Hip Asia is the oriental restaurant in Taj Connemara. The restaurant was added during the renovation of the hotel last year. The restaurant serves Thai, Vietnam, Malay and Japanese cuisine. Their website mentions attire as semi formal, thankfully they allow you in even if you don’t wear shoes.

They have a rich cocktail menu, priced at an average Rs. 300.00 per cocktail. Since I went on a working day afternoon, couldn’t check it out. Mocktails are priced at Rs. 200.00. I went for the Passionfruit. With Thai, Vietnam, Malay and Japanese on the menu, the spread is big enough for you to spend time in deciding. I had fried babycorn dipped in plum sauce. It was crunchy and tasted delicious, so much so that the non vegetarians in the party started dipping their forks into my plate. The non vegetarians had skewerd chicken, some thing like a tandoor dish.

For main course I went for Thai spicy vegetable fried rice and delicately carved potatoes. I chose delicately carved potatoes simply for its intriguing name. The potatoes were carved into thin leaf like slices and then baked and served along with soya sauce. It looked good and tasted yummy too. The fried rice was standard fare, nothing great to write about.

Dessert was a disappointment as they had the regular caramel and mousse stuff on a trolley for us to choose from. There were no signature desserts of oriental cuisine.

Service was good but slow. It wasn’t as if the place was overflowing. There was only one other group, but still the main course took a long time. Fine dining is to be unhurried, accepted, but looking at the kitchen door for 10 minutes after the appetizers is irritating.

So how do I rate Hip Asia. Better than Lotus at the Park, sligthly lower than Benjarong.