The Melting Pot - Frankfurt

After feeling terribly tired of testing claims of authentic Indian food being served by restaurants here in Germany, me and my wife decided to test the wine and waters at this new Indian restaurant serving Modern Indian food. Modern? Well, that sounded different.

The Melting Pot is situated at the Saalburgstraße in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt. It seems earlier, there existed an old Thai restaurant at the same premises... probably we saw the same influence in the ambience. We had a fine reception by the waitress, and were handed over the menu. One look at the menu card, and you will realise that its genuinely different and in a positive way. Since we were told that this was run by Sunitha Divakaran, a renowned chef from India, we requested her to come down personally and explain us what the menu is all about and she kindly obliged. I did quite a homework before trying out this new place, and so had earlier checked out on the internet about Sunitha and I realised she figured on several TV shows like BBC and had presented several papers at different conferences world wide and I also found that She was one of the invited presenters in the MasterClass 2003, Brisbane’s most prestigious annual food event. She seemed to have researched on different styles of cooking like Arabic, Jewish, Dutch, Portuguese etc and their influences on Indian food. And her menu was a discreet and exclusive collection of these influences. Interesting. So a real authority serving us food. Good. And a taste of History too, before we started off.

One interesting incident was that as usual, We decided to start off with a Mango Lassi, like the way we do in other Indian restaurants. But I was told this was against ayurvedic principles and so mango lassi was not served in the melting pot. Instead there were several other varieties of drinks which I could choose.

For an authentic Indian treat, we decided to start off with the traditional South Indian Rasam as appetizer. For the main course , the chef suggested Chicken Barbeque marinated with lemon grass, a modern variant of tandoori chicken accompanied with fluffy naans. So we decided to go by that.

As a pass time, we were served with meat balls as free starters and "Ulli vada", or Onion fritters. Amazingly delectable. Its been such a long time, since I had Onion fritters at any restaurant.

Then came the main dish, and that’s what we call precisely, a real treat for all your sensory organs. A perfect matrimony of taste and aesthetics. I was told that all the items in the plate were edible and there wouldn’t be anything that has to be left over. Green colored, tender, juicy Chicken Tandoori was a revelation. Superb. We ended up having some extra naans and then summed up the dinner with a dessert.

I wouldn’t say anything more about the experience, because Before coming here, we Weren't too sure what to expect of this restaurant. We were here without any pre conceived notions. Probably it appealed to us more, because we came here without any expectations. but after a good evening spent at the place, I could just sum up the whole occasion as a Feast for our eyes and palate and a wonderful dinner experience. I should admit, sunitha has brought with her, a wind of change to Bad Homburg.

Summing up, a restaurant with Superb food, good prices.

The Melting Pot
Saalburgstraße 66,
61350 Bad Homburg
Tel: 06172 9186465
Website: The Melting Pot