Secret Garden Cafe Is Cunningham Road's Best Kept Secret

Tucked away on a street off Cunningham Road, Secret Garden serves up delicious home-style Mediterranean cuisine and divine desserts.

Arugula, Walnut, Fig and Ham Salad and Lamb Crepe

Lemon Ice Tea

The changing menu and the home-style European food.

There’s obviously a simpler way to get to Secret Garden Cafe, if you follow their address, but the tiny lane, Edward Road, off Cunningham Road, might be hard to find. So we suggest you take the more adventurous route, just like Alice did, down the rabbit hole. Walk straight down Cunningham Road, get into the Prestige Centre Point {Sweet Chariot is your landmark}, climb down the stairs and get out of the building, on the other side. Lo and behold: on your left you will spot the hoarding at a quaint bungalow, on the terrace of which the cafe is housed.

This restaurant has accents like ornate, carved pillars, intricate jali work grills and Warli tribal art work on its walls. The rest of the liveliness is contributed by pretty planters that fill up the remaining nooks and corners.

The menu is constantly changing at this terrace restaurant run by the two ladies – Smita Sathyanath and Nirada Harendra. The changes reflect the seasons, the availability of produce or even the whims of the two wonderful cooks. On the day we visited, we started off with a round of Lemon Ice Teas and the Arugula, Walnut, Fig and Ham Salad. We dug into this lush, bountiful salad with a peppery, crunchy, sweet and salty sensation and decided to ask for another salad of Watermelon, Feta and Olives while we waited for our mains. This one was perfectly sweet, creamy and tart, with a dash of pepper.

From the blackboard options for the day’s mains, we decided to have the Burmese Khao Suey and Crêpes Stuffed with Lamb. The warm, brothy noodle soup, redolent with flavours, sharp spice, and strips of perfectly-cooked lamb, was superb. The thin, light crêpes were bursting with grilled lamb, mushrooms, and bell peppers, and came smeared with a homemade hot sauce.

In the dessert department, the ladies outdo themselves. The Chocolate Ganache Cake and the Blueberry Upside-Down Cake, both served with vanilla ice-cream was ace. The chocolate dessert was sinful and sticky; the upside-down cake was sweet, tart and moist; both finished too soon.

Secret Garden Cafe will always be that place to run away from the troubles of the world and escape into hearty, no-fuss food in an atmospheric setup.