Indulge in a Gastronomic Extravaganza with Live Music, Diverse Cuisines, and Chef's Specialties at Elan, The Lodhi, New Delhi. By Sharmila Chand
An elegant ambience, limited covers, well laid out seating, thoughtfully curated menu, sparkling beverages, attentive service, outstanding live music, make Elan's Alfresco Brunch affair a delightful experience in the heart of the capital.
On a sunny afternoon, we settled for a table close to the beautiful Champa tree in the well manicured greens. Within a few minutes, we are tapping our feet and singing jingle bells in tune with the beautiful live singers.
The picturesque garden is the perfect setting for gastronomic journey, buzzing with several live cooking stations, where chefs take the spotlight, showcasing their expertise through a diverse array of dishes. We look around and realize there is a choice of several cuisines, including Indian Street food, Continental, Pan Asian, Japanese, Chinese, and North Indian delicacies. The guests have plenty to celebrate global flavours, well crafted cocktails and a separate section for kids' goodies.
We start with piping hot Tom Yum Soup - robust with flavours and perfectly done with all the condiments. We forgo the starters like Bara Kebab, Amritsari Fish, etc and choose to have more of salads as they look exotic and healthy. The reason being, the ingredients chosen are offbeat, for example, there is Pearl Barley with Broccoli - mild and easy on the palate. The combination of Orange, Blueberry, Strawberry, Romain in pretty carvings, is delicious. Mediterranean Chicken Cous Cous with lemon dressing is the show stopper at the table. While some cannot stop raving about Beetroot Cured Salmon with herb green and sour cream, though it has tough competition with Prawn, Avocado, Mexican, Confit cherry tomato salad. With tasting few more salads, like Minted Melon Feta with Cured Ham, we move on to everybody's favourite course - street food of India. So sure enough, gol gappas lad up at the table with two options of water - one slightly sweet reddish in color and other green to die for. Everybody votes for the sour and spicy green one, and have several rounds of the same. Next is the crispy aloo tikki, palak patta chaat, dahi and papri chaat, all done to perfection with right proportion of chutneys and yoghurt mixed.
Soon we realize, now is the time for some bubbly beverage. Guess what, we all turn out to be Rose Wine lover. So no conflict here, the chilled Rose adds beauty to the sparkling white table linen.
Chef Vijay Thapliyal, the Executive Chef of The Lodi, walks in to check if we are doing fine, and commands us to go for Grills from Teppanyaki station, next. We are quite full after the hearty chaat round but it's too early in the day to even take a pause, we have not even reached the real food round. Hence we walk towards the Grill counter and choose our favourites from seasonal veggies, Taco spicy cottage cheese steak, salmon steak, Sea bass, prawns, rosemary marinated chicken and more. Vijay advises us to have generous accompaniment of lemon butter, mustard cream, honey mustard with these grills; choose teriyaki sauce, tonkatsu or Oyster sauce and they truly turn out outstanding.
Indulge in a culinary extravaganza with Live Pasta, Pizza counters, in multiple options, not to miss out the Lebanese Mezze Platter. There is a decent selection of veg and non veg sushis in the display, though they would have been of a better texture had they prepared sushis at the live counter. We all loved the preparation and huge choice of Dim Sums, thin covering and great filling. In the main course, the Indian cuisine stands out, both in terms of taste and the choice of dishes. Sarson ka saag was melt in the mouth with fresh grounded masalas, paired with hot makka rotis served with white butter. Kadi pakora and Punjabi style meat curry rendered the feel of comfort food while Patiala Murgh was lapped up with Mutton Biryani. Veg lovers could not stop raving about Kale Chane ka pulao - different and nicely flavoured in ghee. Dosa and idly lovers were not disappointed as there were several varieties being offered, including Egg Dosa.
Finally, to satisfy our sweet cravings, there was a delightful selection of desserts, including in - house ice creams. Elan takes pride in meticulously crafting each pastry to look pretty and tantalise the taste buds of its guests. For dark chocolate lovers, the best bet is 'Smoked dark chocolate coffee cake' for the strong real hardy flavour.
To Conclude
From chaat platters to delicate French pastries and world cuisine, paired with a decent mix of beverages, there's something for everyone here, creating a memorable gastronomic experience. Spend a relaxed afternoon in the company of your loved ones over a sumptuous meal.
