Home / Eating is Fun / Eating is Yuck! - A variety food column / June 20- June 26, 2026 / Life & Living / WELCOME TO `VERRE’!
WELCOME TO `VERRE’!
No Comments on WELCOME TO `VERRE’!

WELCOME TO `VERRE’!

Eating is Fun / Eating is Yuck! - A variety food column, June 20- June 26, 2026, Life & Living June 19, 2026 , by

To the romantic pitter pattering of rainy evenings…Panjim has just acquired another rooftop restaurant, take the lift up to the 7th floor of Taj Vivanta Miramar

TAJ Vivanta Miramar’s Verre’ overlooks the Miramar beach right up to the Arabian sea where the Goa Raj Bhavan (Goa Lok Bhavan now) is sited on a cliffside. Naturally, there’re some grandstanding views from here high up in the sky. I like to think of these so called rooftop restaurants or bars or clubs as sky lounges to retire too once in a blue moon! Don’t ask me why. At Verre I discovered there’re some seriously razzmatazz cocktails to study. If you’re wary of imbibing hard liquor nowadays neat or watered down with sodas –here are unheard of cocktails of the very tantalizing kind on the menu of the newly opened 'Verre' atop the Taj Vivanta Miramar overlooking Miramar beach and the town of Panjim…the word 'verre' was teasing me, then it clicked. Verre is French for glass! Well, there’s a lot of see through from up here, seeing how one feels like one is tucked away in an eagle’s eerie of glass (or some tough see-through fiber cage, I didn’t check). Indoors Verre is spacious, but outdoors under the sky terrace it’s very spacious … soothing, cooling, well-furbished open terrace with a sort of shallow infinity pool. The terrace outdoors section will undoubtedly close when the monsoon rain sets in. STILL, late evening last week when it was not raining, there I was at Verre under the naked sunset-lit sky with the first evening star and bright Venus winking through the layers of “soormai ujala” clouds. Breathtakingly beautiful, magical moments to look inward and sip this flaming cocktail called “Hora Dorada-695”….“a vibrant sparkling aperitif combining bittersweet Aperol, ripe apricot, tropical mango, and earthy turmeric spice with a refreshing finish…potent, sour, sweet, bitter…” Citrus peel twist in it, that did it, I had to order it and it proved to be a vibrant, refreshing cocktail, just my kind of a cocktail, created for me, etcetera. There’s a well-illustrated tome of a menu to spend hours ruminating over the various cocktails and eats before making up one’s mind; I mean, take your time, clear all your confusions and doubts. Actually, my newly made friend Maithili managing the desk here at Verre is very helpful, I told her help me, I like something citrusy…she said firmly -- “Hora Dorada-695” was created for me. Then my two friends with me wanted to drink my cocktail instead of theirs! Gauri said “I prefer yours to myYam Jam—695’ and R said he was ready to fly off now … so let’s go! Go where? He had selected “Wabi Sabi –695” or was it “Silk Leaf Collins—695” but as usual wanted what I had ordered. By the way the numbers are the price tags, sweeties, so take note.


Look around, walk around the Verre terrace, there are signs advising you not to lean on the high panes fitted all around. And I don’t know why the bins were telling me to use them! Really, take them away. This is a high-end sky lounge for those seeking something special for a special evening and whatever comes along with it.
THEY have a signature sushi bar manned by a friendly Saurabh Tiwari (all the way from Amritsar in Punjab) and he said their special sushi was a “asparagus tempura sushi”…I blinked, this I had to see. It turned out Chef Saurabh fried a few asparagus tempura (tempura in case you want to know is prized Japanese deep fried seafood and veggies, “pakora” style snack, very lightweight), then he crushed the tempura to choora for garnishing a particular sushi — giving it a sort of interesting crunch!
Doing sushi is very meticulous hard work, give me sushi and give me the whole pieces of piping hot tempura if you can and that’s fine! Doing tempura is a fine art and requires a lot of practiced skill for the batter is of very fine seasoned rice flour, in which tidbits of seafood or veggies are quickly deep-fried in perfectly right high temperature…in and out, and the tempura beauties emerge like almost see through crunchy morsels of delight. Ice water goes into the making of the tempura batter. Dip in good soy sauce and relish.


But never mind all that. One really must go to Japan to eat real tempura. Hey, what is there not to like about being under a starry sky with stories to share in between bites of this and that, what? “Crispy Crinkle with Creamy Mascarpone and Peanut –690,” “Verre Bombay Chaat-590,” “Fish Crunchy Wrapped Up-990” –oh yes, we could have ordered Sticky Smoked Pork Belly-1,090” or the “the Crispy Crab Fix—1,290” or “Goan Recheado Butter Prawns—1,190) and much more…another time, maybe. We wound up with some fancy Tiramisu Affogato ice-cream before saying goodbye to Verre and its friendly staff, apart from Maithili also Jatin, Kaif and Chef Dibyendu Roy and Chef Puneet B. All guests are welcomed with “Shochu” shot which I understand is a Japenese rice wine, reminicent of some fruit (may be apple or plum), it walms the cockles of the heart, you start to relax immediately!
Go, one of these evenings if you’re in the mood to catch a great sunset at Miramar beach. Verre opened some time last month in May but I dare say it’s becoming a hit with special guests dropping by every evening, I have no doubt that it will soon be the place for crème de la crème of Goans and their family and friends to see and be seen. Next time I’ll go for the Mezze Table on the menu … when it’s raining very hard! Bye Verre. “Raki” (at Crystal Hotel, more or less next door) is no competition, but there’s the other sky lounge at the Taj Cidade de Horizon (adjoining the Taj Cidade de Heritage). I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet Mohammad Salman who is the new manager of the Taj Vivanta Miramar, but I did say hello to Ranjit Phillipose (Senior Vice President Operations, IHCL Goa) who was there with a party of friends.
Well, bye for now Verre!

Related posts:

  1. ANOTHER ROUND OF CELEBRATIONS AND SWEETS!
  2. GOA’S MAGICAL WORLD OF MASALA…
  3. OUT-OF-TOWN OFFERINGS IN WINTER-TIME!
  4. EATING OUT IS OUT, OUT…DAMN EATING OUT!

Search

Back to Top