Sarath Mohan Teegavarapu
Koz̈hi is Tamil for chicken — the only word on the door, because nothing else needs to be there. Behind it is chef Sarath Mohan Teegavarapu and a small Centretown room built around one idea, done properly: fried chicken, cocktails, and champagne.
From code to the kitchen
Sarath came to Ottawa from Hyderabad in 2013 — a Carleton computer-science student with no formal kitchen training and a lot of late-night cooking videos. He cooked his way out of code. What began as a way to feed himself and his friends became the thing he couldn't put down, and eventually the thing he did instead of everything else.
NH44, Vivaan, Kātha
NH44 came first, in 2019 — Indian street food in Elmvale Acres, named for the highway that runs the length of the country. Then Vivaan, on Preston Street in the heart of Little Italy. Then Kātha. Each room taught him something about heat, about hospitality, about what a table should feel like — and each one got a little closer to the restaurant he actually wanted to run.
Why Koz̈hi
Koz̈hi is that restaurant: smaller than the others, and pointier. It's chef-driven and unapologetically specific — an open kitchen you can watch, a serious cocktail bar, and a champagne list that runs deeper than it has any right to. The food isn't South Indian, or Korean, or American; it borrows from all of them. Korean sweet-heat, Japanese precision, Indian spice, and American comfort, all in service of the bird. The Tamil name is a personal grace note, not a menu category.
The chicken, and the glazes
The method doesn't change: brined long, dredged twice, fried hot. What changes is the finish. The Gochujang glaze brings Korean sweet-heat; the Ghee Roast is nutty and buttery, a nod to South India, built to order. The sides move with what's good that week. It all comes together in the Super Koz̈hi — a five-course, $55 feast built for the middle of the table, and the clearest argument the kitchen makes for sitting down and staying a while.
Chef Sarath's move from Kātha to Koz̈hi was profiled by the Ottawa Business Journal.
Come hungry. Stay late.
— Sarath Mohan Teegavarapu