Month: October 2014

Recently Monkey Bar opened an oulet in CP, which is a much needed relief to the area as this colonial era market has a severe dearth of modern and new age dining spaces. And being fan of their Vasant Kunj restaurant especially the look and feel of it, I had high hopes from this one too.

Me and Ashish stepped into it last night, which was a Sunday, wondering if it would be too crowded. However thankfully it was not much crowded last night and getting a table was a breeze.

The look and feel of the place was much jaded, used and abused warehouse look. Open AC ducts, raw walls – The kind that seems to be in vogue for last few years – but boring, very boring. Again nothing wrong with it, but here the comparison is with their Vasant Kunj branch, which is housed in a glass pyramid and is super sexy to say the least. But then it might have been plain luck in VK that they got the building which used to house legendary Ministry of Sound at certain point.

Coming to food and drinks, here are the things that we tried..

We started with Sangria, which was offered to us in 3 variants – with base of red, white or rose wines, we chose red and then regretted not ordering the pitcher or the bigger portion they serve. The Sangria was amazingly delicious, which I attribute to the fruits being soaked in it since morning rather than bartender making it with fresh cut fruits. The wine absorbs the fruity flavors and the fruits get some of wine, just the way I love it. This was a small serving, however at the price they are selling it, its quite acceptable.

Dabeli

Next came in the Dabeli and it was much better than what I expected. I mean its a classic street food and I did not expect a fancy restaurant to do it so well – however from the bread used to the tanginess to the overall kick – this Dabeli can give run to the best in business.

I am someone who loves his kebabs and recently made a trek to Lucknow to sample what the Tundays and Dastarkhwans had to offer. Seeing a dish called Galouti Killer on the menu, it was hard for me to not order the same. They are beef based and menu mentioned Tenderloin meat being used without adding any additional fat, which essentially means gibberish to a novice like me.

Galouti Kebab – Three such pieces in serving.

Bread that came with Kebab – Decent.

The kebabs were actually super fine, very tender and melt in your mouth. I am assuming it takes lot of expertise to get beef to that level and the effort was very apparent in the final product. Again the kebabs can give a good run for money to the finest in the business.

Go Veg – The only Veg Burger option.

Inside the Veg Burger.

We decided to close the evening with a burger and Go Veg being the only vegetarian burger on the menu, we decided to go for it. The burger was huge by all standards, came with a decent serving of coleslaw and quite decent portion of french fries. Oh and there was ONE strand of a vegetable that looked like pickle.

The bruger was a disappointment – dry from inside, no juice, no flavors. The bun used was of good quality and loved the bread to protein proportion of this burger, however it was the patty that let us down. It just had no flavor. Though most of the Chefs cringe at the thought of Veg burgers, however its still something they need to work on and get right. Anyone can do a beef or meat patty, the veg patty is where the rocket science is.

The service was top notch, our server served us with a smile and even took our silly jokes in good sense of humour. Overall a very pleasant experience.

The Bill for the evening.

I am looking forward to going back again and trying more of their menu, however if I had a choice I would prefer going to Monkey Bar, Vasant Kunj  just for the feel of it. Otherwise in CP, this is amongst the best options to visit for a drink and some good food. The best part – It is not so expensive.

Food Enthusiasts of Delhi & Shashank Aggarwal own the copyrights of all pictures and content. To use pictures OR content in any way commercially OR non-commercially connect with shashank@foodenthusiastsofdelhi.com.