Flavours of Goa at Grand Mercure

There are pop-ups, and then there are arrivals. Chef Ashlyn Da Cruz walking into Grand Mercure’s La Utsav with her masalas ground at home, her Curtorim confidence, and a menu that refuses to compromise feels less like a festival and more like a reckoning. Flavours of Goa, running until February 22nd, is what happens when authenticity isn’t compromised.

I’ve chased Goan food across its beaches and villages, and every visit gifts a different truth. This time, Goa came to me. La Utsav, the all-day dining space at Grand Mercure, was dressed for Valentine’s Day when I walked in. Candlelit tables, kitchen staff moving with purpose, the kind of controlled chaos that signals something real is about to happen. The air already smelt like promise. Coconut, spice, something fermented, something charred.

But before drowning in that, I needed to meet the woman behind it. Chef Ashlyn is what happens when passion gets no formal training but all the right teachers. Born in Vasco and raised in a Portuguese Goan house where chitkodi for breakfast wasn’t a choice but a religion, she grew up watching her grandparents on both sides cook with devotion. Her parents still cook at home. Both of them. She learned by watching, by doing, by living in a house where food was always plentiful and always central.

No hotel management degree. No culinary school. Just generations of knowledge passing through her hands until she married a chef and started cooking meals he couldn’t stop eating. That’s when he pushed her to serve a few dishes when orders came in. Five years ago, they opened their place in their ancestral home in Curtorim. Now she’s doing her second pop-up. The first was Madurai. This is Bengaluru’s turn.

She’s bubbly when she talks about food; you can see generations cooking through her. Her masalas? Grounded at home. Brought here. Disinfected. Used without compromise. When I asked about spice levels, she laughed. Hers runs high. Goa doesn’t do timid.

Chef Ashlyn and Grand Mercure’s Chef Joshi came to the table, walked us through the evening’s offerings, and then stepped back. Smart move. The food needed no introduction.

Solkadi arrived first. That pink, kokum-spiked digestive that warns your stomach to behave because things are about to get serious. Then the parade began. Goan salad in a clay bowl that tasted like earth. Prawn Rawa fry that crackled. Ros Omelette soaking in Chicken Xacuti, the street food favourite meeting its fiery, coconut-rich match.

But the grilled kingfish was the stunner. Charred right, masala doing exactly what it’s supposed to, tenderness that didn’t fumble. This is what the coast tastes like when it’s done without shortcuts.

The Goan pork sausages were tender, spiced, and direct. Cabbage Foogath proved that vegetables in Goan hands hold their own. Chicken Cafreal was bold and herb-packed, with a texture that stayed juicy and a flavour that lingered.

Red rice with prawn and okra curry, prawn pickle that tasted like it belonged only in Goa, and mutton xacuti that could convert the unconvinced. And then desserts. Bebinca, dodol, alle belle, doce. Each one a time capsule. Structure, flavour, and the kind of sweetness that doesn’t scream.

I missed Sorpotel and Vindaloo, but they’re queued for other days. Three days remain. That’s three chances to get this right before it vanishes.

The service was attentive without hovering. My table, other tables, everyone seemed to be having the same quiet epiphany. Grand Mercure’s lobby had already impressed me on entry. La Utsav sealed it. Not all star establishments know how to make you feel welcome without performing welcome. This one does.

Flavours of Goa ends February 22nd. If you’re waiting for a better taste of Goa in Bengaluru, you’re fooling yourself. Chef Ashlyn brought her kitchen, her legacy, and her standards. Go. Taste. Surrender.

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