Before it opened as a restaurant in Bandra in December last year, The Blue was piloted as a food delivery service catering Thai and Japanese fare from South Mumbai to the suburb. In April 2016, when they launched, Vogue called it the city’s “best-kept food secret” thanks to its emphasis on authenticity. A secret it was indeed as few (including us) knew of its existence until last month.
The wife and husband duo of Seefah Ketchaiyo and Karan Bane, the former Thai and Japanese chefs at the Four Seasons hotel’s Asian restaurant San-Qi, are the mom and pop running this modest six-table enterprise. The restaurant gets its peculiar name from Seefah, which means ‘blue’ in Thai. Ketchaiyo, a diminutive figure dressed in black chef’s fatigues, presides over the kitchen where she peers into simmering pots and pans that seem too large for her petite frame. Bane keeps equally busy doling out sushi, salads and bowls of soba noodles. They take turns shuttling between the cooking stations, the dining room and the till.
They’ve kept the decor functional and fuss free. The Blue is part open kitchen and part dining room and both are brightly lit like a lab. In contrast, the menu offers a thrilling diversity of recipes and flavours, which encourages repeat visits. Ketchaiyo and Bane’s areas of expertise are equally represented and a single meal is not sufficient to do justice to the vast extent of their cooking. We veered towards Thai over dinner last week and Ketchaiyo had us plotting our return after two courses.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a better som tam salad (Rs300) in the city. Our fish bowl-sized portion had crunchy strands of green papaya drenched in a heady punch of lime juice, sugar and fish sauce with whole crushed garlic and potent bird’s eye chilli thrown in for heat. She made us an equally well-rounded stir fried prawn in garlic oyster sauce (Rs500). Diced yellow and red peppers and succulent shrimp bob in the sweet and savoury curry. Drink the balanced curry and you won’t miss soup.
Ketchaiyo makes an excellent Thai green curry (Rs350) endowed with pea eggplants and quartered eggplants. It was heavily perfumed with basil, had a slow burn and was thankfully not burdened with excessive coconut milk, as is often the problem with Thai curries. Bane’s miso tofu and avocado salad (Rs400) tied with Ketchaiyo’s som tam for the most memorable dish of the meal. The preparation was a creamy blend of diced tofu of feta consistency and thick slabs of buttery avocado with crunch from iceberg lettuce and onion. The highlight of the chilled heap was the flavourful miso and sesame dressing cloaking the ingredients.
The California roll (Rs700) filled with avocado and imitation crab was filling but standard. As their respective cuisines demand, Ketchaiyo’s cooking is bold and assertive, while Bane’s plates are milder and his flavours clean. His yaki udon (Rs300) comprising a tangle of slippery, al dente noodles tossed in a mild tonkatsu sauce was simple and comforting. For our finale, the duo delivered an applause-worthy banana tempura (Rs250) as they were out of the matcha soya pudding and water chestnut in coconut milk listed under desserts. The tempura batter was light and crisp, the banana ripe and sweet, and despite the sugary embellishment of vanilla ice cream, sliced strawberries and rich caramel sauce, the dessert was not cloying.
Get: Som tam salad (Rs300); miso tofu and avocado salad (Rs400); stir fried prawn in garlic oyster sauce (Rs500); banana tempura (Rs250).
Skip: California roll (Rs700).
It is our policy to wait at least a week after an establishment has opened before we review it.
Prices exclude taxes.
The Blue, Ground Floor, Sai Pooja Building, on the junction of 16th Road and 33rd Road, same lane as Eddie’s Bistro, near Mini Punjab and Crave, Bandra (West). Tel: 022 3395 1655. Open daily, from noon to 11.30pm. Get directions here.