A table set by the season

At Nava, the menu is not printed far in advance, because the estate has not decided yet what it will offer. A morning walk through the beds tells us more than any supplier — what is ready, what is sweet this week, what needs one more day of sun. We do not run a buffet. Every plate is made the moment you are ready to eat it, by a chef who would rather serve you one honest dish than ten waiting ones. It is slower. That is the point. The cooking leans two ways at once: European classics on one side, traditional Mannar home cooking on the other, often sharing the same table. Many of the spices are ours, grown on the estate — including the bird's eye chilli that gives the place its name. Come hungry, and come a little curious. Tell us what you are in the mood for, and let the season fill in the rest.