DINING OUT: The Hidden Gem of Marina Hotel

This review first appeared in the edition of Mail Today dated January 31, 2014. If you wish to see the original, click on http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=3112014 and go to Page 27. Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers

QUICK BYTES

WHAT: Jashn-e-Lahore Food Festival

WHERE: The Great Kebab Factory, Radisson Blu Marina Hotel, G-59, Connaught Circus (Outer Circle)
WHEN: 7 to 11:45 p.m. Open for dinner only.

DIAL: 011-46909027

MEAL FOR ONE (MINUS ALCOHOL): 
Rs 1,299+++ (adults); Rs 749+++ (children)

STAR RATING: ****

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

MARINA HOTEL has always been a mystery to me. Here's a heritage hotel in the heart of Connaught Place, with a terrace to die for, and a location that any five-star hotel would give an arm and a leg for. Yet, it's hardly ever in the news, though I know for a fact that it is popular among English tourists, who check in to soak up some Raj nostalgia. And when it became a Radisson Blu hotel three years ago, immediately after its renovation during the Commonwealth Games, it was seen as a prized catch for the Carlson Group.

My curiosity about the hotel resurfaced when an old friend, Dhananjay Kumar, called up to say he had taken charge as its general manager and would like to invite me to The Great Kebab Factory. A TGKF, my favourite destination for kebabs, at Marina? The information stoked my appetite for more information on the hotel.

The Great Kebab Factory at the Radisson Blu

Marina Hotel, Connaught Place, festooned for

the Jashn-e-Lahore Food Festival

Marina is New Delhi's oldest hotel. It was built in 1934 by the Japanwalas, one of Delhi's old Punjabi Muslim families who owe their surname to their trading links with Japan. The hotel, which had as many rooms for guests as for their servants, was managed by an Italian family, but they got externed for being 'enemy aliens' at the outbreak of the Second World War. The place of the Italian family was taken by the brothers Sardari Lal and Girdhari Lal, who were from a prosperous landowning family.

Sardari Lal was a bon vivant (he was reputed to have spent more time frequenting London's hotspots than pursuing his legal studies, his official reason for being in the city) and he eventually married the celebrated Olympian and British Life Peer, Lord Sebastian Coe's maternal grandmother, Vera Swan, who was a member of Uday Shankar's dance company and was also romantically involved with the maestro. Sardari Lal and Lord Coe's grandmother came back to New Delhi to settle down, but Vera Swan wasn't accepted by the British high society in the imperial capital, so she went back to England with her two daughters and never returned to be reunited with her husband.

The hotel is owned today by real estate and publishing tycoon Shashank Bhagat and his two business partners. It carries the Radisson Blu stamp and has The Great Kebab Factory, where  a Jashn-e-Lahore food festival is now on. It was a Tuesday, traditionally a light day for most restaurants, yet the place was full. And why shouldn't it be?

I can't imagine any sane person shying away from a meal plan that includes unlimited helpings of six kebabs with paired breads, two dals, three 'main course' items, a biryani with raita, and three desserts -- all for Rs 1,299+++ for grown-ups and Rs 749+++ for children. Right from the strawberry chilli sauce that the salad is drizzled with and the signature galouti, the restaurant has zealously guarded the high standards set by the original TGKF at the Radisson Blu Plaza, NH-8. It's a Connaught Place gem that deserves its place in the sun.

I asked Anish Potdar, whom I have known since the time he was a young chef at TGKF (he's now the custodian of the brand, which encompasses 16 restaurants), about the Lahore connection. He said the festival showcases the kebabs (TGKF has a repertoire of over 500, for its philosophy is not to repeat a kebab for 15 days) whose recipes were shared by Mohammed Ikram of Pearl Continental Lahore's Dumpukht restaurant with TGKF's master chef, Meraj-ul-Haque, when they were pitted against each other on the reality cookery show, Foodistan. Talk about cross-border brotherhood!

The kebabs with the Lahori connection that I had were the melt-in-the-mouth Chicken Firdausi and the delicately textured Khyberi Chooza, and then there was the intensely flavourful mutton nihari cooked in the Lahori style. These are three good reasons for you to drop anchor at the Marina's TGKF.

Dhaba All Set to Go Places with Stand-Alone Brand

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WITH average daily sales of Rs 2 lakh (and with weekends delivering Rs 3 lakh-plus a day), Dhaba at The Claridges, Aurangzeb Road, serves up delicious returns for every inch of its 1,800 square feet (and its total area, by the way, includes the dispensing kitchen). It has been pulling it off since 1984 with a kitschy decor, old Bollywood numbers, cheek-by-jowl seating and the legendary draw of its Balti Meat. But as Dhaba prepares for its 40th birthday next autumn, it is getting ready to spread its wings.

Dhaba has been a consistent heavy hitter since 1984 on the
strength of its authentic menu and the warmth of its ambience

The new stand-alone brand, Dhaba by The Claridges -- opening at DLF Place, Saket, and The Hub, the country's first 'food mall' at DLF Cyber Park, Gurgaon, before the year-end -- will have completely different vibes. For starters, the two outlets will occupy larger space (4,000 square feet at DLF Place, Saket, and 2,400 square feet at The Hub) and have more seating (120 and 100, respectively). The key differentiator, though, will be APC (average price per cover) -- Rs 700-750 with one beverage (beer at these restaurants will be priced at Rs 100).

The music will be contemporary Bollywood. The servers will sport short kurtas, cargoes and Aldo shoes to convey of Indian cuisine going global. The menu will be studded with instant hits such as sheermal rolls, bun maska omelette and fruit-flavoured lassi (some of the flavours are unusual: jamun, pear, plum and kiwi).
The Great Kebab Factory, a UMAK Hospitality product which has spread its wings to 18 locations (including Bangkok and Muscat), has shown the way for five-star restaurant brands seeking to establish an independent identity for the country's growing mall market. Dhaba by The Claridges comes backed by an impressive lineage. The only way it can tank is by not delivering its promises, which look highly unlikely.