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Hauzkhas village , being a place where there is a watering hole’s galore , to find a nice place to eat is a challenge, especially when you have a casual dining in your mind and not an indian cuisine dinner or some other fold your sleeves dig into the food , kind of place.
So finding a place with a little happening and soothing environment as well as some serious food (not just pizza, pastas , sheesh touk, burgers kind of cafes) is a quest we had and still have in our minds.
So we went to amour to understand how different it is from the usual watering holes of the Village , as well as what gastronomical offerings do they have.
Prior to visiting amour , we were made aware that chef Jiten is taking care of the kitchen operations at amour since past few months and that modifications, improvisations and some new creations have been done to the menu.
We had one inhibition or something we really wanted to understand was, that how popular is the particular cuisine amongst the regular patrons of the village simultaneously, to understand how different amour is from the regular bars , lounges or cafes.
So with this thought in our heads, we pressed the floor button in the elevator that took us right to the entrance of amour.
A beautiful décor welcomed us and we could see a neatly done and aesthetically placed dining area which opens to a view of the forest cover on one side and leads to an open and multi-level terrace/patio on the other side.
The place is huge with ample seating and different decor suiting to guest’s mood and preferences.
We sat at a nice cabana , which was comfortable to accommodate a group of 4-5 people. We looked into the menu to understand the restaurant serving as they say is a modernized or rather improvised Mediterranean cuisine.
We ordered for few drinks and starters.
So our first course was a vegetarian as well as a non vegetarian mezze platter.
Served in a beautiful platter with extremely intriguing LED Lights, is definitely fancy stuff, while it was being served on other tables it got our attention and I am certain while we were served the same , it looked attractive too. Super style !!
A chaud froid comprising traditional dips like hummus, baba ghanous and tzasiki served with lamb short ribs on tempered garlic chips, chicken in lebanese spices on skewers and a couple grilled prawns with meditteranean flavours .
The lamb was stunning and was enjoyed well with the garlic chips it was served on, chicken was succulent and flavorful as well as the prawn.
Hummus however was a bit bland and similarly Baba ghanous was pretty average.
The veg version had spinach spinakopita, cheese stuffed baby aubergines and dolmas with wine leaves.
while the non veg platter looked distinct and tasted different, it was quite the opposite with the veg platter. Though the flavors were nice, it was pretty redundant.
Next In line was ginger chilli grilled prawns with feta and mango salsa. 6 pcs. Of medium sized prawns arranged neatly over raw and ripe mango salsa with feta.The combination was precisely kept and flavors complimented each other nicely. It was a brilliant preparation and somehow I have fallen in love with mango and prawns combination!!
Mist sprinklers with air blowers made sure the seating was comfortable despite it being a humid July evening.
Time was for my favorite course – Soups .
Our eyes lit up to see some quite innovative soups featured in the list that made us order a couple portions. Mango gazpacho with fennel and basil seeds and curried pumpkin and coconut soup with broccoli souffle.
Woahh!! we went complete bonkers after the course , the mango gazpacho was cold and flavors of anise and beautifully spiked up made our evening, On the other hand broccoli mousse was soft and soup tasted brilliant with curried flavors gentled with coconut.
Cocktails meanwhile, kept us engaged while we indulged ourselves in the surroundings enjoying the music that was soft and non-intrusive.
The cocktails some great and some average while some not beyond the first gulp, have a scope of improvement in order to hit the jackpot along with food and ambience.
Next were salads, the first was watermelon salad with organic cucumber and feta , illustrating thoughtful combination with precise portioning and well executed with bright red neat squares of the fruit arranged over feta mousse encased in thin strips of cucumber. The second was Asian crumb chicken with raspberry and mint vinaigrette- nicely tossed up and the leaves had punch, the chicken was quite ordinary though.
Time was to get to the mains – and we wanted to compare the beef out here with the ones we have been having at other equally reputed or better restaurants.
We had a beef steak, a grilled Pomfret from their grill section and a pizza.
The beef came with just perfect doneness , done in an unconventional way.It was sliced cooked fillet over succotash, pommery butter and aubergine pate.The thing to admire was the way the dish was presented .it was a wooden round-oval block on it was succotash and sliced beef, potato pave, butter sauce around and smeared on one side was the aubergine pate that camouflaged so well that the server had to point it out.
Truly amazing.and it did score above any we have eaten so far.
Grilled pomfret with chimichuri salsa was rustically presented with just done whole pomfret, crunchy vegetables on side and there goes the chimichuri salsa over the top. Flavorsome and enjoyable.
It gives an insight on the quality level that kitchen maintains as churning simple dishes as this is not simple with many great restaurants.
