At Kozhi, his new Chinatown eatery, Chef Teegavarapu Sarath Mohan aspires to make the best fried chicken in the city.
I’ve come to expect perseverance, ambition and tasty, surprising dishes from chef Teegavarapu Sarath Mohan — no matter the name of his restaurant.
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I first tasted his food and met him in the fall of 2017. Then, he ran the kitchen at Flavours of Kerala, a now-defunct Kanata eatery specializing in the cuisine of that southwestern Indian state. While Mohan, a former tech worker, was self-taught as a chef and just 27 years old, he turned out well-crafted, boldly flavoured fare.
Less than two years later, Mohan surprised me again when he opened NH44, which took its name from India’s longest road. Located in an east-end industrial park, NH44 won me over with its thoughtful take on Indian street food. But both the COVID-19 pandemic and NH44’s out-of-the-way location proved too challenging, and it closed in September 2020.
Nevertheless, Mohan persevered. A month after NH44 closed, he opened his more ambitious, upscale Indian eatery, Vivaan, on Preston Street. And then in September 2023, Vivaan leveled up, transforming into Mohan’s most refined project — Katha, where he served an innovative, modern Indian-influenced tasting menu. In the fall of 2025, Mohan competed in the regional qualifier for the Canadian Culinary Championship, representing Katha.
But Katha closed in early 2025, after a year of struggling. “Maybe I’m too ahead of what the city wants,” Mohan told this newspaper. He spent much of last year working at Ek Bar, the modern Indian restaurant launched by Toronto-based chef entrepreneur Hemant Bhagwani where Katha had been.
A month ago, Mohan bounced back to open his latest restaurant, and it’s a venture I would not have predicted. Now, you’ll find him deep-frying chicken at Kozhi, on Somerset Street West just west of Booth Street, which is one of the new restaurants transforming Chinatown.
The eatery’s name is a play on words twice over. “Kozhi” means chicken in several South Indian languages. “Cosy” also describes Mohan’s restaurant, which seats 24 people, at tables of two or four, or at a six-seat bar.
Previously, Kozhi’s space was the humble Sri Lankan restaurant Karuna Cafe and then Mealsbymo, a Nigerian takeout joint. It’s been totally renovated to project a sleek, modern vibe, several notches fancier than, say, a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen location.
Kozhi’s upscale ambience and its food align, which is to say that Mohan is asking Ottawans to embrace fried chicken at a significantly higher price point than at Popeyes (which I think makes fine fried chicken).
While Mohan says Katha’s closure prompted him to focus his comeback restaurant on a universally loved food dish, the fried chicken at Kozhi is indisputably part of an elevated culinary experience, with a price — $55 a person for the multi-course meal — to match.
