Sip cocktails with a view from the 20th floor at Sky in Chennai’s Residency Towers

The newly launched Residency Towers’ Sky in Chennai offers a medley of Asian and Tamil flavours, with an unforgettable view. We go up 20 floors for a first look.

When I steps out of the elevator onto the 20th floor of the Residency Towers into Sky, their latest pan-Asian restaurant and bar, my eyes first dart towards a massive dome at the centre.

“If you stand at an exact position under the dome near the bar, the whole place can hear you,” says Ajeeth Janardhanan, the culinary director of The Residency Towers. But before I take advantage of this, Ajeeth promises something more splendid.

Sky, which accommodates about 70 people in a hybrid indoor and outdoor seating area, sits daintily above most of central and South Chennai. During the day, diners seated outside can see bits of the coastline, the cross of the St Thomas English Church, other tall buildings and vehicles crawling like ants. Gentle breeze blows here through the day and at night, the lights of the city come alive against a black canvas. There is pleasant music and a well-stocked bar in the air-conditioned indoor space under the dome, which also houses what looks like a retro conversation pit from the 1970s.

The restaurant, open between 12 p.m. and 11 p.m. everyday, aims to serve staples like dimsums, sushi and fried rice. However, chef Ajeeth almost sounds adamant about using local ingredients in most dishes. “If we are not paying homage to the city through our food, then what is the point,” he asks, sitting with me over dinner.

Hence my meal is punctuated with quirky finds from the local market, like bright pink lotus petals in a shiitake mushroom and pickled lotus stem salad. There are mildly spiced green peppercorns in my appetisers and bits of coconut shoot in the dimsums. The coconut shoot and tender coconut water – a homage to Ajeeth’s Malayali roots – also find their way into a cocktail made with Japanese whiskey. “It is an acquired taste though,” he admits.

Before Sky came into being, the 20th floor of the building was reserved for The Crown, a well-known restaurant focussing on cooking from the north-west frontier for 22 years. “It was time that the restaurant retired though. Everyone in the city was doing pretty much the same thing,” Ajeeth says.

It took seven months to redo the interiors. “The outdoor space at the Crown was not as big. The section which now has a view of the beach was a large and unutilised terrace. We redid the paint on the inside and changed the look of the place,” Ajeeth says. The newly rebranded restaurant is looking to capitalise on the growing interest towards Asian cuisine, trying to add a significant number of vegetarian and vegan options to the menu.