Delhi’s trendy people are always looking for a good place to jive, enjoy their drinks, shake a leg and have a good time. Float, located in the Park Royal Intercontinental Hotel in Delhi’s Nehru Place area is a good place to do that. The pub is a day and night pub that operates as a dance floor, as a restaurant, as a cigar enjoying joint (in a special glass enclosure), and as a pub. With all this, and with a great ambiance, including an open kitchen, you can be sure that this pub is popular, and it sure is.
The restaurant here has cuisines from all over the world, starting with some great starters in the form of Nachos, starters from Indonesia, Italian Bruchetta, Lebanese starters such as hummus, falafel with pita bread, Chicken Nuggets, and many others. And of course, vegetarians have a great variety available in the form of Chili Mushrooms, many Chinese starters, Paneer starters, etc. And if you are there for lunch, you get some great food in the form of some great Italian Pasta (where you can select from the different types of sauces, herbs, and other ingredients and get the pasta made exactly as you want). Then there are other Italian stuff such as pizza, lasagna; and of course, you can get some great wine.
And as for the desert, enjoy some great desert, with cheesecake (made in a unique way and very delicious).
A lot of Indians enjoy Chinese food; however, it is also a fact that most of the Chinese food that we eat is actually food cooked with an Indian flavour - after all, a true Chinese chef would not actually enjoy addition of things such as Indian spices, paneer (cottage cheese); in fact, the feel of authentic Chinese food is most enhanced when the ingredients are genuine. There are a number of restaurants who claim the virtue of having an authentic Chinese experience, and some of them are not genuine. The China Kitchen on the other hand feels like the genuine experience.
The restaurant is located next to the pool at the Hyatt Regency, and the experience starts right at the entry. There are Chinese type motifs on the wooden doors that mark the entrance to the restaurant, and inside, you find the restaurant spread into different areas - there are the open kitchens, 5 private dining areas, the wine / tea area and the overall dining area. But even the dining area has tables that give you some feeling of privacy since there is some distance between the tables, and there are many corners. The whole getup of the place gives a wooden look (the elegant type), with a dark varnished wooden floor, wooden pillars and teak logs making up the roof. The windows give a good view of the pool. As you might expect, such an interior can give a great feeling of luxury, and the service is well along these lines. All this can be expensive, and you can easily run up a charge of over Rs. 1000 per person in the meal.
The restaurant is most famous for its 2 specialties, Peking Duck (made on a wood fired oven to give the classical taste), and Beggar’s Chicken (chicken wrapped in lotus leaves inside a clay shell). In addition, there are a number of other mouth-watering delicacies (in addition to the chef’s complimentary offering (some kind of starter, but normally very delicious), vegetable dumpling soup, Steamed spinach with mustard-sesame sauce, crispy prawn spring rolls, Sichuan poached chicken with crushed peanuts, vegetable and bean curd, Wok-fried premium vegetables with garlic, Fried Crab Claws, Pancakes with Sauteed Lamb, Sichuan Chilli Crabs, Fried Coriander Buns (my mouth was watering just from reading this entire list).
Thus, you can get a variety of excellent dishes based on vegetarian, poultry, fish, and other such sections, most of them being very good. The dessert is also a not-miss section. You get a good variety of wines and excellent alcohol to go along with this.
Hours: Lunch: 12:00 noon to 2:30 pm
Dinner: 7:00 pm to 11:30 pm
Reservations: Please dial +91 11 6677 1334
Post courtesy Akshaya (link)
Sampan is the Chinese cuisine restaurant at Crowne Plaza Surya. The best thing about Sampan is its location. It is situated on the top floor and offers a panoramic view of the city specially a marvelous view of the DND road with its curves and elevation properly visible. Sampan, meaning a flat bottomed boat in Chinese, has good décor and Chinese artifacts. Apart from these two good things, place is not much worth to write about.
The food is not that good as other Chinese joints in the city. And the cost is too high for the place and the food. Food for two will cost around 1600 to 2000 bucks. Crowne Plaza Surya is not regarded as a good hotel in Delhi and Sampan also lives to this reputation. There is nothing spectacular about food here. It serves Schezwan and Cantonese varieties mostly. One can try Crispy Spinach and Corn for the starters. While in main course, try Chicken in Sichuan Sauce or Vegetables in Garlic sauce variants. One can also go for their buffet which happens daily on weekdays in the lunch timings (from 12:30 to 2:30 or something of that sort). It is cheaper and would let you try various things without worrying about shooting your bill upward.
Nothing great for me except the views it offers.
Contact Info:-
Sampan
Crowne Plaza Surya
New Friends Colony
New Delhi – 65
Ph:- 26835070, 41672222
Jade (earlier known as Jade Garden) is the oriental cuisine restaurant at The Claridges in New Delhi. The setting is good - on the ground floor of the hotel along a grove of bamboos. The atmosphere in professional and the staff is courteous.
For the food part, it offers Chinese and Far Eastern Oriental cuisine. It may not be the best Chinese in the town but it is surely the one where you can enjoy the kind of Chinese food which gave birth to the Chinese cuisine culture in India. Do not let go of the complimentary fried prawn munchers served along with food - they are delicious. For starters, go for Shredded Spinach - a rather crispy item - it is truly wonderful. In the main course go for Stir Fried Chinese Greens or Bean curd with Mushroom. Their quantity is just enough - so order just the right amount for your guests.
It also offers an exclusive dim sum menu which includes vegetarian and non-vegetarian dim sums plus sweet dim sums as well. They have a large variety of dim sum - around 35 to choose from. Apart from this, they also offer executive lunch on weekdays - wonderful stuff at a cost - but worth a shot if you feel it. I would suggest to go à la carte here since other options are quite costly. But Jade is surely worth a visit (or maybe more).
Contact Info:-
Jade
The Claridges
12, Aurangzeb Road,
New Delhi - 110011
Phone:- 23010211