We started this week with a meal at the Ministry of Food, which is quite near to our place before heading for our litany of reviews for the week starting with a meal at Namak Mandi where I shot a video for Biryani Central followed by a meal for the ages as Chef Matteo Fontana at Le Cirque, Leela Palace New Delhi and finally ended with a meal at Indian Accent, New Delhi.
29th July: Ministry of Food
Snigdha had planned for us to watch a movie and post the movie, we headed out for a meal at the Ministry of Food near U.S.Cinemas itself. This restaurant had been on my mind for quite some time and I headed over for some late-night grub. Surprisingly, the restaurant was filled up with quite a few families, even on a Monday night. Along with music playing, there is also provision for live music along with an offer I hadn’t heard before: Buy 1 Get 2 on all alcohol brands.
We decided to order conservatively and ordered a Cantonese Chili Chicken along with Hakka Noodles. Although the flavours were what you would find in a typical Indian style Chinese restaurant along with relatively okay prices (our total bill came out to be INR 900). But what impresses me the most is the family-style atmosphere that pervades here. Be prepared to pay INR 90 for every bottle of water though.
July 30: Digging into Mughlai food at Namak Mandi, Ambience Mall Vasant Kunj
We headed to Namak Mandi for quite an interesting project, a shoot to be more specific on the lovely Biryanis from Biryani Central. So both Namak Mandi and Biryani Central have been created under the aegis of Chef Imtiaz Qureshi, who led the kitchens at ITC Hotels in his previous stint. His food, which typifies the best parts of Mughlai cuisine is quite true to it’s flavours.
Namak Mandi, located on the second floor of the Mall offers a plethora of Mughlai cuisines that you wouldn’t be able to taste anywhere else, including the Kathal ka Tikka, Charsi Tikka, Qasr-E-Pukhtaan, Khurmee Naan and many others. Although I do try out the Galawati Kebabs and absolutely the creamy texture along with the lovely spices, I am quite pleasantly surprised by the Karachi Bohri Biryani which albeit being a vegetarian one, is filled with baby potatoes, plums and tomatoes to give an explosive burst of flavours. The dessert section also showcases quite a few gems including the Naarangi Kulfi along with the Kesar Malai Phirni and a few others.
2nd August ’19: Chef Matteo Fontana’s 8-course bite-sized menu
Le Cirque at The Leela Palace New Delhi is one of Delhi’s most posh restaurants that has been serving out some really amazing Italian and French food. The restaurant has recently started a new bite-sized menu priced at an affordable INR 1800 which is available at the Bar and even for single diners at Le Cirque. Although the menu appears to be bite-sized, the 8 courses spread over time make sure that you’re quite filled at the end of it.
The meal starts off with some bread made in-house served along with French butter and rock salt. We choose the Aperol Spritzer to go along with the meal as the promotion has been going on for some time now at the hotels. The first course includes a creamy Liver Pate which has the earthy flavour of truffle along with some Jams. There’s also some pan-seared scallops along with a Paupiette of Chilean Sea Bass served with crispy potato and a Sous Vide Pork Belly that I totally adored. Served with potato mash and some aged balsamic, the interplay of flavours was quite interesting indeed. For vegetarians, there is a cold Tomato consomme and a Green Asparagus and Barley Risotto that you must try out.
4th August ’19: Dewars pairs up with Anoothi Vishal for Kayaasth Khatirdaari at Indian Accent
Combining Indian food with whisky is always a good option and recently we tried out a Kayasth Khatirdaari menu curated by Anoothi Vishal and Chef Manish Mehrotra at Indian Accent along with specially curated cocktails from Dewars whisky. The cocktails included the Barbery Coast which had Thai Chili Rubbharb bitters and cherry herring, the Penicillin with Ginger, Honey and Lemon and finally the Ward Wight which had pomegrenate juice and orange juice.
Chef Manish Mehrotra’s team did a stellar job with the food as we started out with some Kulhe ki chaat before moving onto Panna Pakori which had our good old quintessential Dal fritters served in a tangy Raw Mango Panna. This was followed up by Shammi Kebabs made with two different ingredients: Lamb and Black Chickpea, both quite undifferentiable from one another, thus lending the name Asli Naqli. There were also some Nargisi Kofte which are quite like the Devilled Eggs, But Chef Mehrotra’s humble twist with quail eggs made it even more interesting. For the mains, we tried out some Sookhe Urad ki Daal, Mewa Aloo, Khoya Mattar along with a Pasanda and a smoked Brinjal raita served along with Paranthas before ending with a Lauki Lauj and Makhaane ki Kheer.
