Leeds is no stranger to good Indian restaurants, but few deliver authentic regional flavours quite like Tharavadu. This restaurant is home to some proper Keralan cooking, so much so that Indian cricket superstar Virat Kohli visits whenever he's in the area.
Kerala being a coastal region, rice features heavily in the staple diet. Keralan cuisine is among the most diverse, varied and multicultural in all of India, as the region has a history of contact with traders and travellers who would arrive in Kerala from all over the world.
The menu at the restaurant is typical of Keralan cuisine, and features many of the hallmarks of this region. After kicking things off with snacks and nibbles, get stuck into dishes like uzhunnu vada (South Indian lentil doughnuts), marinated grilled chicken slices, and deep-fried squid. Dosas are also popular here - Tharavadu offers a few options, including a masala dosa, a larger paper-masala dosa and the house special kozhi dosa, filled with chicken, and served with sambhar and chutney.
Make sure you save room for main dishes too - the restaurant has a number of meat and fish dishes on offer, such as a kozhi curry made with chicken and roasted coconut, a malabar kozhi biryani scattered with raisins and saffron, and plenty of fish and seafood curries too. Vegetarians need not worry - there's lots of vegetarian sides and mains here too, such as the aubergine curry, vegetable kurma and vegetarian thali with rice and bread.
As well as eating in the restaurant, guests at Tharavadu can also hire the restaurant for a private dinner - a perfect way to celebrate a birthday with friends and family, or just as suitable for entertaining clients or colleagues in Central Leeds.