Hosa arrives in Gurugram with a bigger, bolder menu

A little less than three years ago, Hosa opened in a sleepy winding lane by the Chapora River in Siolim. On the tables in this soaring, stunning century-old Portuguese villa with many rooms and as many moods, were bun parottas and curry leaf-cured snapper, and three dozen other Deccan dishes, all true to flavour, each composed with an astonishing, modern flair.

This week, Hosa lands nearly 1,900 kilometres north, in Gurugram’s One Horizon Centre. At its second outpost chef Harish Rao, cheery champion of South India’s diverse regional cuisines, will feed polichattu and plantain pepper roast to a biryani, butter chicken and black dal-loving clientele.

Like its Goa outpost, Hosa Gurugram has art on its walls that makes you stop and look and think, a beverage menu that takes cocktail classics for a gleeful spin south of the Satpuras, and a genial team that watches your face to see if you like what they place in front of you. Rao’s bolder, broader NCR menu brings a few favourites from Goa—yes, the curry leaf-cured snapper and Hosa fried chicken are here—to sit alongside a bunch of new dishes like Dindigul mutton biryani, and baby potato gassi.

The Space

Rohit Chawla

Rohit Chawla

Hosa’s big city business centre look is strikingly different from its dreamy coastal vibe. A big white lit up sign beams over DLF One Horizon’s plaza. It’s Hosa’s, unmissable, bookending an arc of restaurants, with sibling brand Comorin at the far end. Under it, is a patio with a slightly Mediterranean, island beach shack vibe, all patterned tiles, plastic rattan chairs and potted palms. Past the doors, inside in the dining room, tropical modernism meets safari style. There are parrots and monkeys on wallpaper, raw sienna-ochre leather on woven back chairs, and upholstery with a print that seems to spill over from the bunches of bird of paradise flowers between the sofas.

Hosa Gurugram is also metro-sized, about a third of Goa, but it still seats 100 people. So its curved dining room with angled white rafters feels like a bustling spot very quickly, fit for families, friends and fund managers alike. To the left is a luminous bar with a serene glass and rattan backdrop. It’s decidedly more conservative than the striking archway in Goa, but no less buzzy. Just beyond, are two playful works by artist Srinivasa Reddy. One, titled “I Need… But Not Get”, has a construction worker resting a bunch of bananas on his hard hat while riding a sculptural monochromatic wild boar. A semi-open circular PDR at the end of the room feels like a cylindrical jungle tent. Hosa Gurugram has a format that’s more scaleable, and indeed a Hosa will open in Hyderabad next. (It’s just one of the 20-plus openings planned by restaurateur Rohit Khattar’s Ekatra Hospitality Ventures over the next year, so says the standee screen outside Comorin.)

The Team

Brand chef Harish Rao has two decades of donning the toque, often at the country’s most awarded South Indian restaurants, like Dakshin at the Sheraton Park Hotel, and at Avartana and The ITC Grand Chola. Through his travels and research across the Deccan, he’s studied how “millets, lentils, tamarind, gongura, jaggery, and native oils reflect its land culture and history”, and Hosa’s food is evidence. For a mixologist, head of bars Varun Sharma, is fittingly spirited. Over 18 years of stirring and shaking, previously at Rick’s, at Taj Mahal, New Delhi and at Soda Bottle Openerwala in Delhi and Mumbai, he’s developed a signature mischievous style: mixing unintuitive flavours through his cerebral understanding of technique. Kevin Rodrigues, head of wines, brings 30 fruit-forward wines designed for boldly spiced food to the beverage menu, with each one also available by the glass for whisky-loving Gurugram.

The Food

Aubergine SteakNolan Lobo

Bun & StewNolan Lobo

“Hosa Gurugram has the same soul as Hosa Goa; it celebrates the rich and diverse flavours of South India, but in a louder note,” says Rao. “Each dish pays homage to flavours while trying to imagine them through a modern and creative lens.” This translates to dishes such as raw banana paniyarams served in a cast iron 3×3 paniyarakkal, its grain-free dumplings and a garlic-curry leaf-gingelly dipping oil playing tic-tac-toe with four condiments that compete for attention: creamy banana peel chutney, tart-fruity raw mango chutney, a tomato chutney that tastes as bright as it looks, and a milagai podi with proper punch. Or the brain pepper roast, where hefty chunks of grey matter coated in a vigorous rustic spice marinade sit on a tranquil cloud of soufflé egg white omelette. We hear a meatless quail egg-on-egg version of this is imminent.

Madurai Lamb ShankNolan Lobo

Elaneer Pepper Fry, Akki RotiNolan Lobo

“Hosa not only tells us about the culinary traditions of South India, but also tells us about how it travelled, evolved, and influenced cooking across regions, such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Reunion Islands and Durban in South Africa,” Rao explains, as he sets down bun and stew, a dish he’d tested on his tasting menu at a pop up in Mumbai a few months ago. It’s a bunny chow, Rao style, a well of vegetable ishtew softening the bread from the inside and below, so that by the time we’re halfway through the dish, it has collapsed into a soft, sweet cumulus. His elaneer pepper fry is a tangle of tender coconut strips stir fried and topped on pol rotis, like little Tamil tacos.