Enjoy Delhi

The number of good restaurants in Delhi and the NCR region has kept on increasing over the past few years. As the number of malls have increased and a larger number of people have got into the habit of spending time in malls, the urge to eat out (especially at good places has increased tremendously). One example of this was this restaurant called Sahib Sindh Sultan (located inside the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon). We had to meet some friends after a period of a year, and owing to some locational issues, we went to Gurgaon to meet our friends. Finding the Mall and the restaurant was incredibly easy, if you are coming from the Delhi side, then as soon as you cross the Toll gate, the mall is located on the left side (you need to get off the highway as soon as you see a proper opening).
The restaurant is apparently part of a group called the BJN group that also runs other restaurants right next to SSS, and is located on the 3rd floor of the mall, close to the ground parking side (the side furthest away from the entrance to the mall; parking to the mall costs Rs. 30).
As you enter the restaurant, the initial look was that it seemed richly decorated, but a trifle dark. However, as you move in, you quickly spot a section of the restaurant where a train seems to be standing, and when you climb in, there are tables inside the train. A nice touch, and made all of us seem a bit happy (and of course the kid was very happy to be stepping inside a train). The seats were comfortable, and we thought that we were in a right place. Then the menu arrived, and it seemed to be a bit high, but this was a classy place (so went the reasoning) so we continued in that place.
And then the starters arrived followed by the food. The place offers a mix of Anglo-Indian, Gujarati, and Frontier food (a mish-mash of different styles). The starters (2 veg, one was a sort of vegetable seekh kabab, the other was a mushroom and other parts dish (and both were tasty); and then we had the non-veg started which was an excellent 5 pieces of fish fry (very tasty)). It was the main course that was even more incredible, the veg palak malai kofts and dal were great. Non-veg chicken biryani was in a good quantity and probably the best biryani I had ever eaten. Overall, the food was very great. If I do not recommend to everyone, it is because for 4 of us, the overall bill came to Rs. 3400 which is high by any standard (consider than 12.5 % was VAT, and 10% was a service charge).

Contact:
Site (link)
Ambience Mall, Level 3,
National Highway 8,
Gurgaon - 122 002
Delhi: +91 0124 3058802

Post courtesy Akshaya (link)

Situated near gate number one of the Lodhi Gardens, this restaurant is one of the best ambiance restaurant (except the ones in the five stars) in the city. As the name suggests, it is kind of inside the Lodhi Garden itself. It is situated in two parts - the first being the garden itself where there sitting is in open and have garden furniture for siting while the second is the closed sitting area where the sitting is more formal. They have some space on the first floor as kind of balcony where the sitting is again in open. The blend between greenery and furniture is quite dramatic yet they gel pretty well.

The food is more inclined towards Mediterranean & European cuisine yet there are some India-nized versions of the dishes. The place is quite a hit among tourist as well which you could figure out while eating there. The staff is quite gentle and well dressed. The open garden restaurant generally serves buffets while the closed area is more for groups or a la carte. The menu has more options for non vegetarians then for the vegetarians but the small number of options does not reflect into them being not good.

In starters, one should try Mezze Platters (both veg or non-veg). You can choose from different dips each one of them as delicious as the other one. The platter is quite a hit there. In the soup, try Scottish chicken and baby leek soup or the seafood broth. For the starters, the vegetarians should stick to pasta - they have quite a variety. For the non-vegetarians, the options are unlimited - one should try dishes from their lamb cuisine. And the best thing about the place (in terms of food) is their bread. They are served with most of the salads and pastas and are quite soft and delicious. Meal for two would cost around 1700 bucks.

Overall a great place to have a quite lunch or dinner. Very high on romantic index.

Contact Info:
Lodhi - The Garden Restaurant
Lodhi Gardens
Near Gate 1
New Delhi - 110003
Phone:- 011-24655054/24652808

Jim Morrison is long dead, died way back in 1971. However, fans of his music live on; who can forget the music that he generated in his short life. There is a varieties of restaurants / cafes that promote the music and memorabilia of hard rock, and these cafes are called ‘Hard Rock Cafe’. Delhi also has one of these, in the rocking South Extension Part 2 area, setup in 2005, called Cafe Morrison.
The decor of a Hard Rock Cafe is always different from the others, with a large dose of rock star posters, music, guitars, etc. Imagine the pleasure when the Cafe plays the old type music from 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM. In addition, you have some classic bike commercials playing from time to time. The Cafe also gives space to young bands, with live performance on Sundays.
Besides the music, you also get some great cocktails and drinks. The food is Mexican, with one of their specialities being Fajitas Chicken. So, what are you waiting for, come, get some great food and drink, and rock yourselves to a good time.

E-12, South Extension II
South Extension II, Delhi
Contact details: 011 26255652?, 09350547434?

A scene from Cafe Morrison on Youtube:

Media Coverage of Cafe Morrison:

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).

