Thali
136 O’Connor St., 613-594-4545, thaliottawa.ca
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: most lunch platters $18 (refills available)
Access: no steps to front door
It’s only taken 5,000 years or so, but thali-style dining is packing them in at lunchtime in downtown Ottawa.
Archaeological excavators found the ancient precursors of today’s thalis — round metal platters used to serve foodstuffs in small containers — in Northern India. Over the millennia, thalis spread beyond South Asia, across the Indian Ocean and into the Caribbean and United Kingdom, wherever the Indian diaspora would take the beloved platters.
I think I first saw thalis in Ottawa in the 1990s. Then, they seemed a way to bring the buffet to the table rather than the diner to the buffet. I liked thalis then, but I like them even more now that chef-restaurateur Joe Thottungal has made them the centrepiece of his new downtown restaurant, aptly called Thali.
Ottawa foodies will know Thottungal as the city’s premier Indian chef, whose 15-year-old first restaurant, Coconut Lagoon, rose from humble beginnings on Saint-Laurent Boulevard to become a celebrated award-winner. Specializing in the distinctive and vibrantly spicy cuisine of Kerala, Thottungal’s home state in Southwestern India, Coconut Lagoon was a hit even before Thottungal’s star rose in recent years at Ottawa cooking events.
Representing the Ottawa area, Thottungal even came in second at the 2017 Canadian Culinary Championships. The sleek renovation of Coconut Lagoon thereafter, the opening in early December of Thali and the upcoming release of a cookbook show that Thottungal is not one to rest on his laurels.
Designed by Ottawa’s Project1 Studio, which was also behind Coconut Lagoon’s renovation, Thali is a bright, modern room that seats about 70 at large communal tables, a few four-seaters, plus more than a dozen stools beside the large window facing O’Connor Street. It is geared to serving speedy but meaningful lunches. The restaurant briefly had a dinner service late last year, but it was discontinued “due to an overwhelming response during lunch hours,” says its website. Instead, cooking classes, meetings and private dinners are held at Thali in the evenings.
Thali occupies a bright, modern, corner space at 136 O’Connor Street in Ottawa.
Last week, I twice made the trip to Thali for lunch, and I’m envious now of Centretown workers within walking distance of Thottungal’s food.
The eatery’s concept prioritizes efficiency by removing some of the decision-making for diners. Each day, the thali ($18) consists of six pre-set containers of food — several vegetable dishes, a yogurt-based raita salad and a dessert, plus a chicken, beef, lamb, vegetarian, vegan or seafood preparation chosen by the diner for his or her seventh container. (Gluten-free options are also available.)
A typical thali at Thali
The ravenous can pick an eight-container combo ($22), but, in spite of the small size of the khatoris (small copper bowls), the thalis are plenty filling. Indeed, in keeping with tradition, the thalis are “unlimited,” meaning you can get refills of your favourite items if you have the desire and room in your stomach.
The food I ate here was highly satisfying, well-prepared, thrumming with flavour and variety and indebted to the culinary successes of not just Kerala but all of India. Beef curry and butter chicken had heft and distinctiveness going for them, lamb korma was more mellow, and a mango-enhanced shrimp curry packed some surprising heat. Bowls that started tangy eggplant, mushrooms in a comforting gravy, beets, lentils and more provided delicious diversity.
Some dishes seemed to me like tweaks of Coconut Lagoon-proven favourites. But Thottungal also told me this week that because Thali doesn’t have a set menu, its kitchen, where dishes and bread are cooked each morning before service, also has “a lot of opportunity to create and come up with new and exciting dishes.”
At the centre of the thali, a bowl of rice was just fine. But I placed more importance on the thali’s crisp papadum cracker and especially its rich paratha flatbread, Beside me, thali adepts were making quick work of their curries by sopping them up with scraps of paratha before eating what remained on rice that they emptied onto the thali proper.
A sweet vermicelli pudding and gulab jamun (dough balls in rosewater-tinged syrup) ended meals sweetly, while Thali also offers mango, peach and pineapple lassi (yogurt-based) drinks. The eatery is licensed and serves locally made beers and a few Ontario wines.
Not surprisingly, the packed room here grew noisy during the lunch rush. But it felt like a place worth lingering in, albeit a little chilly, when we ate there on a less crowded Saturday.
Even when Thali was more busy, service was attentive, well-trained and practically instantaneous. “It takes one minute to put together a thali,” Thottungal said.
Thinking that Thottungal has apparently put his own successful stamp on fast-casual dining, I asked him if he had any thoughts about opening other Thali locations in Ottawa or beyond.
“I believe (in) new and different concepts,” he wrote back. “Therefore, while other Thali locations will likely not be possible, a new restaurant with a new, bold concept will be for sure a sight for the future.”
So, while Thali is scarcely a month old, I’m already salivating at the thought of Thottungal’s encore.