Just two more reports to go from my trip to Delhi/Gurgaon in July/August. I’ve so far posted reports on three lunches eaten in Humayunpur: featuring Manipuri food at Chak Khum and Naga food at Farmer’s Kitchen and The Fusion Naga. I’ve also posted reports on two dinners eaten in Gurgaon: featuring Punjabi Food at Ikk Panjab and Kashmiri food at Matamaal. We’ll stay in Gurgaon for the penultimate report. This one features pan-South Indian food at Hosa, located in the swanky One Horizon Center. This is the Gurgaon branch of a very popular and highly regarded restaurant of the same name in Goa—and I believe they have since opened a branch in Hyderabad as well. The reports I’ve seen of the mothership have been promising—I think they might also be listed on a recent list of the alleged best restaurants in India, for what that’s worth. And so I was interested in checking them out. Here’s what I made of my dinner.
Hosa is part of the restaurant group that also operates, among others, Indian Accent and Comorin (whose flagship Gurgaon location has anchored the One Horizon Center restaurant row for a while). Unsurprisingly, their take on Pan-South Indian food is very similar to Comorin’s take on Pan-Indian food. That is to say, both present traditional dishes passed through some kind of mod, cheffy filter or the other and plated in a manner that would be recognizable to habitues of contemporary upscale restaurants around the globe (The Bombay Canteen in Bombay also does this kind of thing). When done well this kind of thing can be very good indeed. And as I’ve quite enjoyed my meals at Comorin (I’ve yet to report on two meals eaten there in 2025), I was expecting Hosa to impress. Well, the reality of the meal was a little up and down. Nothing was bad, everything looked very attractive but very few dishes had the punch of the best things at Comorin. This may just be an artefact of what we ordered. It’s a large menu and our party of three only made a small dent in it.
What did we get? Two of us got cocktails to start: the Lemongrass Colada and the Hosa 75. The latter was mine and while it was nothing special it went well enough with the food. First to arrive were the small plates: the Podi Vattayappam and the Mutton Pepper Roast (there’s also a chicken option). Both of these were rather good. Their Vattayappam is a savoury/spice take on what in Kerala is traditionally a sweet rice cake; it comes here crusted with a chilli and spice powder (akin to the Andhra gunpowder). The mutton roast was more traditionally done and served with three small Coin Parottas, which were excellent in their own right. So, a very good start to the meal.
Alas, the large plates did not quite live up to this start. The Madurai Lamb Shank was fine; the lamb was tender, the gravy was tasty but it didn’t really pop. This normally comes with ghee rice but we asked for more coin parottas instead. The Allepey Fish Curry I liked better (you also have the option of getting it with prawns or as a vegetarian curry) but it was nothing very special either. We got this with an appam rather than ghee rice. The appam was very good and we immediately ordered two more. The last main was the Andhra Chicken Pulao and this was a bit blah in our opinion. The aubergine/brinjal/eggplant raita it came with was nice, however.
We were pretty full at this point and so just shared one dessert to close. The Filter Coffee Ice Cream was quite nice.
For a look at the restaurant, the menu and everything we drank and ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.
Service was friendly and attentive. I must say though that the vehemence with which I was dissuaded from ordering their Soul Kadhi cocktail made me wonder why it’s on the menu at all. Price? All of the above, a bottle of water and tax brought the pre-tip total to Rs. 8888 or $93’ish at the current exchange rate. You don’t need me to tell you that $31/head is pretty expensive in Delhi even with two drinks. If I’m spending this kind of money I’d rather do it at Comorin. That said, I’ll probably return next summer when the family will join me in Delhi so we can try more of the menu.
Alright, only one more report from this Delhi trip to come. That’ll go up this weekend. Tomorrow I’ll have a report on Animales in Minnesota and on Friday another report from Seoul.