The success story of the bespoke Phil’s Bistro is scripted by multiple factors: founder Chef Philip Abraham periodically tweaks his Italian-American menu to surprise and satisfy customers. With a penchant for contemporary cuisine, he carefully blends in the exotic for local and overseas guests alike. He remains focused on his speciality instead of diversifying into multi-cuisine. He has resisted expanding the 48-seater dining so that he can attend to his guests personally. He spends most of his time in the kitchen, crafting the dishes.
The result: People are happy getting their money’s worth in terms of quality, taste, portion and presentation of the items ordered.
As people return to eating out after two years of the pandemic, Philip has now ushered in some excitement -- this time with lobsters and salmon, both not easy to get in Madurai.
He imports the Atlantic salmon from Norway while the lobsters come from Rameswaram.
There is a growing desire among customers for high quality protein and Omega-3 rich diet, he says and is thrilled about the response to his new signature sea food menu, that the crustacean fans enjoy navigating.
At Phil’s, the juicy lobster is cooked in three different recipes. Lobster Thermidor is a French dish, wherein the sweet tender flesh is cooked in rich wine sauce (non-alcoholic), stuffed back into the lobster shell with mushrooms and bell pepper, and later browned. The other dishes are lobster in lemon butter garlic sauce and lobster in peri peri. The options that are at a variety of price points (between Rs.2,300 and Rs.2,500 plus tax) come with garlic bread , salad and creamy mashed potatoes.
Customers can also try his delicate pan-seared salmon with lemon caper sauce served with mashed potatoes and vegetables. A spicier version is cooked in harissa sauce. And then there are the much-in-demand salmon crostini and salmon pizza, all at a fixed base price of Rs.975 plus tax.
The dishes are available on pre-booking, as they take long to prepare and Philip is against wastage, given the cost.
In the past, each time Philip re-launched his menu, he created a buzz. Just before the pandemic struck, he celebrated his sixth Certificate of Excellence in a row from Trip Advisor with perfectly crusted pizza layered with melted mozzarella, fried aubergine and deep fried palm-sized basil leaves. Going by the popularity of his new offerings, he has trumped past victories this time
