The first Delhi outlet of Indigo Deli is running a full house with guests walking in to have their all-time favourites, juicy burgers, stuffed corn-fed chicken and homemade ice creams. By Divya Kaushik
The barbeque pulled pork burger, seared mushroom and garlic potatoes on a crusty French bread, crunchy salads and yummy homemade hand-pulled ice cream. Everything that I have enjoyed at Indigo Deli (Mumbai outlet) came to my mind while I waited for the copy of menu to reach my table. This first outlet of Mumbai’s popular joint, Indigo Deli, at a mall in Vasant Kunj was packed completely even on a week day. The twin-level Delhi outlet has a seating capacity of over 100 diners between the indoor restaurant on the main floor with cosy booths and a buzzing open kitchen, and an alfresco terrace dining area, which is yet to be operational.
The sense of familiarity is drawing the crowd to the place which is now successfully running in its fourth week. I could see all kind of guests around — those who have been a regular at Mumbai outlets and those who heard about it from friends and family. If you belong to the former category, it will be so much pleasure to find all your favourites listed in the menu. In fact, the menu is almost the same as the Mumbai one with one or two additions like stuffed corn-fed chicken. For a few opening days of the restaurant, men who take charge of the Mumbai kitchens are managing the show here.
Developed by chefs Rahul Akerkar and Jaydeep Mukherjee, the menu boasts an extensive selection of sandwiches, salads, pastas, light meals and a wide range of scrumptious desserts, a bevy of beverages and a daily changing “specials” menu. All-time favourites like Bombay chicken wings, eggs divinity, Philly cheese steak sandwich, chorizo pizza, baked yoghurt, silky soufflés and rich cheesecakes are the most demanded so far. But chef Akrekar says that apart from all-time favourites, guests are trying almost everything on the menu. “Be it the salads, soups or main course dishes there isn’t just one thing that we can say is most demanded here. We are getting all kinds of guests from all age groups. Some just come prepared with what they want to order, these are the ones who have known Indigo as a brand for long and have their favourites, and then there are others who come with big groups and try almost everything on the menu, from steaks to fried chicken and pizza. In less time, our breakfast menu has really got popular here,” said the chef.
The breakfast menu that is served from nine in the morning comprises porridge, bircher musli, sandwiches, smoked or house cured salmon, couscous upma, appam and a wide variety in egg section.
I started the meal with citrus salad. Fresh citrus fruits, garden greens, red onions, kalamata olives came with generous citrus dressing and feta cheese. Perfect for the season, the salad was filling enough and the flavours were perfectly balanced. As I digged into the salad, I wondered how difficult it must be for the chefs to replicate flavours here. “Since most of our guests have dined at our Mumbai outlets, they sometimes order the same dishes and they expect the flavours to be same. So we cannot go wrong with that. The food here is our take on classic American/Western feel-good foods. The prime ingredients that we use, freshness of our veggies and meats and attention to detail reflect in the quality of food served. While developing the menu for New Delhi, we have ensured that it’s a mix of our favourites and more,” the chef told me. An interesting list of main course can tempt you no ends. From cheese fondue to lemon butter calamari, everything seems like a must try.
leaving the place without sampling desserts (read ice creams) would be a sin. Croissant pudding with bourbon sauce, flourless chocolate orange cake with orange sorbet, triple chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, desserts here are to die for. From the ice cream section, you should go for flavours like Belgian chocolate and Dulce de leche. In few days time, the second outlet in Delhi, which will be on the lines of Indigo, Colaba, will come up.