Naveen Yarramsetty brings in a dessert in Copra SF. / Ritu Marwah

Copra is a restaurant in San Francisco that has introduced the regional cuisine of India in a big chef style to Californians. They serve food Chef-owner Srijith grew up eating in Kerala, a long sliver of a state on the southern coast of India.  

Laced with coconut, a ubiquitous fruit in Kerala, the sweet spicy fare is closer to Thai food in flavor profile than the butter chicken naan from the north of India which usually passes for Indian food.

The chef takes Californians back to his mother’s kitchen and opens the lid on dishes like pollichathu, a spiced black cod cooked in banana leaf, Thattukada fried chicken, masala-roasted bone marrow and Appam, a crispy-edged, soft-centered rice pancake. 

Every dish comes with its description and how-to-eat narration by server Naveen Yarramsetty. His enthusiasm as he serves the dishes is infectious. 

“So this is the black truffle appam. Appam batter is made with fermented coconut milk and there is sugar in the batter that’s how it tastes sweet similar to a pancake inside there is this sunny side egg, coconut milk, white pepper, black pepper, black truffle, green chive…., “ narrates Naveen Yarramsetty in a song voice from the streets of India. “All you have to do is break the sunny side egg, spread it all over to the appam split it two ways, and have a nice time,” finishes Yarramsetty with a flourish. 

The room is filled with young San Franciscans. Some tasted the cuisine for the first time and were grateful for Yarramsetty’s guidance. A diner picks up the dosa crepe and peeps at the potato filling before breaking a piece and dipping it in the sauce. 

The buzz of the restaurant on a Wednesday evening matched the enthusiasm of the diners for the food. A couple slurped on the oysters as they clinked their blended cocktails. 

“In the summer when the San Franciscans take off we have diners from North and East Bay,” said Dana Katzakian, chief operating officer of Copra SF.  

“About fifty percent of the tables that I serve come here to celebrate a birthday, an anniversary, or a graduation,” said the server. “We bring out a complimentary mango sorbet with a candle to celebrate them.”

A couple requested the staff to take their picture as they blew out their anniversary candle. 

Then came the Mamu cutlet brought by Naveen Yarramsetty. Chef Srijith has created the Mamu, a vegan burger along with his business partner and investor Ayesha Thapar as a stand-alone business as well. The Mamu is available for purchase by other food establishments as well.

At Copra, the Mamu cutlet, an indescribable melange of chickpeas and shiitake mushrooms has the diner stumped for a description. “It tastes like meat and a veggie cutlet got married and had a baby,” said the diner. An absolute hit, the Mamu became the most memorable dish of the dinner that night. 

The millet and lentil papads came with a foursome of chutneys of varying degrees of heat. The burnt chili tamarind is smoking hot. The gooseberry is a pleasant crush of green and the habanero orange is not that hot. 

A yummy surprise, Rasam pani poori with sweet and spicy lentil-passion fruit water is tangy with a bite to it. The size of the pooris was a little too big, said the diner as he raised the bubble of passion fruit to his mouth. The poori threatened to melt. 

The saucy buttery Shrimp Vennai Roast came cooked to perfection. Laced with a melt-in-your-mouth indescribable buttery tomatoey sauce that needed a squeeze of lemon, suggested Yarramsetty. The scallops came sitting slathered in a divine well spiced carrot and rhubarb puree with no heat. The dishes were served at room temperature. A little tepid for the diner. He would have liked his meals warmer. 

The attention to detail by the Chef is reflected in the selection of plates. The plates are like earthen pots used in India. The earth tones enhance the beautiful greenhouse interiors framed with white ropes and green plants. 

In September, a celebration is planned at Copra- Kerala New Year’s prix fixe, brunch feast, Vishu Sadhya. It will be a vegetarian meal much like the traditional Sadya eaten on Onam in Kerala and served on a banana leaf. 

San Francisco will have its very own Onam. Yum.