed when the Captain informed us that each of our orders were either not available or will take time, which is another way of saying, “your order is not available”. So, finally we decided to have the naadan meals and naadan biriyani and some kozuva fish fry. At Rs.60 for the Veg Meals, Rs. 75 for biriyani and Rs. 45 for the fried fish, the rates were somewhat reasonable, taking to consideration the ambiance. The 30 minute wait for the food to arrive definitely worked on our appetite and to a certain extent on our patience too. The meals was good enough. But the naadan biriyani was certainly disappointing. The biriyani was in no way naadan and was more like the north Indian version. It was more like a spicy pulao with 2 pieces of chicken thrown in. The fried fish was good enough and proved worthy of the wait. The payasam that was served was not great and we decided we have had better.

Over all the food was not exceptionally good. But if trying out new places gives you the kick, then go ahead and check out Ela. We rate the place a generous 2.5 out of 5.