Post courtesy Akshaya (link)

Once again I was back to Mainland China. Yes, it is surely my favorite Chinese restaurant in the whole city. Great food and cheap too. And one more factor for my frequent visits to this place, is my wife’s preference of this place

So, last weekend I went to Mainland China - this time for a dimsum lunch. Although they do not have a fixed dimsum menu lunch but one can order dimsum from their a-la-carte menu. And that is what we did as well. We ordered SuiMai dimsums filled with chopped vegetables (one of our favorite there), steamed vegetable wontons in a rather unique sauce, silken tofu delight vegetable dumplings (chopped vegetables filled in a soft silky tofu covering and base) and XO sauce flavored chicken and prawn dimsums.

Nearly all of them were very good. Apart from these, other notable dimsums are vegetable hargao, prawn hargao & seafood dimsums. Overall, our dimsum lunch was worth driving down all the way from Noida to G.K. - Mainland China has never disappointed us till now. The bill for a dimsum lunch for two (consisting of five different dimsums) would be around 900 bucks. On weekends, make sure to go with prior booking - this place sells like anything.

Contact info:
Mainland China,
Plot No. 4, Local Shopping Centre,
Masjid Moth, Greater Kailash - II,
New Delhi - 110048
Tel : (011) 40535525 / 26
Email : mlcdel@airtelbroadband.in

A good location for a restaurant is Connaught Place, practically the center of Delhi. Earlier, the hall Plaza had started decaying, but with the revival of the whole of CP (with the welcome addition of the Metro), Plaza also became PVR Plaza, a new and refurbished place. And then came this restaurant located in the same building, spread over a large area. Named after ‘Picadilly’, a famous location of London, the restaurant also has a pub right inside, called ‘Drunken Duck’.
The restaurant is large, but we had gone on a Saturday evening, and the rush was incredible, and with so many families there along with children, the noise levels were also incredible (it took us 15 minutes to get a table). The tables were also feeling more cramped, and navigating between them when a person is not as thin as a stick could be a bit difficult.
The experience was a mixed experience. The service was incredibly fast by Delhi standards, but the food and the quantum of food was so-so; in more detail, the veg starters (honey potatoes) were not so good, while the non-veg chicken starter was much better. Quantity of the starters was plenty, but one cannot really say the same for the main dishes (given that they were also priced on the higher side). A fish dish that I had ordered cost around Rs. 350, and I had 3 tasty (but small pieces of fish). Be prepared to order 2-3 dishes if 3-4 of you are going there. The cocktails and other drinks were fine. The decor inside the restaurant was decent, with the high roof and the space overhead being decent, but if you have been to London, the whole feeling looks very pretentious.
Overall, if I have to go there, I will go on a weekday, and be prepared to spend approx Rs. 2500+ for 4 people (drinks, snacks, food, and dessert). The good point was 2-3 of the desserts were proclaimed as sugar-free, and this always helps people who need to avoid sugar. The food is of Chinese / Indian type, and taste wise is a bit bland.

Location of Piccadelhi restaurant on Google Maps:

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Contact Details:
Phone : 011 - 23316344 /47 /48 /49
Fax : 011 - 23316349
Address : Plaza Cinema Building, H-Block, Connaught Circus, New Delhi - 110 001

Asia Kitchen is a relatively new restaurant located in Sector 63 in Noida. The location details are:
H-1A/33, Sector 63, Noida
Tel +91 (0120) 4218555/ 4218666
If you are coming from the Shipra Mall Side, you need to take the road that leads to Fortis; it is on the left side before Fortis (you will need to take the service lane).
The place has 2 floors, a ground floor and a basement. Together, the restaurant has ample seating space, with a mix of chairs and sofas for more comfortable seating.
The restaurant does not yet have a liquor license, so it cannot serve any cocktails or drinks. However, it does have a variety of mocktails and the standard lemon water, etc. The food is varied - there is Chinese, Thai, and North Indian (although this mixture does seem a bit strange - I saw on the same table, a group from an office eating a mixture of dal along with chopsuey and hot and sour vegetables; something this was not a pleasant sight.
The servings are large, and the menu choices are small (for example, the North Indian vegetable list was 2 paneer dishes, 1 kofta, 1 dal, and 1 other dish), so we ended up with a small number of dishes whose quantity proved more than sufficient. I felt the taste was great, and people eating the non-veg liked what they ate, but there were others who did not like the taste all that much.
Overall, for around 16 people, we ended up with a bill of around Rs. 350 per head, seemed a trifle high (but with drinks, starters and food, it may be fine).

South Delhi had access to some of the earliest malls in Delhi. You had the good (but now slightly old-fashioned and hot in summer) Ansal Plaza on Khel Gaon Marg, and the malls in Gurgaon that were not so far away. However, there is now no need to go to these places; you have the brightest and best new mall opened up in Saket, called Select Citywalk Mall (link). The 1,300,000 sq ft (121,000 m²). retail development is spread over six acres and includes a multiplex, serviced apartments, offices and public spaces. Situated on the Press Enclave Road, it is within 15-20 minutes of driving time from prime residential colonies such as Panchsheel park, Geetanjali Enclave, Greater Kailash, Anand Lok, Gulmohur Park, Hauz Khas, Safdarjung Enclave & Sainik Farms.

