A travel-themed restaurant and bar, Tourist serves you holiday classics. Ankita Jain reports
For many who eat out, it’s the experience that counts. But at Tourist, the experience goes beyond and the food takes you on a gastronomical journey. Backed by a retro and travel theme, the bistro offers a smorgasbord of offerings for the palate that promises to take you across the world. With vacation photographs on the wall, travel memorabilia and around hundreds of travel books strewn about, Tourist gives the look of a vintage railway station. It displays the best of global street food on a wooden block chart, the way train names were listed according to their arrival time in the past.
With a capacity of 200 spread over three levels, the newly opened bistro includes a sheesha lounge, private seating, two bars, an amphitheatre style live music console and a roof top seating area, best for parties. To add to the mood, the menu is divided into four passport booklets by region; South Asia, EU (also UK, Brexit), the Far West and Far East. The menu also stands out with historic tidbits on the dishes.
The choices looked overwhelming and we kicked off the food excursion with Jammu kaladi. One of the famous street foods of Jammu, this dish is served with buns and authentic Dogra cheese. The flavour of cheese and stuffed tomatoes cannot go wrong but tamarind chutney gave it a surprising turn. “It is one of the hot-selling dishes at our restaurant,” said the Executive Chef.
We ordered chicken tacos which were light, crunchy and fresh. But the chef recommended the classic Bengali puff, radhaballabi, served as chaat, stuffed pooris substituting for papdi. Though the cuisine was an interesting concept, it majorly lacked crispiness. The salads and wraps are a must-try though.
The ten-page bar menu boasts an array of reinvented classics from across the world, again taking us on a thirst-quenching journey. We tried lPG and as the name suggests the cocktail came along with a mini lPG cylinder. Though we weren’t able to connect the drink with the cylinder, the chef clarified, “It is a part of our presentation and the glass is attached to the top of the cylinder. I don’t know why it didn’t come out that way today.” The drink enhanced the flavour of vodka mixed well with cranberry and tasted sweet. Desi Piakkad was another cocktail with cumin, coriander and vodka which reminded us of paanipuri.
The high note in Tourist came from the desserts. The Canadian cobblers, a baked fruit dessert with a layer of oats and nuts, tickled our taste buds the right way. Digging into the hot and thick chocolate sauce with the fried dough pastry won’t leave you disappointed either. The New York cheesecake in its comforting classic texture with a hint of crunch and garnished with lemon zest was another sweet kick to finish the food expedition.