In a city where people fondly feast on butter-chicken and naan, the idea of South Indian dining remains subdued. All that we can recall of the cuisine is idli-dosa.

Hey, don’t get us wrong here but we seldom plan a dinner to a South Indian joint. It mostly happens by chance that when we’re famished, we simply stash into a nearby restaurant to taste the culinary expertise of the south.

However, a place that helps us come out of this notion with ease and proof is Spice Water Trail.

This restaurant often finds space in leading supplements every now and then, but for long it remained on our list of must visit places until now that we finally headed to this eatery which is quietly nestled in the much happening Greater Kailash M Block Market. The first thing that we learnt about it was that it is run by the massive Alchemist Group.

The people at this place take everything from their food to décor rather seriously. We all know that South Indian seafood is a rage, so you’ll even witness an exotic fish as a part of each table’s dressing.  The elements used in the decor are literally drawn from the coastal areas of India.

Since we happened to visit the place when neither of us wanted to eat non-vegetarian food, we diverted our energies in selecting the finest vegetarian stuff.

Here is when, we got a chance to go beyond idli, dosa-sambhar and rather explore the unique authentic eats of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

As we were glancing through the menu and struggling to take a final call from the exhaustive menu -our drinks landed on the table. The drinks were so tasteful that we called for another round sans any guilt. Well, why feel guilty when one is on the virgin path? Their tamarind drink and Aamras were divine!

The Podi Idlis and Kuzi Panyaram served, as starters were good. Podi Idlis are small Idlis tossed in a special spice mix called gunpowder. Whereas Kuzi Panyarams are shallow fried rice and urad dal dumplings from Tamil Nadu.

Accompanying them were interesting chutney combos such as a mango based one.

For the main course, we opted for Appams and Vegetable Stew (mild curry of vegetables with coconut cream); and Kerela Parota and Ullitheeyal (Madras onions cooked in decimated coconut gravy).

We cannot but admit that we have a sweet tooth and that is why we impatiently dug deep into our bowls of well-prepared Pineapple Halwa but sadly, it did not flatter our tongues as much. Though there were ample of other options to gratify our sweet cravings, we were too full to try. Nevertheless, we are sure that there must be a lot in this section too that we would drool over and we left that to our anticipated quick revisit.

So, next time you plan an outing, consider taking a break from regular North Indian and Mughlai cuisine and we don’t think, we need to mention the divert. Moreover, if you like to dine in with many folks, then they also have a special section for private dining for a large group on the upper floor. Happy Dining!