So last week me and a couple of friends, Shilpa and Anju, happened to stop by Villa Maya for lunch. This place was initially a house for the royal consorts of the Travancore king. The Travancore kingdom was strictly matrilineal, meaning the heirs of the king could not inherit the throne, the throne was passed on to the descendants of the king’s sister… basically the royal female line could be traced through the history of the Travancore kingdom. So anyway, the kings used to have a number of wives and they all stayed at this beautiful antiquated house, that now functions as a posh restaurant.
This is the nice old fashioned entrance…
A lamp right in the courtyard…
The entrance to the restaurant… elephant fountains on either side, filling the air with soft sounds of water trickling…
Decor outside, I like this display of old kitchen tools. These stone equipment’s were used in the not so distant past to grind or powder rice and other grains.
This is how you know it’s the woman’s restroom… do you think her waist looks disproportionate?
How cute is this, a brass urli in place of a wash basin… urlis are antique bowls that are now used for decorative purposes, as seen here.
The menu book, inlaid with wooden binding…
Everything rings of old world charm here… check out this woven table mat and the table underneath. This was our welcome plate, a (too) sweet drink and some spicy chaat.
This is a lamb soup my friend ordered, it came in an edible bowl. The soup was quite good… the bowl, not so much.
These are stuffed crabs, and they were really good…
This was my lunch, I wanted authentic Kerala food… so ordered appam and vegetable stew, it was great!
We had these chicken rolls too… (picture taken from the ViIlla Maya website)
This was our dessert, a mango & raspberry cheesecake and a desi tiramisu, we loved every molecule of it…
We ordered a few other items, I didn’t take their pictures… I don’t know why, I didn’t think about doing a review then. Anyway, the food was really good… it ought to be, this is quite an expensive and posh place.
Picture taken from the Villa Maya website…
The decor is really charming, the outdoor seating area has small fountains and the sound of trickling water is never far…
It was a nice afternoon, sitting here and discussing life with friends… in this royal household where the consorts probably did the same.
It sounds heavenly I would enjoy eating there.
Merle……..
Oooh …. to good :)Need to visit this place next time I visit Trivandrum 🙂
Wow! Nice having both. Friends and good food. Nice to know the story behind this place:)
All the dishes laid out look really appealing, and so does the place. Had been to Trivandrum only twice (it is far from the place I usually visit – Cochin)
Yes the painting of the lady (leading to the washroom)looks disproportionate, but then when it comes to drawings and paintings, one can have liberties I suppose.
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