Ashvem, North Goa
The guests at Siolim House raved about this place, a French fusion joint that has the reputation of being the best restaurant in the whole of Goa. UFC is a bit leery of fusion food in general, but we gave it a shot. La Plage lived up to the hype.
To get there, you need to either get on your scooter or grab a cab ride, because it is quite removed from the town center of Ashvem. Supposedly, the beaches at Ashvem are quieter and low-key, but we found quite a few more tourists here than at Arambol. With the tourists, of course, you also get the sarong sellers, the massage offers, and the like. The beach has clean white sand and strong surf.
Plenty of beach huts about. This one is right outside La Plage.
More beach huts.La Plage was bigger and livelier than we expected. Our first visit was on a Sunday, and the place was packed. The decor is very cool-casual, with tents, lamps and beach chairs and festive beach music. We snagged a low table with a view of the beach and ordered some beer and apps.
Sardine fillets with pickled ginger, wasabi chantilly and white radish salad. Wow. It reminded us quite a bit of pickled herring. The radish salad had apples, cucumber and lemongass. It had some bite. The chantilly was light, fluffy and was spicy-cool. Very interesting group of textures.
Calamari salad was fresh, tender, and a bit salty. It went well with King's beer. Fresh uncooked green salads are rarely seen in the traditional Indian meal, so I was happy to see a lot of greens in this dish.So far, we were very impressed.
Grilled fillet of beef with pepper sauce, sauteed potatoes and braised carrots. DJKung loved this dish, having gone without beef in the last few days. It was prepared French-style, with no frills. The meat was not too gamy and cooked perfectly. The potatoes were very flavorful, and tasted like they were fried in the beef drippings.
Grilled red snapper fillet with basil butter sauce, sauteed zucchini and basmati rice. The fish was superfresh, nicely seared on the outside and tender inside. These guys are serious with their barbecue.On a second trip, we decided to just linger there and order as we felt.
Veggie tempura. Also great with beer.
Mussels in coconut curry sauce. The sauce was harsh and rather disappointing, because the curry tasted like it came from a bottle, instead of being freshly made. It did not go too well with the mussels, which were fresh, small and sweet.
Stuffed manicotti with baby asparagus. Very refreshing.
This is the local fur that lounged with us at Ashvem. It was fun watching the doggies take a dip in the water whenever it got too warm.
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