Pizza was a fluffed one and bang on -not super crusty just there it’s supposed to be. We also had a yellow curry risotto , risotto had a nice flavor and served with parmesan sheet , had a nice savory taste , however lack of vegetables or meat made it too uniform for us to enjoy it till the last bite.
The desserts red velvet and chef recommended chocolate …..The chocolate dessert was delicious , though not much to carry as reminiscent, taste of the latter was average.
The evening turned out to be a gourmet affair with many excellent and sumptous dishes revolving around haute cooking.
Now coming to our main conclusion was something which got us thinking.
Thought 1 : Chef Jiten , has done a tremendous job at uplifting the menu and dishes that is at par with top restaurants of the city however, more than that , the thought process of cooking and sticking to promote an innovative bent to cook nouvelle dishes in a market which perceives every rooftop terrace restaurant to be a partying place or a watering hole, deserves much attention.
On the other hand it lacks support to showcase the culinary thought to the right market as well as putting the right picture / image of the restaurant and the cuisine it specializes in.
Thought 2 : How competent is the restaurant of being able to draw a substantial clientele and continuously serve excellently to be able to become first choice place to eat at , for the fine dining clientele of Delhi.?
Thought 3 : How many restaurants suffer from such misplacements or misperceptions owing to their location, their clientele , incorrect or lack of marketing / PR and most importantly lack of service support ?
Thought 4 : What are the ways ahead for Amour ?
Our Conclusions / recommendations are as follows :
Thought 1 : I was impressed and find it an encouraging sign to meet and understand Chef Jiten , who is trying to pursue an innovative style of cooking , and most importantly , doing it seriously , giving the process its due respect. In a short, yet meaningful interaction with Chef, It was pleasing to learn his learning attitude and being open to suggestions as well as good at figuring out the anomalies by himself. Now , How to solve it , I leave it to their expertise !! So with this, I remain hopeful to consider Hauzkhas Village as another place to go for some quality dining.
Thought 2 : Now though food is a major differentiator,however, No good restaurant can become a great restaurant without being competent enough to serve its guests excellently. This is both an opportunity as well as a challenge for amour.
Well led under the guidance of an experienced General Manager, Gaurav Sachdeva , I am hopeful right steps will be taken and service which includes, guest handling, suggestive selling (Food, cocktails & wines) , smooth operations and production (cocktails) , innovation , leadership as well as an undying quest to strive for excellence can be brought at the helm of affairs. Gaurav with his experience , qualification and knowledge is an ideal person to lead this initiative , however still , it shall get proven to be believed, My best wishes !!
Thought 3: Answer to this thought is , Well ….. I will speak with numbers and some statistics and analysis in future as we are surely trying to understand this issue. However, we understand that it is an issue and thus answer is yes, there are considerable amount of restaurant who are either misrepresented or our not in the right fit or just falls on executing the idea they thought will make them a market leader. None of it happens , as very less preparation happens, and very less viable investments are made.
In this regard, I believe the foreign brands does much better than Indian companies and chains. It is important to understand the market well as well as the cuisine and its takers , as well as the right way to promote the same. Right literature , right communication, service levels ,marketing & public relations are all very important aspects in todays world, with so many food & beverage entities each trying to be different than the other, right identity is important , so not to get lost in oblivion.
Thought 4:Ways ahead for amour !!
One prime way ahead is to continue in the way there are marching on!!
Improve on processes and productions and fine tune the cuisine to match the style and consistency of any top choice fine dining place. I am certain, that they realize the Gap and are focused on achieving the operational excellence.
Once certain of their level of food and service they provide, they must act accordingly in all their behaviors whether it is dealing with a customer, talking to the media, the online literature and each place where one gets an understanding of what’s in store from them. A restaurant cannot be all forms of dining and all forms of cuisine rolled into one and sell to all kinds of people and then expect it to be niche !! There can only be a few ways ahead, and one has to choose the one suiting the place the most.
If you serve pastas and pizzas , one cannot try and not sell them , also one cannot force the guests to have the new salad or soup on the menu , neither can we force feed any guest a fancy new gourmet preparation, when all they want is lots of beers , pasta and pizzas, sheek touk and burgers…..
So right cuisine , right guest mix , right service levels and other ancillary aspects should be decided first and then go all out carrying the same picture/image and as they say the attitude or style of the restaurant!!
I tried the food and our suggestion is that with little more focus and right marketing there’ll be many takers !!
A lovely place to spend an evening , is what amour is !! Beautiful view and beautiful décor !! Amour as the name suggests is definitely a place one can fall in love with !!
Some colorful Concoctions