Scuba Dining

Tel:

Meal for two:

usegado" is one of the most important words in the Goan vocabulary. Difficult to translate precisely, it indicates a condition somewhere in between "extremely laidback" and "pleasantly comatose". The restaurant is an upmarket version of the Goan beach shack, on a secluded stretch of beach: there are palm trees above, sand underfoot, and a 70mm view of the Arabian Sea in front. At lunchtime it’s all very susegado, but come sundown and there’s a small wooden dance-floor on the sands, a live band, a romantic moon and well-heeled German couples smooching at tables around you.

You choose from their display of freshly caught fish—red snapper, sea bass, pomfret, calamari, crab, tiger prawns—and they cook it right there, as you watch. We started with a squid pesto, and followed it with grilled sea bass, both very good. But the warm strawberry galette was rather disappointing. Susegado is also known for its intimidatingly priced, imported Japanese wagyu grills. We thought we spotted a misprint in the wine list, but it turned out to be correct, after all: a bottle of wine priced at Rs 1,24,000.

(Well, we told you it’s upmarket.)