Wharf 2.0 at Radisson Blu Temple Bay, Mahabalipuram, Chennai

Wharf - a level quayside area to which a ship may be moored to load or unload

Considering the meaning of this revamped resto-bar, the Wharf 2.0 does good justice to the tag. It reminded me of the Goan shacks I'd recently been to about a month back although those were much larger this one was elaborately constructed.















The main section has a huge central open cooking area where chefs can be seen doing prep-work n cooking and around this are sections of 3-4 tables.

There's a seperate bay nearby where cocktails and alcohol is made. Around the property there's a wire fence separating the hotel from the sands. The waves are only about 20 meters away so that sound is constant. There are also solo tables under their own thick straw roofs.

                              The set-menu: This was on an invite so this meal was on-the-house.

The decor was all lovely, all natural on the outside.

Relaxing by the bay beer in hand

Nice outdoor seating

To get to the restaurant one has to ride a buggy from the main entrance for about a minute! The hotel has a pretty large footprint and they grow some herbs and veggies too that are used for the dishes!

We chose a table with the best view of the beach and the Chef presented us with a set-menu for the noon.

While waiting for the first dishes to arrive we decided to try a cocktail from the coastal themed cocktail menu. I ordered the Beach Punch which was just what I needed in the balmy setting. A slightly strong mix mellowed at the top with coconut cream and Malibu, adding to the coconuttiness! Remember to give this one a good mix if you want the taste to be uniform though because of the plentiful ice. It was served in a lovely hammered brass mug that somehow suited this drink.

The pretty cocktails we tried! CW from top: Beach Punch, Hurricane, Big Wave and Sunkissed

The Amuse Bouche came in soon enough, surprisingly it was balls of rava with a green garnish! Interesting twist.










Now the menu itself was themed on the elements; Air, Earth, Fire but water was missing in our menu although it's represented in the restaurant's menu.

The starters constituted Aloo Shakarkand ki chilgoza ki tikki which was accompanied by a thick peanutty sauce and a mint one. This Earth inspired dish was a good start with a pleasant sweetness emerging and going well with the peanut dip. An easy eat.

The chef decided to surprise us with what has to be their Southern house favorite, Sutta Kozhi Milagu which had that lovely lipsmacking home-made spice flavor and the chicken supremely tender; a fresh, well-made dish. Sutta Kozhi means "Roasted chicken."

Another Wharf 2.0 Special that made its way was the Panko Crumbed Calamari with Walnut Thyme Spiked Aioli. Calamari was well-enclosed in a thick a super crunchy shell of panko crumbs. A nice crowd-pleaser and scrumptious to pick off one-by-one with the aioli.

Woody n Stone plating provided some Instagram-worthy shots!

The soup arrived now and it was a Thai Matcha Green Soup. It was poured into a receptacle-like bowl and looked, well, it just looked like an uninspiring green liquid. But the first sip of this creation was like a taste of home, scenes of the Pixar movie Ratatouille come to mind where snooty food critic Anton Ego has his taste-buds and mind blown. Hitting the right notes in terms of consistency, richness and that "green" broccoli flavor, without even slightly overdoing any one of those. Bet the Matcha tea made it healthy too! The bowl of accompanying fresh breads made for a soul-satisfying soup-sipping session.

Generous portions but we were too full!

Next came the "Fish chunks in an elephant garlic & mustard spice combination" (Inspired by Fire) which was nice enough, the chunks of fish were quite big so that they could be skewered easily without coming apart. A light mustard bitterness accompanied the fish. Would be a healthy eat to munch on with a chilled pint!

Fish chunks in an elephant garlic & mustard spice combination

The Corn Marinated chicken lemon pepper and celery Buerre blanc (Inspired by Air)

The Corn Marinated chicken lemon pepper and celery Buerre blanc (Inspired by Air) with its smoky peppery outer layer came with a satisfying sticky/smoked rice.

Khatte meethe aloo (Inspired by Fire) didn't make any impression although it looked beautiful. Being char-grilled with skins on, they'd lost most of their moisture and the flavors weren't really there.

Bhute aur gajar ki seekh (Inspired by Fire) was a crunchy, light subtly sweet seekh made from Carrots and corn-presumably grated.

Dal Makhani and Vegetable curry were served alongside naans. Dal Makhani had that tinge of sweetness and was nice with the buttered naans. There's always sachets of Amul butter kept on the table.

Finally the dessert which is Organic Turmeric and Palm Jaggery Frappe Mousse arrived. We shared one portion amongst the four of us since we were properly filled up by now. This was an interesting dessert, faint taste of the Turmeric while the sweetness from palm jaggery gave it a smokier profile than just sugar would. There were touches of pepper too distributed unevenly throughly the dessert. A subdued, dare I say, healthy dessert.