DINING OUT: Punjabi Beauties in Gurgaon's Cyberia

This restaurant review first appeared in Mail Today on Friday, October 25, 2013.
Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/showtext.aspx?boxid=525859&parentid=86723&issuedate=25102013

SNAPSHOT

WHERE: Made in Punjab, 6 & 7, Ground Floor, Cyber Hub, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon

WHEN: 12 NOON to 4 P.M.; 7:30 TO 11:30 P.M.

DIAL: +91 8130911899 / 8800692397

AVG. MEAL FOR TWO (A LA CARTE): Rs 1,500+++

The restaurant doesn’t have a liquor licence yet.

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

The mutton tandoori chaanp is a favourite at the

must-go-to Made in Punjab in Gurgaon’s new

‘food mall’, DLF Cyber Hub, which will have 44

restaurants when it is fully operational. (Photo by

Ramesh Sharma / Copyright: Mail Today)

AS YOU enter Made in Punjab on the ground floor of the country’s “first food mall”, DLF Cyber Hub, Gurgaon, after negotiating dug-up roads and traffic diversions, you’re greeted by three humongous tandoors encased in titanium shells at the front end of a see-through turbocharged kitchen. It was only a couple of days after its opening that I was at the restaurant in the yet-to-formally-open mall sandwiched between Infinity Towers and HeroBPO and the DLF building that looks like a miniature of Dubai’s Burj al-Arab, just off NH-8.

It smelt, as the deathless Kurt Cobain sang so memorably, like teen spirit. I could only see Youngistan all around me, not exactly teenagers but young executives from the steel-and-glass temples of India Inc surrounding the Cyber Hub, digging the all-you-can-eat buffet priced at Rs 550 A.I. (“it is only an introductory offer, sir,” the manager was quick to add, lest I started entertaining delusions of paying little to live it up).

Halomax lights, a current favourite of stylish stores in malls, give the restaurant a warm, welcoming glow; the tables have Italian marble tops and the chairs are made with Burma teak; the crockery, cutlery and serviettes are all branded. The music of Advaita, my favourite Delhi band, plays in the background — a seamless fusion of rock, Sufi and Hindustani classical that can soothe even the most jangled nerves.

The place oozes quite elegance, despite its opening price of Rs 550 A.I., which, I am told, is not likely to go up beyond Rs 650 A.I. That I don’t expect to happen soon, thoughy, because competition will get serious once the DLF Cyber Hub has its 44 restaurants up and running when it becomes fully operational. The line-up includes India’s biggest Hard Rock Café; AD Singh’s Irani restaurant venture, Soda Water Openerwala; Dimsumbros/Yo China duo Ashish Kapur and Ajay Saini’s The Wine Company (where you’ll be able to buy wine at retail prices and have your meal with your favourite grape); the Rajasthani restaurant hugely popular in Maharashtra, Panchvati Gaurav; and Made in Punjab’s competition (and mirror image), Dhaba by The Claridges.

Coming back to Made in Punjab, the excitement begin with each table getting a sampler of six types of papad with four different chutneys to stoke the appetite of the lunch-time turnout for the feast lined up on tables crowded with busy induction stoves and stylish cast-iron pots designed by the French company Le Creuset. Curries and biryani kept in these pots don’t get overcooked — a common complaint with buffet food warmed in old-fashioned chafing dishes.

The spread includes ten starters, ten kinds of biryani and curries, ten salads and ten desserts, including a divine Moong Dal Halwa that miraculously doesn’t swim in ghee. It also includes the Made in Punjab version of French tableside cooking — live phulka and dal trolleys, a nifty innovation introduced to Delhi’s dining scene by Masala Art at Taj Palace. The Dal Saat Salaam — no, it’s not a Maoist slogan! — is made with seven kinds of tempering by your tableside (which explains the name). Made in Punjab has changed the meaning of value for money. The variety it offers also would make you want to come back again for the buffet.

The 112-seater restaurant’s a la carte menu has a number of standouts, but my favourites are the saffron-infused, generously creamy murgh kastoori kebabs, the more rugged tandoori chaanp, the generously proportioned Kashmiri morels (bharwan gucchi), the unforgettable prawn kulcha and gucchi naan, which I have never had anywhere before, the World’s Heaviest Lassi laden with rabdi and peda from Mathura, and the Kulfi Sundae.

Made in Punjab is just what Delhi/NCR’s new generation of diners needed but never had. And if you go for the buffet spread, make sure you check out each item in the churan platter that comes to you at the end in an ornate box with brightly hued ceramic pigeonholes.

Promoters of The Hans New Delhi Announce Opening of Anya Gurgaon with L’Occitane Spa

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

BEFORE the flurry of openings of the Aerocity hotels begins, Gurgaon is all set to see the formal opening of a five-star hotel managed by the family that owns the 77-room, four-star property, The Hans New Delhi, at Connaught Place. Anya Gurgaon, on the increasingly busy Golf Course Road, will have a L’Occitane spa, making Gurgaon the seventh Indian city where the $3billion global wellness brand will mark its presence with its Mediterranean-themed product.

