Koramangala's Newest Restaurant Is About Smoked & Cured Meats And We Are Lovin' It

The guys from Cafe Thulp have just opened a new restaurant in Koramangala called The Smoke Co. An unapologetic all-meat and some seafood menu {with a few vegetarian sides and mains}, this one is for serious carnivores and those who love all things cured and smoked.

We have been following The Smoke Co’s journey from being just an idea to plenty of experiments and then finally, a living, breathing restaurant that focuses on charcuterie style of meats and some dishes inspired by the American South. One look at Chef and co-founder Gautam Krishnankutty’s Instagram handle here and you will know what kind of hard work truly went into creating this menu. Describing themselves as a contemporary smoke house, The Smoke Co specialises in cured, aged and smoked meats. There aren’t much carbs on the menu, but plenty of meats to fill you up without making you feel queasy.

In 2014, when Gautam hosted a Naga festival at Cafe Thulp in Indiranagar, the idea to smoke meats and experiment with this method came to him. He then went to experiment with North Eastern styles, but eventually settled on the Southern American style of curing and smoking meats.

The menu is not vast, but that’s a good thing because you can then concentrate on what you exactly want to eat rather than get frazzled by too many options. We started off with the charcuterie platter {small and large platters available}. The platter is good enough for two and we chose dry cured aged ham, smoked country ham, soy and sesame cured yellow tail tuna, and a spectacular fish roe stuffed sausages. The sausages were absolute flavour bombs, salty, smoky with little bursts of fishiness. All of this could be eaten with some homemade mustard, apple chutney and bits of fresh fruit.

But the meat platter paled in comparison to our next appetiser. Smoked Bone Marrow {beef} with sea salt and olive oil, to be scooped out with little spoons and slathered onto slices of toast and consumed. This is one of the best things I have eaten this year in the city, and I would just go back to eat this again and again. Of course, it is heavy, it is gelatinous, but it was also buttery, gooey, shiny and all kinds of umami. No wonder it is called the Butter Of Gods. Vegetarians, you may not find too many options but we did spot Baked Brie, a couple of sides like Mac & Cheese {good for kids}, Fried Green Tomatoes {another nod to the Deep South}, salads, and tacos.

We chose another smoke platter for mains complete with portions of barbequed chicken, baby back pork ribs, beef and pork kielbasa {Polish smoked sausages} and pastrami. The kielbasa stood out because of its, sweet, smoky and juicy flavours, and the baby back pork ribs were excellent too. A fat slice of toast gave this platter some good company, especially to mope up all the juices left over in the platter.

Up next was the Flourless Chocolate Cake, which has already made it to our list of great chocolate desserts in the city here. The chocolate cake was gooey, moist and not too sweet {this is intense dark chocolate}, and came topped with a scoop of milk chocolate mousse and a surprise crunchy layer of chocolate pop rock soil.

There is no alcohol yet on the menu. But the bar will start functioning as soon as the license arrives.