Enticing the palate

Located in Sadashivanagar, with no competition around, sits one of the few commercial satvik restaurants in the City. Sattvam, which has quietly established itself for its unique food over the past year and a half, strives to keep its customers’ tastebuds tingling.

While most households would consider onion and garlic essential to their cooking, the restaurant has effectively replaced the root vegetables, and has also done away with mushrooms and caffeine.

Owner and head chef Aditya Fatepuria says, “It has been eight years since I got into such a lifestyle so I’ve forgotten onion and garlic; it doesn’t come in my way. I know my ingredients - if I eat a fruit and I connect with it, I use it.” His favourite ingredients are aloe vera and star fruit. “So far, I have made a salad, starter, soup, juice and sabji from aloe vera,” he adds.

The gwar patha panchphoran is one of the aloe vera sabjis, and the amritras ke kofte is a sweet combination of guava and star fruit. The reason he and partner Arvind Chowdhary conceptualised the idea was because they wanted people to enjoy satvik food.

“We realised that a 22-year-old would not find satvik food appetising if I served it to him in an earthenware pot, but he might like a chocolate risotto at a fine-dining restaurant,” says Aditya. He adds, “We wanted to make it palatable and attractive.”

Sattvam doesn’t stop at a single cuisine. “Ours is a lifestyle so we experiment with all types of cuisines. People think garlic gives flavour to everything but there are substitutes to it,” says Aditya.

They have tried everything from Indian, Italian, American fast food to Japanese and Taiwanese. The broccoli apple shorba is their speciality, along with keshar tulsi ki shikanji. They are experimenting with desserts like chocolate jalebi and keshariya mini malai ghewar. The restaurant is located on Sankey Road. For details, call 23608000.