This two month-old restaurant at Rajouri Garden is carving a niche for itself by serving some best fusion dishes. Shrabasti Mallik takes a gastronomic tour
The Grub House at BK Market in Rajouri Garden was easy to spot, even from a distance. The simple reason being that it was the only three-story building in the area. While its ground floor serves as the cafe, the first floor serves as the restaurant. The second floor is an open bar. The décor of the place was quite unique. We noticed an open pizza station right at the entrance of the restaurant and also a tandoor setup right next to it, where customers can see their food being made. Multiple glass jars filled with coloured pasta and Indian pulses decorated one of the walls while the far end of the floor was made of glass, offering a full view of the street outside. There were also quirky objects that lined the rest of the wall like a periscope, binoculars, bike toys and toy gramophones. We took the seat closest to the glass wall in the corner when chef Dalip Arya politely enquired whether we would like to choose our food, but we let him guide us.
The chef served us two Thai salads — green papaya and glass noodles. The salads were made with fresh crunchy vegetables like carrots, lettuce leaves, red, green and yellow bell peppers, tossed in sweet, sour and hot sauce and lemon juice. The papaya salad had lettuce as its base. “It is similar to the Thai wonton salad with vinaigrette dressing (made by mixing olive oil with different kind of herbs). It is refreshing and cool, perfect for summers,” said the chef.
Salads were promptly followed up with grilled prawns accompanied with harissa paste (a Mediterranean paste made with red chilli and spices like garlic paste and coriander power). The prawns were perfectly grilled — neither too tender nor too hard. The mashed potatoes, on which the prawns were mounted had a creamy texture. “People have been experimenting with food for some time now, so we are offering them something new. People now prefer grilled dishes because they are non-fattening,” he added. Vegetarians can try spring rolls which come in tequila glasses with a garnishing of lettuce leaves. The stuffing is made of feta, mozzarella and cottage cheese and the dish comes with a tangy tomato salsa dip. There is a variety of cheese that the chef likes to mix and match for the stuffing.
The shish touk chicken came next along with the lebanese pita bread and hummus dip. Almost every dish that is served at the Grub House is a fusion. “That is the uniqueness of the place,” explained owner Rajat Kapoor, “We wanted to create an urban space with a whole new set of food. We keep on trying different dishes — mixing and matching different cuisine together, to find that perfect combination.”
Flavour of the grilled chicken was still lingering on our taste buds when the chef brought us veg quesadilla. This Mexican dish was stuffed with kidney beans, cheese, jalapenos and bell peppers with pineapple salsa on the side. Fish lovers can choose grilled adobo fish, a quintessential Indian dish, served with a Mexican twist. “The spices that are used to marinate the fish are Indian while the pineapple salsa is Mexican. It gives a zesty yet sweet taste to the fish, which is moderately spicy,” the chef explained.
Fusion we had seen aplenty but when the chef served thin crust butter chicken pizza, the word took an entirely different meaning. The base sauce was thick butter chicken gravy, with chicken pieces and cheese. “I have kept the dish simple. Too many ingredients spoil the taste of the dish,” pointed out chef Arya. In the rustic lasagna that he served us next, the chef had replaced beef with mutton. The fusion element here was chopped celery leaves and carrots, which added a very different taste to the otherwise meaty meal. For a mix of Indonesian, Indian and Italian cuisine, one can try out coconut risotto.
The menu for the main course left us spoilt for choice so Kapoor suggested that we try out the Grub House speciality — green butter chicken. We expected the dish to taste like either coriander or mint but surprisingly it was none. On the contrary it was a bit tangy. “We use green tomatoes instead of the regular red ones. This is a signature dish and is quite popular,” said Kapoor.
They say that dessert is the only section in a menu that cannot be experimented upon too much but chef Arya begged to differ. What he chose to present us for dessert was nothing less than an artwork. The chef called it the pizza dessert and the concept was real simple. Thin crust pizza bread, topped with mascarpone cheese, honey and crushed Oreo’s, slightly baked was served with a big dollop of ice cream. “We were brainstorming for new dessert ideas and I came up with this. I believe nothing like this has been done before,” he said.
Although the place is generating buzz, Kapoor plans to add more to the menu in the days to come. Sizzlers are on the top of the list. “We are a multi-cuisine restaurant but we are trying to specialise in making the best of combinations,” he concluded.