Contributed by Guest Blogger Vasudha Mukherjee Bal Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian Meal for 2: US$ Address & other details: La Fiesta I was in San Diego for work recently and was craving for some authentic Mexican food. Living in Boston can leave you with a craving for spicy favorites if you are in Southern California for sure! There is this one dish that I … Continue reading La Fiesta (628 5th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101, USA)
Route: Delhi to London Heathrow & further to the USA & return
Description:
I have always been a fan of Breakfast at BritishAirways. In the numerous times I have travelled, I have always looked forward to it. The lunches & Dinners that I have had were mostly good & some memorable. But the breakfast has always scored over the other meals in my mind.
Here comes the latest experience:
The Breakfast consisted of a ‘no frills’ omelet with less salt ( that is always the case in any non Indian setting) & hint of green bell pepper & tiny specs of onion. The Omelet was well done but soft, not brittle & had a simple yet good taste & feel to it.
This was served along with a full Grilled tomato that of course did not have salt added to it.
The Rounded patty of potato was very good – crispy on the outside, soft & lumpy inside. The potato was never fully mashed & hence it was lumpy. Very good.
The meaty kabab was the star of the show. It was not juicy unlike all other good kababs, but dry. It had a Shammi Kabab kind of texture, subtle flavors & taste.
Needless to say that this was accompanied with fresh fruit juice.
A Danish Pastry was served as dessert. It was crispy on the outer, glazed with honey on the top, it seemed to be having millions of layers within & a rich chocolate filling in the center. Liked it a lot.
Hours later it was meal time again. I did something that I never do. I did not request for a Continental cuisine but settled for Butter Chicken – figured out that this is served in Flights ex London Heathrow Airport – It was simply Awesome. One of the best Butter Chickens I have had in maybe the last 2 yrs. Cooked at London Kitchen!!!
I was stunned, shocked (pleasantly) how they cud make it so good. Better than most of the orangish tomatoee Butter Chicken varieties available in Delhi. Perfectly tandoored boneless chicken pieces, perfectly tempered gravy, spicy & a bit hot as well. As good as it cud get. The long grain basmati rice pulao that was served had slices of red chillies on it that were flavorful as well as hot!!! Independent strands of rice but melt in the mouth, flavorful & very tasty.
Totally unexpected & completely out of the blue & realy good. YUMMRAJ was super impressed
In a nutshell:
Its one place where they put all eggs in one ‘basket’ – your plate.
Address: Eggspectation.
Meal for 2: Rs. 1000 onwards
Cuisine Type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
We went to this place many years back when we got to know that they serve Eggs Benedict. Loved it then & somehow never managed to get back again.
The Restaurant serves as the Coffee Shop of the Vasant Continental Hotel. However Eggspectation is a Canadian Chain Restaurant that started in 1991 that crossed the border & forayed into the US & of course came all the way to India as well.
The theme as u can guess by this time is eggs & there are many innovative & unusual dishes around eggs with equally interesting names like eggkuri, eggchiladas, eggstravaganza, an omelette called eggspectation & so on. Of course, for people who are not too fond of eggs, there r dishes without eggs too.
The service was good last time when I went at around 11.00 am. This time we were there at 9.00 am & it was peak hours for breakfast buffet for the guests of the hotel. It seems that is the reason why the staff were less attentive & slow in executing the orders. They did not positively contribute to the breakfast experience at all.
The ambience was nice with two prominent huge figurines of clowns – one male & the other female. The male is in the act of juggling – eggs!!!!!
The kitchen is open & see thru. U can in fact walk up there & have a little chit chat with the chef & his team.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
Continue reading “Eggspectation (Jaypee Vasant Continental, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi)”
This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS Super easy to make & Super good to eat…………… For all those of u who think salads r boring, this one will make u sit straight & rethink. It all started with an impulse purchase of orange, elliptical shaped cherry tomatoes – something that we do … Continue reading Fresh Salad with Veggies & Tangy Mayo dressing.
In a nutshell:
Address & other details: Cafe Bel Cibo
Meal for 2: Rs. 800 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
You’d love the atmosphere. A bright colorful interior with lots of super cool detailing, a large graphiti,
nice little figurines,
books
……………… The interior designer excelled in his / her work.
I heard from two different sets of foodie friends that this new place is good. Both of them have had good experience here. So decided to go there for the first time to have some pizzas.
We were impressed with the look of the menu card as it arrived – the design, looks & feel.
Menu options were focused, not too many & not too less – soups,salads, pizzas, pastas, lasagnes, starters, sides & a mezze platter.
Service was good.
The food looked great & very appealing. Some of the food was good. Rest was a disaster. Since my friends have liked it on previous occasions, I guess it was my bad luck – maybe the chef was not around / absent / left the restaurant & the trainee / someone novice was around to cook our food.
Whatever be the case, it was frustrating to pay full price for the food & get something stupid on the plate. In fact if u r as unlucky as me, U might also turn up there on such a bad day.
I am surely not going back there to re-try & waste my hard earned money.
