Newly-opened restaurant Hybrid balances beautifully between the traditional favourites and the popular global dishes. Neeti Nigam relishes on some of the best dishes in the menu
I have always found lutyen’s Delhi a far more exciting place to chill out than any other in the city. It has everything to hook you — clean roads, decent crowd, branded shops, flea markets and amazing eateries. It always surprises you with an array of options. Over the past four years, there has been a flood of theme cafés at Connaught Place and the adjoining Janpath market.
So, after checking out the latest monsoon collection at Janpath market, we walked into the newly-opened Hybrid. We found a sprawling restaurant complete with a loft-space, offering comfortable seating for small as well as large groups. While most cafes fall short of space, Hybrid is spacious enough to host over 120 customers. The interiors are so nicely done that a lot of media houses are finding it a suitable location to shoot their shows.
The café has a huge range of both cocktails and mocktails. I ordered watermelon and mint lemonade which was quite refreshing. Nowadays, most restaurants play safe by introducing familiar dishes of popular world cuisines. So under one roof, you can savour a thin crust pizza, dimsums and even hotdogs, all at the same time. “Most people do not want to limit their taste buds to a certain cuisine that is why we are loaded with dishes that you would love to munch on,” said manager, Vipul Arora.
Hybrid’s literal meaning is an offspring of different varieties produced through human manipulation. Arora told us the reason. “We have combined street food and contemporary food to create our own hybrid,” he adds.
Since Hybrid is close to the popular food chains, it has to face a stiff competition. But Arora was confident. “This place is a business hub, and, therefore, we get a fair amount of clients. We also attract them by offering them very good deals,” says he. While location is a plus point, I felt that the spacious and stylish interior, along with a huge bar was its USP.
Not wasting any more time, I happily ordered for a meatology pizza that was loaded with BBQ chicken, lamb salami, bacon bites and cheese. This thin crust is a must-try. The Thai corn cakes were succulent, too. The dahi kebabs were delicious and fragrant. But I enjoyed relishing most on Hybrid chicken wings which were juicy and served with a range of assorted dips. I loved the chicken tikka, too, as the meat was fresh and tender.
Though Hybrid is a new venture, the heavyweights behind the brand — Priyank Sukhija, luv Aggarwal and Vaibhav Sachdev — are pretty popular among the Delhi party circle. In this year itself, Priyank has launched four restaurants and three more are in the pipeline. While during the day, Hybrid remains a restaurant, the real crowd comes up during the night, thanks to their house jockey, DJ Simz. “We are packed during the weekends. Most clients in the age group of 30 to 40 year old flock here,” says Arora told us.
He politely suggested we try their burgers which are quite popular with the expats. The burger was so big that it is a meal in itself. It was accompanied with French fries and sauces. “We are located at a place where well-travelled customers visit. Therefore, we are careful with our dishes,” said he.
But there must be few who still demand the regular chilli chicken and fried rice, we asked. “Though we have tikkas and kebabs in the menu, we have tried not to bring the regular stuff. So for such customers, we humbly suggest the Oriental chicken made in oyster sauce and fried rice,” said Arora.
While the burger was filling, I still braved a spoon of oriental chicken. It was hot and delicious. But do not expect it to be an Indian version of Chinese.