Who does not love a good evening or night out with great food? Imagine stepping away from the predictable menus we cycle through, and trying flavourful combinations you never thought could go together.

That is the idea behind The Lab in Royapettah. While traditional laboratories experiment with chemicals and formulas, this evening cafe applies that same mad-scientist spirit to your plate, unveiling a brand new slate of culinary inventions every month. Open from 5pm to 2am, the resto cafe is deliberately timed to cater to post-work crowds and night owls looking to unwind. “We don’t want this place to be limited to just one thing. One person can come here for coffee, another for burgers, and our aim is to let people choose what the space means to them,” says Nanda Krishnan, a financial auditor turned cafe founder. He adds that the name The Lab was chosen to avoid anchoring the venue to a single cuisine or narrowing its scope.

Driven by the philosophy that “there is no bad food, only personal preference,” he has designed the menu to remain entirely open to experimentation and customer choices. The cafe covers three thoughtfully designed floors. The first floor serves as the aromatic hub, housing their specialised coffee machine setup alongside a premium gelato counter. As you move through the space, the ambience and vibe feel artsy with paintings and props added here and there. Climbing up to the third floor reveals a dedicated rooftop area with a projector for screening live sporting events including the football world cup.

The menu hosts over 15 distinct premium burgers. Meat lovers can gravitate towards the godfather, a signature heavy-hitter which includes a chilli-cheese stuffed double beef patty layered with crisp onion rings and a pepper mushroom sauce. The vegetarian options are engineered with equal complexity. The Thai emulsion burger pairs crisp paneer with a Thai red curry sauce and a salad.

In their latest experiment, the sambal spark, they have re-imagined the classic paneer burger recipe by infusing it with a fiery kick of South East Asian sambal sauce. They have also reinvented the chicken parmesan, giving the Italian-American classic a desi touch with a crisp fried chicken breast drenched in a spicy marinara sauce, buried under a blanket of parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

Their best-seller in the pasta section is the caramelised onion and chilli oil pasta, a flavourful dish where the sweet richness of the onions pairs perfectly with a sharp, spicy taste. To cool it down, the beverage list features popular dessert turned drinks, including a rich tiramisu latte and cheesecake milkshake. The much talked about do-it-yourself (DIY) coffee station comes with a glitch: it is limited to brewing black coffee and this may disappoint the visitors expecting a wider range of brewing options.

The Lab takes a unique approach and competes with the dishes on its own menu. Nanda Krishnan emphasises that they strictly prioritise quality over quantity. For The Lab, experimentation does not mean a massive, chaotic menu; Instead, it means replacing older dishes with arefined and perfected set of new creations. The experiments are constantly under development.

Even biryani can show up on the menu any given day, and there is no reason to be surprised because, after all, it is The Lab.

The Lab Resto cafe is at 6, TTK Road, Royapettah. A meal for two costs between ₹700 and ₹1,000. For reservations, call 9003146526.