Affordable? Gourmet? Lunch? Coconut Lagoon delivers on all three

Coconut Lagoon is one of our city’s finer dining establishments and we’ve come to expect a high level of cooking from their kitchen. 

Before fire destroyed the old Coconut Lagoon, it offered not only dinner service but a lunch buffet that was well attended by regulars. I don’t recall a lunchtime when the room wasn’t packed.

After a period of reconstruction, Coconut Lagoon relaunched with a new menu and style of dinner service. It was a little more elevated, which took the business into the realm of fine dinin,g but with service that was never stuffy and always gracious. 

People did however, miss the affordability of the buffet and the opportunity to occasionally see old familiar faces.

Now their lunch service is back, so what do I think of it?

The lunch may no longer take the form of a buffet but at $27 for three courses, Coconut Lagoon leads as an example for the city’s restaurants that a value-priced lunch is possible and that people will once again go out for an afternoon repast.

For the price, you will receive a starter soup, a main course and a dessert and yes, the cooking is as fine as you’ve come to expect.

On this day, I was served a very nice and gently seasoned butternut squash soup, a dish entirely appropriate for this time of year. 

It was, of course, sumptuously silky with a tease of an accumulating spiciness that never defeated the palate. Luscious and lovely. The assortment of accompanying pappadams was a delicious bonus.

The main course consisted of six different and smaller dishes involving meat, seafood and plenty of vegetables. If you prefer, you can of course ask for an entirely vegetarian version. All of it was pretty special and came with a fluffy and fabulously prepared basmati rice. 

I appreciated that the veggie samosa, drizzled with tamarind, had been made with a wheat spring roll wrapper rather than the traditional, thick, oil-soaked dough. The filling of assorted vegetables was soft and almost creamy.

The prawns came in a sweet tangy curry of mango and coconut and had been properly poached to tenderness rather than rubber. The effect was one of lightness.

Chicken too arrived tender in a masala curry that had been given a twist by using a roasted coconut base. 

If you ever decide that you may want to change your diet to a vegetarian one, you can do no better than getting your training wheels at Coconut Lagoon. 

The eggplant side was supremely creamy with a mild smoky note and a natural sweetness that had developed through the cooking. The lentil dal, a favourite of mine, was as delicious as ever and deep and nutty with lovingly caramelized onions dressing the top.

The biggest flavour came from the coarsely ground lamb and I’m going to search Joe’s two cookbooks (My Thali and Coconut Lagoon) for the recipe. It was a memorable bite that worked so well with the warm, freshly made roti bread that had been kept warm in its own blanket.

To finish, I was served a small pot of rice pudding crowned with fresh berries and a tangy mango coulis. As manager Saji Kumaran told me, it had been made using rice flakes and this gave the pudding a more creamy density. It would have been difficult to imagine how I could have enjoyed it more.

We can go on at length talking about how fine the food is at Coconut Lagoon and it’s certainly right to do so. What sometimes gets less attention is the service and the reason for that is because it’s so good. So good that we unconsciously understand that this is what service should always be. Everywhere.

Yet it seldom is. Except, in my experience, at Coconut Lagoon. There is a warm, graciousness and civility to the dining experience that is as welcome as a gentle guiding hand. In the hands of Saji Kumaran and his team you are well fed but also nurtured in some ineffable way. 

And that friends, is some way to finish a meal.