Map of the Mall (not too hard to get directions once you know the exact location):

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The mall has plenty of good brand name stores, it has a multiplex (PVR), and has good eating options. What more do you want ?

Shops: Fabindia, Pantaloons, Food Bazaar, Mac (cosmetics), Lush (soaps / cosmetics), Shoe Tree (shoes), Benetton (clothes), Clinique (cosmetics), Esprit (clothes), Guess (clothes), Barista Creme, Mothercare, Hidesign, Mango, Pratap, Kimaya, Wills Lifestyle, Shoppers Stoppe, Good Earth Veranada, L’affaire, Allen Solly, Arcelia, Home Stop, Crossword, H2O, Van Heusen, Nine West, Tommy Hilfiger, Charles and Keith, Inc5, Nine West, Shoe Tree, Lancome, Loccitane En Provence, Forest Essentials, Tissot, Swatch, Ethos, William Penn, Guardian Lifecare Pvt. Ltd, Valaya.FNP, Kalpana, Cheemo, maspar, Mynah

Food: Food Court called Food Talk (many types - Chinese, South Indian, North Indian, Mexican, Italian, Sizzlers), KFC, Gelato, Barista, Caffe Coffee Day, all-vegetarian Sattvik, Cocoa by Belgique, Patchi

Taking the mall’s entertainment quotient much higher is a public space called Saanskriti, having an open air amphitheatre, specialized lighting, water bodies and trees, specially planned for conducting cultural programs such as fairs, festivals and art performances.

This is a huge mall. It can take many hours to navigate all the different sections, and there is a fair chance of becoming lost (or rather, trying to find a shop that you have found earlier). And if you have made an arrangement to meet somebody over there, then it can get difficult; because it is very crowded during the weekends and even during the normal daytime, and also because it can get confusing.
However, these could be counted as negatives; but the positive is that this is one mall that can help you to find whatever you want. There are many eating places, there is bowling, there are movies, there are restaurants, and the place is full of shopping. And of course, there is an amusement park next door with plenty of rides.
The mall comprises an area of 1,500,000-square-foot (139,400 m²), making it one of the largest operational mall in India. The Great India Place was developed by the Unitech Group and is located in Sector 38-A of Noida. The Mall is supposed to be a part of a Huge Entertainment City with an Water & Amusement Park, Bollywood-Theme Park, and Hotel.
The mall follows a zoned concept with home and grocery on the basement level, women’s apparel on one side, men’s on the other and a 180,000 sq.ft. Food and Entertainment zone on the top floor, with a 5-screen Adlabs multiplex, with a total seating capacity of 1220 seats.
Some of the major stores are Big Bazaar, Home Store (for items for the home), Pantaloon, Globus, Lifestyle, Shopper Stop, Bossini, D & A shoes, CTC Plaza, Lee Copper, Tana Bana, Hallmark, Titan, Giovani, Jumbo Electronics, Om Book Shop, Hazoorilal, R C Jewellers, Cygnus, Tanishq, Ritu Wears, Planet M, Archies, Lazy Boy, Dollar Shop, Adidas, Nike, Guess, Marks & Spencer, Satya Paul, Raymond Shop

Food: Nirula’s, Sbarro, Rajdhani, Yatra, Noodle Bar, Food Court, Pind Balluchi, TGIF, KFC, PIzza Hut, Bembos, Pizzaria Express, and many others.

You also have pool and bowling options on the same floor as the food court.

The Unitech Metro Walk Mall in Rohini has a total area of 200,000 sq. ft. It has shops for clothing and accessories, footwear, many different eateries, and best of all, a full fledged amusement park called Adventure Island that has 30-40 rides (many of which are well liked by visitors). In addition, the Mall also has the backdrop of a lake spread over 3.5 acres. The Mall is gaining in popularity and becoming a must-visit for people of all age groups. It also is different from the many similar types of malls that have sprouted all over the country.
The Mall is easily accessible from the Rithala Metro station and has a parking of around 1800 vehicles. Tickets to the Amusement park cost Rs. 220 & 170 (Adult & Children respectively) on weekdays and Rs. 350 and 270 on weekends.

Some of the various brands that are available in this mall (please leave a comment if you don’t see a particular shop in here):
John Players, Ezone (electronics), Liberty (shoes and accessories), Pantaloon, Reebok, Nike, Biba, Titan, Benetton, Liliput, Adidas, Levis, Koutons, Pepe Jeans, Incense, Zapp, Numero Uno, Spykar Jeans, Raymonds, Titan, Lee Cooper, Jini and Johnny, Blackberry, Indian Terrain, Reid & Taylor, Priknit, Richlook, Swiss Junction, Carlton London, Provogue Studio

Food: KFC, Punjabi by Nature, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Spoon (Food Court), Pind Balluchi, Flaming Wok, Gola Sizzler, Baskin Robins, Ruby Tuesday, Barista, Costa Coffee, Cafe Coffee Day, Geoffrey’s, Fast Trax, Yo China, Nirula’s,

Address : Unitech Metro Walk Mall & Adventure Island, Sector 10, Rohini, Near Rithala Metro Station, Delhi
* Ph. : 91 - 11 - 47041122