It is an out of the way restaurant but do tread this path, says Meenakshi Rao
Crowne Plaza hotel, in the commercial district of Okhla Phase 1, may not come to your mind as a place to enjoy a leisurely meal but it’s here that a strange combination has tied a stranger knot with novelty. Really, who would have thought of having a combo restaurant of Oriental meets Italian, of fire roasted pizzas and pastas rubbing shoulders with steaming momos and hunan chicken rolling in jasmine riceIJ Whoever did, it was quite an idea, an idea that has found its wont. And, as the restaurant manager Anand tells you proudly, it’s been a quiet trendsetter in the Capital and is the property’s USP.
You tend to agree once the cuisine starts visiting your table, drawing you into a complete eating experience. Amid the salads and the soups you are told that for close to three years, the ChaoBella restaurant has been laying out a live kitchen punctuated by cozy seating nooks every Sunday, not restricting the brunch season to only the winter sun.
And the response, despite the hotel’s out of the way positioning, has been enervating. Many non-resident guests power this modestly priced 12.30 pm to 3.30 pm brunching option on Sundays and as the new general manager Raju Shreshtha asserts, the opening of the Kalindi Kunj underpass would be the turning point for ChaoBella as Noida with its huge clientele of foodie families is looking for newer and easily reachable options for eat outs, especially on Sundays.
One thing that stands out at ChaoBella is — the food is made with heart and is utterly delicious, something five-star restaurants are not generally known for. The Potamo Minestrone Soup tells you why. It’s not just aromatic and appetising but also sets the pace for things to come. The chubby faced, ever smiling Chinese chef Ogein lepcha, all the way from the back mountains of Sikkim, insists that Minestrone is one thing, and his specially blended Talumein soup quite another. The preparation, as you discover, has been done with care. The standout part is that – as it happens elsewhere – this one is not doused in corn starch and is brave enough to allow the noodles and the chicken float seamlessly in the liquidy broth.
The Propia Piaaz pizza, thin crusted and straight out of the centerpiece fire oven is just the right mix of crispiness and cheesiness and the tomato stuffing in the bread is delicately spiced, making it a cut above the rest of the tomato glazed stuff that often makes the pizzas more Punjabi than Italian. As I mull over the blurred price line between city restaurants and those nestling in five star hotels, the most flavourful dimsums come steaming in, compelling a break in the conversation and luring the newly arrived GM of Crowne Plaza Hotel to order a plate for himself.
The chicken stuffing is succulent, delicately spiced and tantalisingly cozy in the paper thin wrap, making these the unrivalled showstoppers of this Sunday brunch, in their steamy variety. The prawn wontons, the chicken momos and the asparagus dimsums are all distinct in taste and flavour. Absolutely fresh, very scantily clad in their paper thin wrapping, authentically accompanied by an array of momo condiments, they are the dish to be with at ChaoBella and its heady Proseco bubbly.
Now, there are dimsums and dimsums. I was sold out on the good old laguna momos from the sinewy bylane of the Chanakyapuri shopping complex despite these being offered universally at most Oriental restaurants. But the ones at ChaoBella, outdo them by a yard and that’s quite an achievement in itself.
The beetroot ravioli on the other hand fights for space with all its flavours and lightness of being but it’s the pan fired Seabass fillet — delicately proportioned and decoratively presented — that rules the roost in the mains. As Shreshtha, straight from Kochi and just a week old in this hotel, tells you with a smile, ChaoBella is an experiment that has gone viral, with other hotels and other idea-makers. He could thank the food quality for this happy virus no one is minding amid the Florida Fruit Cake and the Mango Parfait, sugar-free and eggless if you may please!