Newly opened restaurant Number 8 at Sunder Nagar is pulling the crowd with its multi-cuisine menu, comfortable decor and good location. Shrabasti Mallik checks in
Restaurant Number 8, off 8, Sundar Nagar is a happy coincidence of two things — its strategic positioning and also the number being considered lucky for business, according to Chinese mythology. But as they say, there’s more than meets the eye. Spread over three floors, the restaurant has become a favourite for some pretty big names like designer duo Shantanu and Nikhil.
The first floor is the spacious fine-dining area with mellow lighting while the second floor hosts the 21 feet long bar counter with two lCD TVs screening live matches, with a number of hard beverages to choose from. The attraction of this floor, however, is the small smoking room in the corner with a huge painting of the face of a man staring down with queer eyes. Move on to the third floor and you have the open terrace, overlooking the entire Sundar Nagar area. And if you are lucky, a pleasant evening wind can make your dining experience a bit more memorable.
We made ourselves comfortable on the first floor and decided to go with what the chef felt we should taste. Being a multi-cuisine restaurant, the menu boasts of dishes influenced by European, latin-American, Oriental and Indian cuisine.
There were a number dishes that we were served from their starters section — vegetable money bag, wine poached pear salad, black pepper lamb, olive stuffed chicken, mushroom croquettes, jerk chicken and wild mushroom risotto with red wine. The vegetable money bags were fried crisp and went well with the sauce accompanying it. The mushrooms, however, deserve a special mention because not only were the croquettes really mushy and melting-gooey inside, the risotto was a perfect blend of creaminess and zest without being overpoweringly cheesy.
The black pepper lamb was an interesting pick-me-up. Chef Pradeep Jugran explained that the dish was made using brandy. “We have marinated the lamb in brandy overnight. We have also used crushed pepper and further cooked the lamb in Chinese cooking wine and sauces like soy. All these ingredients give a strong flavour,” he said. With strong hints, this one may not be everybody’s favourite.
The olive stuffed chicken, from a distance, looked like delicious roundels. We come to know that it is prepared with the chicken supreme, a soft part of the breast, and marinated in Mexican style. “We have used onion, olive oil, chopped garlic, paprika powder, coriander. We have put a piece of olive in the centre of the meat and rolled it up. We have coated the chicken layer with ranchero (a Mexican sauce) made by using cumin, chilli, oregano, Poblano chilli, and mixed in a tomato based sauce,” the chef pointed out. We liked the blend and the fact that the meat was infused with flavours instead of retaining its fibrous sameness.
Our starters plate made way for the main course where we tried their popular Sambal spiced grilled fish before digging into their unique khatte baingan ki biryani with kamal kakri raita. The fish came, wrapped in a banana leaf, with a refreshing salad of raw mango and onion and was really spicy. Sambal is supposed to be a bit hot but could be a bit too spicy for some. “The fish is marinated with shrimp paste, chilli paste and kaffir lime,” the chef told us.
The biryani was an innovation in itself. Khatta baingan is a popular dish served in Hyderabad and is usually served with roti. “We wanted to serve something unique and people are bored of veg biryani. So we came up with this idea of khatte baigan ki biryani. Usually, biryani is served with salan or a regular raita. We wanted to give it a twist. People enjoy crispy lotus stem or honey crispy lotus stem in oriental cuisine. We wanted to infuse oriental cuisine with Indianness and that was how we got the idea of the kamal kakri raita,” he added.
After that, we tried their braised pork belly ramen, which we would definitely recommend. And more so for pork lovers. We come to know from the chef that the tenderness of the meat is because of the many hours of slow-cooking. “First, the belly pieces are soaked overnight in a prime solution of salt and water and then rubbed with spices like cumin, garlic, paprika, soya sauce and marinated. It is cooked for eight hours in 110 degree Celsius,” the chef said.
All in all, this is a place where one can stop by for a small bite and spend some quality time. Casual and easy with some finger-licking goodies. But not screaming to be different.