Sky Grill

Sky Grill is the rooftop signature restaurant of the Crowne Plaza Kochi at Kundannoor, on the southern Maradu side of Cochin. The thirteenth-floor open terrace catches the most expansive sunset panorama of any city restaurant — the Cochin city skyline, the Vembanad backwater, and the Arabian Sea horizon all from a single seat — and the room runs the rooftop-grill format that the InterContinental group has built across south Indian luxury hotels.

The cooking is grill-centric international with a clear south Indian sub-current. The kitchen runs imported and Indian beef and lamb on the wood grill, prawn and lobster from the Cochin coast, a careful kebab and tandoor programme drawn from the Mughlai tradition, and a vegetarian grill section that takes the Kerala vegetable kitchen seriously. The cocktail programme is the city's most ambitious — the rooftop bar runs a long Negroni and Old Fashioned card, a serious gin selection and a small but careful cellar.

The wine and Champagne pour is the strength of the bar. The list is shorter than the Hyatt's but more expressive — a strong Italian and Spanish backbone with a focused Champagne programme and a useful Indian wine selection for guests who want to drink locally with the kebabs.

Service is the InterContinental brand standard, polished and multilingual, with a clear instinct for a celebrating birthday party. The terrace tables run six to eight covers each — book one for a milestone dinner. The combination of rooftop view, grill cooking and bar programme is the most considered birthday rooftop in Cochin.

Sky Grill is the birthday rooftop dinner in Cochin. The 13th-floor open terrace catches the city skyline, the backwater horizon and the late-evening Arabian Sea sunset all from the same seat; the rooftop grill format scales naturally to a celebrating party of six to ten; and the cocktail and Champagne programme handles a birthday first round with the right energy.