We ordered a mezze platter, a pesto based pizza & a Belgian Chocolate drink & fresh lime soda. A part of the platter was good, part average. The Pizza was a disaster. The Chocolate drink was good but not what we expect in Belgian Chocolate. It turned out to be like a Belgian ‘Milk Chocolate’ – not dark. The fresh lime soda ‘sweet & salt’ was ok.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
Continue reading “Cafe Bel Cibo (Ground Floor, Ninex Mall, Sohna Road, Gurgaon)”
In a nutshell:
Nice Ambience, nice people, some outstanding food & some other ‘just OK’ food.
Address & other details: The Oak Tree
Meal for 2: Rs. 1200 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
It’s a small cozy restaurant in Supermart besides the super popular Needs Supermarket. The ambience is nice. The ceilings have metal beams thus giving a retro look. There is a tiny bar area that looks smart. There are sofas in lounge style on one side & normal restaurant seating on the other. Due to lack of space, the seats are a bit near to each other but not disturbingly near.
They were playing a peppy piped music that was enjoyable but non intrusive. We cud talk.
The members of Staff were very warm,polite, helpful & knowledgeable. In fact, the waiting staff noticed that we did not finish one of the meals. So he asked us ‘did u not like it’ we said ‘yes’. Immediately after that the Chef walked up to us to discuss what was wrong.
We tried a fondue that had great accompaniments but the cheese dip was too runny. An outstanding Bratwurst sausage & an interesting Italian Prawn preparation that was tasted good but had major issues in texture. The mead ‘drink’ that we had was very ordinary.
They make some good stone oven thin crust Pizzas as well, both vegetarian & Nonvegetarian.
Detailed Description – In case u have time to enjoy reading:
Continue reading “The Oak Tree (Supermart, DLF Phase4, Gurgaon)”
In a nutshell:
A roadside ‘French’ Dhaba which has no French Connection but serves lipsmacking good egg dishes.
Meal for 2 : Rs. 80 onwards
Website: French Omelet
Google map: French
How to get there: Take a right from Rajeev Chowk on NH8 (if facing Jaipur), Keep going straight. At one point the road narrows & u pass thru a congested market. After u cross it, u find Shiva’s idol in the road divider. Keep going straight till u reach a small roundabout (gol chakkar). Cross this & keep going forward till u come to a crossing with Atul Kataria Marg. The store is right in the corner of this crossing. Just ask someone at this point.
Cuisine Type: Egg dishes
Description:
We were curious to visit the place when my friend told me that there is a shop called French Omelet in Old Gurgaon. It sounded as crazy as a Dhodha shop in Paris!!!!!
Since the original recipe was continental & since it has been Indianlized, it is dual classified under Indian & Continental.
Seeing that my friend was very upbeat about the food here,we along with some foodie friends visited the shop. The shop looked like any other roadside shop that sells food in India. We asked why it was called French Omelet & what was the French Connection. The answer we got was quite cloudy & I guess it meant that the term ‘French’ sounded good – So it was chosen as a name.
We first ordered for Omelet with half fried toast. Some people call this French Toast in India. It is conceptually an omelette & bread stuck to it & is salty (not sweet like the original French Toast).
On top of the omelet-bread, they sprinkled a dark powdered masala, onions, few drops of lemon & minced coriander leaves. The masala as it is tasted like churan but it gave an unbelievably good twist to the taste of the Omelet-bread. All this was then served with a green chutney which apart from the usual dhania (coriander) & pudina (mint), also had nuts in it !!!! The chutney was marvellous & before I ate this combination, I had no idea how good bread, egg & chutney can taste when they land on ur tastebuds.
They used a quarter of an 100g Amul Butter pack per dish for frying. That surely contributed to the taste.
In a nutshell:
Pretty interesting food & nice decor with some masterpieces.
Address & other details: Mediterra
Meal for 2: Rs. 2000 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
Situated on the top floor of Sayaji Hotel, the restaurant gives a bird’s eye view of the city. It is open air & has natural heaters – wood-fire pits for cold winer evenings.
When my friend suggested that we go for Mediterranean food, I asked ‘Is the environment noisy or we can sit & talk? We finally decided to go here – Food was not my agenda as we needed to discuss something important. I had low expectations from a Mediterranean Restaurant at Indore – with the background that even in a ‘full of restaurants’ city like Delhi, it is difficult to find outstanding Mediterranean food.
The starter platter was quite ordinary, the prawns in arabian spices was mind blowing good, so was tehlamb rack, vegetarian phyllo wrap was very good & the Marinated Cottage cheese with stuffing of parmesan & sundried tomato was quite interesting.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
Before the meal arrived, we were served a platter that was on the house – all looked good but turned out to be very ordinary. Dip made with Belle pepper paste, a hung curd & grated cucumber that tasted exactly like hung curd & grated cucumber!!!! A paste made out of aubergines & herbs (similar to baingan ka bharta) & hummus – look forward to a Hummus recipe that u can make at home & it will taste much better than this – coming up soon on yummraj.
