le Cirque, the French-Italian restaurant at the leela Palace hotel, has designed a special three-course Prix Fix menu as part of its limited promotion. Navneet Mendiratta sampled the fare
Honestly speaking, I have often wondered what difference does an affordability tag make to a certain exclusive fine dining experience. “Oh! It would make me very happy if my pocket felt less light at the end of the meal,” an enthusiastic fine-diner friend of mine quipped. Experience taken for granted, we were discussing the new three-course Prix Fix menu at le Cirque, the renowned French-Italian restaurant at the leela Palace hotel. A place my friend loves to repeat from time to time.
Situated at the 10th floor of the hotel, the restaurant has recently opened its exclusive Cellar Room (that overlooks their walk in wine cellar at one end and city skyline at the other) for a limited period promotion. le Cirque, that has its flagship outlet in New York City, is known for attracting mixed reviews by its critics and regular diners for its authentic French cooking. In India, however, they have opted to play safe by keeping their leanings Italian with the Indian palate in mind and accentuating the experience with the impeccable French touch. A lot of credit for this goes to their chef, Mickey Bhoite, who has spent his growing years in Italy. After their own cuisine, Indians love their Italian, as I remembered him telling me at one of my earlier interaction with him.
By luck, I managed to find ourselves a cozy seating with the cityscape view. Thankfully the Chanakyapuri area, where the five star property is located, boasts of a decent green cover and looks lovely from that height.
One look at the menu and the sea food lover in me was jumping all over with joy. The menu has a fair smattering of fish varieties in its two sections. So if there were wild mushroom and double cooked mozarella for the vegetarians, my choice settled for a tuna tartar. My friend opted for broccoli veloute, chilli sautéed shrimps with mascarpone.
As we waited for our order to arrive, we were served a pea shot that is meant to enhance appetite — subtle and just right. Tuna was a distinct French preparation, with the touch of beet and fennel lifting the flavours. The juicy shrimps came perfectly sautéed and served in a soup. Cavalli 2006 vintage complimented the food beautifully despite being a red.
For entrees, we chose grilled Scottish salmon and Kashmiri saffron risotto. My personal favourite style with salmon is poached but I must give it to the chef for creating the very French sauce to lift what could have otherwise been a regular grill. The saffron take in risotto was welcoming and had my friend polishing the plate off without a thought to all the calories going in. Cheese can be really comforting.
For desserts, it had to be the crème brûlee for me. The recipe is said to be a le Cirque classic and is even printed at the base of the dish! All you have to do to get there is to just polish it off. I was too happy and satiated to note it down. My friend went for baked fudge cheesecake served with champagne sorbet and strawberry compote. “Fruity Berrilicious”, was the verdict.
On the whole, this three course menu is all that it promises to be — well-balanced in flavours and meant for those who are experimental in their tastes. Want to know the priceIJ It is Rs 3,500 per person. The promotion runs through this month and the whole of next. Make the most of it!