Be rowdy at Double Dashi, a speakeasy-style noodle bar in Chennai, serving yakitori and yakult mocktails

The Hindu

4 days ago

A cat in a kimono, its face lit up with glee and brandishing a pair of chopsticks over a giant bowl of ramen stares down at us in Double Dashi, Chennai's newest noodle joint. Seated in a room bathed in a luminous neon red haze, we spot a fish cake, chopsticks and an exaggerated bamboo sushi rolling mat on the ceiling. The wall beside us is plastered with posters of every Japanese anime you've heard of, as well as posters of Rajinikanth films, which has a cult following in Japan.
Japanese restaurants that offer a fine-dining experience are many in the city. However, Double Dashi's postered walls and neon lights scream an entirely different vibe. 'Our idea was to create a 'rowdy' Japanese restaurant here; not someplace where everyone comes in for early dinner and behaves well. We wanted loud chatter and laughter, glasses clinking, a chill vibe and everything else that feels like an Izakaya,' says Manoj Padmanabhan, co-founder BORN (Beyond Ordinary Restaurants and Nosh).
Crediting his many visits to Japan over the years and his family there, Manoj and Japtej Ahluwalia, his partner at BORN began to think of putting together an affordable Japanese dining experience, with good ingredients and generous portion sizes. 'Dashi' means a broth that enhances the umami flavour in Japanese food and naming it Double Dashi feels fair, given its location, of which there is not much secrecy but some intrigue.
'We aren't hidden per se, but decided not to actively put ourselves out there on Google Maps. We would love for people to simply land up here, or stumble upon the place,' Japtej laughs.
The beverage menu has two Japanese favourites; Yakult and matcha and we pick probiotics over grass. The bubble trouble, a lychee flavoured icy drink comes topped with a bottle of Yakult and is light and refreshing. There are other inventive mocktails including fruity drinks topped with cheese foam, and iced teas.
There is no sushi on the menu. Instead, there's sashimi(salmon flown in from Mumbai), ramen and fresh salads. We begin with a leafy, crisp Tokyo green salad, perfect if you want a light, healthy start minus a creamy dressing. We move onto the yakitori or grilled skewers, which Manoj says are made on a traditional charcoal stove. We sample some bite-sized juicy pieces of chicken coated in a slightly sweet soy glaze which is cooked to perfection, and a crunchy miso broccoli which could have done with a bolder kick of flavour.
If you aren't a spice fiend, the Temaki tacos are a perfect pick. Try the mildly seasoned salmon aburi taco where crisp seaweed is stuffed with salmon, avocado and a yuzu kosho cream. The pièce de résistance for our meal is the katsu curry rice. This generous portion that can comfortably serve two comes with crispy fried chicken cutlets on a bed of sticky rice and Double Dashi's house Japanese curry. You can eat this as is, or enhance it with a generous splash of soy sauce or a sprinkling of togarashi powder from the many condiments on your table.
The menu has both comforting ramen favourites, and some offbeat options like a Madras paaya ramen, which is a fun take on local idiappam. Try the creamy pork broth, and the hearty beef drip ramen, which arrive steaming hot to our table with a generous squiggle of bouncy noodles and delicate slices of meat.
In-between bites of a miso caramel cheesecake, we realise that the posters on the wall are not just of anime; there are Japanese posters of Muthu, Kaithi and even Thug Life. Manoj and Japtej credit their 'Gen Z' marketing team for Double Dashi's quirky branding and art that is splashed across their menus, coasters, stickers on the tables and even the specially designed merchandise. 'We also plan to introduce a supper club, where regulars who visit Double Dashi can get a stamp card and collect stamps. Once they collect a certain number, they will have access to these curated dinners and pop-ups where we hope to have chefs from other restaurants coming in,' Japtej says.
For now, as the world continues to travel in hordes to East-Asia, and simply can't seem to get enough of anime or steaming hot bowls of ramen, Double Dashi seems to know its niche very well. Their early guests include not just people from the Japanese consulate down the road, but members of an anime club from the city as well. Manoj says 'We had fun creating the space, and it is now upto our young diners to make the space their own.'
For reservations, DM @doubledashi on Instagram