The hotel, whose name means ‘different’ in Hindi/Sanskrit, is being launched by Misha Vadera, Managing Director of Hotel Hans Private Limited, who has been quoted in the media as saying that the existing two Hans hotels in New Delhi and Puri will also be re-branded as Anya after renovations. Vadera, a Hindu College alumnus, has also said that his group is in affiliation talks with Small Luxury Hotels (SLH).

Inside a deluxe room at Anya Gurgaon, Gurgaon's newest
five-star hotel on the busy Golf Course Road

Anya Gurgaon will have 15 suites and 102 rooms. Each room comes with a 40-inch LED television, enhanced work desk lighting, tea and coffee maker and Wi-Fi connectivity, with the club room and suites getting the additional benefit of L’Occitane amenities, complimentary airport transfer (two for suite guests) and ironing of two shirts, one-hour free use of a meeting room, and all-day access to the club lounge. The residents of the highest-category Anya Suite have been promised the L’Occitane spa experience in their room, which comes fitted with a Jacuzzi, like the other categories of suites.

Hans New Delhi, despite its tired look desperately in need of a makeover, is popular with business travellers because of its advantageous location. Its Italian restaurant, Caramello, too, gets crowded, especially during lunch time because of its easy-on-the-pocket buffet. Anya Gurgaon is definitely a couple of notches higher than the Connaught Place property and its biggest draw promises to be Amaltas, the L’Occitane spa.

The Gurgaon hotel doesn’t seem to have a standout F&B destination, though it has a speciality Italian restaurant, a 24-hour eatery, a patisserie and a bar. For all intents and purposes, it is a corporate traveller’s hotel that plans to stick to the business of selling rooms in a market that is seeing supply outstrip demand and as a result, a favourable rate correction taking place.

Dusit Devarana Opens Softly in Delhi, But Its Michelin-Star Restaurant Will Come Later

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

INDIA’S first Dusit Devarana, the Thai luxury hotel label brought to the country by the Bird Group, has opened its doors for early birds to come and enjoy the pleasures it has to offer in this retreat guarded by 1,000 ancient trees.

Delhi, though, will have to wait for the much-awaited opening of Kai, the Mayfair Chinese restaurant with one Michelin star owned by Bernard Yeoh, who was in Malaysia’s trap shooting team for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Kai will be Delhi’s first Michelin-star restaurant.

Dusit Devarana New Delhi’s all-day restaurant, Kiyan, will be the first to offer only fixed menus to address the diffidence of diners when they’re handed weighty menu cards. Executive Sous Chef Nishant Chaubey has promised to be around to take care of any special request that a particular diner may have outside the menu. The restaurant uses only organic vegetables and free-range meats sourced from farmers it has been working with for the last couple of years.

You may miss the hotel in the rush of traffic racing towards Gurgaon, unless you notice its aquamarine boundary wall peering out of a slip road. Once in it, you can unwind at its bar named Iah with an al fresco verandah, where you can have single malts, New World wines and boutique beers with nouvelle nibbles. The bar, according to the hotel’s marketing pitch, is targeted at young and contemporary Indians.

Interestingly, the mini bar in each of Dusit Devarana’s expansive rooms will stock unusual items such as Spanish olives and truffle-flavour biscuits sourced by the Barcelona-based Indian importer of high-end food products, Juberfam Mittal. That will be another first for the Dusit.

A promotional picture of Kiyan, Dusit Devarana New Delhi's
all-day restaurant, which will serve only set menus

But all eyes are on Kai (www.kaimayfair.co.uk), the first Indian foray of the Michelin-star restaurant at 65 Audley Street, Mayfair, near Park Lane, a part of London frequented by the Indian A-List. Around since 1993, Kai got its Michelin star in 2009 and was voted London’s Best Chinese restaurant by Zagat’s Survey in 2003-5. Kai’s style of food, according to information I have gleaned from Wikipedia, is renowned for its balance between the traditional, comfort recipes and the more modern interpretations of Chinese food, utilising ingredients from other cuisines. This is one restaurant Delhi badly needs to raise the bar for its favourite Chinese cuisine.

Dusit Devarana New Delhi, the top brand of Thailand’s Dusit Thani Group (www.dusit.com), which has been in the business since 1949, will be the Bird Group’s flagship hotel in the country. The Indian travel industry’s largest technology provider, the Bird Group (www.bird.in) will also roll out Dusit D2 at the Aerocity coming up in the neighbourhood of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, the Dusit Devarana hotels in Jaipur and Rishikesh, and the Dusit Thani in Goa, which are under various stages of development. All eyes will be on Dusit Devarana New Delhi once its opens its doors formally to a city that has been wondering why it’s taking so long to get operational.