The ensemble also had golden fried garlic in olive oil, sun dried tomato in olive oil & some excellent breads of different shapes & sizes. Only the plain bun kind of bread was bad – not soft, not warm & almost tasteless. In fact it is so hard that if it falls from the table, u might hear a thud as well!!!
For starters came Rubyan Mashawi prawns – marinated in Arabian spices. This was the first instance when I started taking the place eriously. That feeling increased with every bite – soft, tasty prawns marinated in Arabian spices & herbs. The sauce had a buttery texture & with every bite the prawns were bursting with flavors & juices inside the mouth…………..Magical. The plate was wiped off till the last drop.
Post this sudden unexpected experience, I requested the Serving staff to suggest something between a lamb rack & a grilled salmon. I said ‘After such a great experience the next dish should be as good or better. He did not want to take a risk & hence the Chef was there with us. He suggested the lamb Rack.
Continue reading “Mediterra (Sayaji Hotel, Vijaynagar, Indore)”
In a nutshell:
A series of quirky masterpieces served one after another in equally quirky & masterfully done interiors. This coupled with well informed, warm & attentive service contributed to our best continental eatout in Delhi so far.
Facebook page: Smoke house Room
Cuisine type: Vegetarian & Non vegetarian
Meal for 2: Rs. 8000 onwards
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
We went for a Grand ‘Degustation’ menu at Smoke House Room last week. At times it felt like a magic show also ………… A powder looking like paan parag turned out to be a Duck liver pate (once it hits ur tongue), a sunny side up was made not with eggs but coconut froth resembling the white & passion fruit resembling the yolk!!!!!!!!
It was a ten course menu excluding snacks & Petit Fours (confectionary eaten at the end of the meal). Some of the dishes were created using ‘Molecular gastronomy’. Each & every dish was a work of art – both for the eyes & on the palate.
So lets see what Wikipedia has to say about Degustation – It is a culinary term meaning a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods and focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company. Dégustation is more likely to involve sampling small portions of all of a chef’s signature dishes in one sitting. Usually consisting of eight or more courses, it may be accompanied by a matching wine degustation which complements each dish.
This is what wiki says about Molecular Gastronomy – It is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general
The restaurant has three interesting named menus – The Hunter (nonvegetarian), The Gatherer (Vegetarian) & the Grand Degustation menu (with or without wine pairing). They also serve alacarte.
The visual theme of the restaurant is mushrooms – so there r mushrooms printed on the table napkins, mushroom shaped badges on the shirts of all the members of staff & very interestingly, the pillars & the space around them was also mushroom shaped.
It is mandatory to inform a day in advance if u go for a Grand Degustation menu. We did that & were pleasantly surprised to see a specialized menu created & printed just for us with the date of visit mentioned on it. This menu was prepared post a discussion over the phone with the Chef on our ‘food restrictions’ if any – Needless to say we opted for the ‘no restriction’ option & left the menu to the Chef’s imagination.
What came on our tables post this was way above expectations.
Since this is a new concept to India, the members of the staff come & explain a lot about the concepts. A very good experience for foodies. For those who love eating food but not interested in the backround, they might just request ‘ pls excuse us – no stories, only food’.
Detailed description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
Continue reading “Smoke House Room (3rd Floor, The Crescent, Lado Sarai, Mehrauli, New Delhi)”
In a nutshell:
A roller coaster experience for us & our tastebuds, an evening with moments of dissappointments & ecstasy…………thankfully eventually we walked out smiling.
Address & other details: Fresc Co
Meal for 2: Rs. 1200 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
Day 1 (Ambience Mall):
We walked in seeing a huge poster of Pizza with seafood, took a seat, waited for the waiting staff to reach us (which incidentally took a while), & to be told that it is not being served. So we asked, ‘why do u have the picture outside?’ – pat came the answer ‘sir, we change our menu card often. We do not have this any more in the current menu’………….. was that a joke??? Isnt one supposed to replace product advertisements for which the product has been discontinued? Very frustating start.
The overall service was slow, it was very difficult to make an eyecontact with the staff even though at times we saw them chatting near the counter. It felt like Castaway Tom Hanks in the island trying to wave at the aircrafts flying above to rescue him but those guys r busy flying.
Must mention that when they are at the table, they are very nice to us & in fact some of them are real smart & have good product knowledge.
What surely needs a mention is the live music. That is something for which we might revisit – performance by Gregg on Friday, Saturday & Sunday evenings.
They have some good vegetarian & nonvegetarian buffet spreads. I wud not drive from home to go & eat at that buffet again but if I am around & am hungry, will surely consider this as an option. Fresco at the Domestic Terminal however feels like an Oasis – Relatively much higher standard of food than the regular fast food kind of chains that r present at the Airport. Infact I have eaten more often at Fresco in the airport than at AmbiMall.
In alacarte we had some cool Greek style prawns, some weird Chelo Kabab, an excellent Sicilian Pizza & a very enjoyable virgin mojito.
Detailed Description – in case u have the time to enjoy reading:
