Picture: Manzil at Kismet Property Vineyard
The brand new Albacore Tuna Crudo, impressed by coastal Indian flavours.
“Chef’s Alternative” is a Castanet restricted collection highlighting the flavours and aptitude of South Okanagan eateries. Look ahead to it each Tuesday morning.
Summer season is an ideal time to find Manzil at Kismet Property Vineyard in Oliver, the place Indian culinary artistry meets award-winning wines in a setting that blends the attract of India with the great thing about Okanagan vineyards.
In late April 2024, Kismet opened its new restaurant Manzil with a recent new menu that showcases distinctive and scrumptious dishes from throughout a number of areas of India.
The place Kismet means future, Manzil means vacation spot.
“Coming to Manzil is not only a meal, it’s an expertise. It’s a vacation spot. We would like our company to really feel like they’ve been transported out of Oliver and are journeying via the provinces and flavours of India,” stated Neelam Dhaliwal, operations supervisor at Kismet Vineyard.
“Our model at Kismet relies on our tradition. It performs a task in our story so we wished to showcase that with the look and upscale really feel of the restaurant in addition to on the menu.”
Whereas Manzil’s menu does provide in style Indian dishes like butter hen, its foremost focus is to inform the story of various areas of India.
“India is a big, versatile nation and each province has its personal flavours and meals,” stated Naleem.
With India having a big shoreline, they’ve added seafood dishes to the menu just like the Indian-style tuna crudo and Goan sablefish curry and Kerala mussels.
The tuna crudo is recent albacore tuna infused with solkadhi which is a well-liked digestive drink in India that has a coconut base blended with kokum berry and spices. The result’s a savoury tasting masterpiece, she stated
Solkadhi is drank with each meal in India, like water. The kokum berry is imported to the restaurant from India. The brand new menu is infusing a number of these Indian staples into the dishes.
One other spotlight of the menu is the road snacks together with the enjoyable bite-sized pani puri which is a crispy puffed cracker fabricated from chickpea and potato mash. Clients then drizzle tangy and spicy tamarind water into the cracker for a flavour explosion in your mouth, she stated. Additionally they have Bombay pakoras and mini samosas with chutneys which can be out of this world.
“When folks come right here to eat, they get to attempt a few of these well-known avenue meals of India,” she stated.
The inside of the restaurant has a complete new lush and stylish really feel with velvet chairs and gorgeous chandeliers.
The patio has a whimsical vibe, with twinkling lights shining via the wisteria hanging off the patio roof. It’s an ideal place to loosen up and luxuriate in some shared plates paired with Kismet’s Kamal rosé which is a juicy summer time sipper that goes with all the pieces.
The pinnacle chef Narendra Panwar involves the South Okanagan with a Michelin Information choose resume, having labored in prime eating places in Dubai, New York and Toronto. The culinary director is Tushar Tondvalkar who has his personal spice line known as Indian Pantry and makes a speciality of creating refined and genuine Indian dishes.
The culinary group spent three months perfecting the recipe for Manzil’s naan bread.
“Now we have individuals who come right here only for the garlic naan, it’s that good. It’s not like all naan you’ve tasted.”
It’s cooked on the partitions of a particular cylinder clay oven, making essentially the most pillowy comfortable naan bread.
Neelam encourages folks to order shared plates for the desk.
“In our tradition, we eat collectively household type, sharing plates in a communal, group manner. It’s the easiest way to expertise what the menu has to supply.”
There’s additionally the choice of the wine pairing expertise the place a wine host will information you thru a pattern of the menu paired completely with three chosen Kismet wines.
Manzil is offering a shuttle service from a couple of of the foremost lodges in Osoyoos and Oliver.
“It’s a pleasant technique to let folks come right here and luxuriate in some drinks and safely get residence.”
Being based mostly at a vineyard, the restaurant has a give attention to wine but it surely additionally gives a incredible cocktail menu with a late-night joyful hour, bar snacks and cocktail flights.
“A few of our cocktails have an Indian twist like our cosmos which have an Indian type syrup that we grew up on.”
One other thrilling factor coming to Manzil is a collection of lengthy desk dinners all through July. The primary one is Tuesday, July 9 with a seven-course meal that takes your tastebuds on a journey from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
The lengthy desk dinners might be reserved on Open Desk or on their web site at kismetestatewinery.com.
Picture: Contributed
The plush out of doors patio at Manzil at Kismet Property Vineyard.