A newly opened bistro at Cyber Hub offers liquor at reasonable rates with good quality food, says Iknoor Kaur
It’s often that our relatives visiting from abroad crib about the unavailability of “good quality” wines in India. If available, they are so expensive that one cannot afford them. However, this may be slowly becoming a matter of the past. Though we still don’t find fine wine at our roadside shops, restaurants are opening up to more variety at cheaper rates. Thus, comes in the newly-opened wine bistro at Cyber Hub, Gurgaon — The Wine Company. The name itself gives you an impression of what the place is like.
A woody scent hits you as you enter the vintage-looking restaurant and the first look reveals over 140 varieties of wine. “Australian, Chilean, Argentinean, French, Spanish, German, Californian and Indian wines are hosted here,” shared sommelier Mukesh Kumar. The wine shop, as it is called, also has a price chart for customers while wine bottles are laid over shelves, barrels and in baskets. Surprisingly, the wine is sold at reasonable rates. “We sell our wine at wholesale prices so that people begin to adapt the wine culture. There is no point hiking the prices of wine at a bistro that runs on its sale. The normal rate of our premium imported wine by the glass is Rs295 and our most expensive wine is French, Chateau Palmer, which is sold for Rs66,000 per bottle,” he added.
Opened only two months ago, the bistro has picked up massively. Even on a weekday, it was packed with people. The interiors of the place are rustic. According to the general manager Jitendra Dutt, the idea is to make people enjoy wine in its true form. “That is why our cuisine is also designed to suit the wine palate. We have European and continental mix in our menu along with a few regional tastes of India. Such cuisines make you relax with wine,” he said and executive chef Jit Ghosh added, “Most of our food is cooked in wine. All white wines go well with chicken, freshwater fish and seafood, while all red wines go well with beef, lamb and pork. It adds a unique flavour to the dish.”
One of the restaurant’s patent dishes is the karari roti, shared Ghosh who joined the restaurant only a week ago and has changed the menu in favour of the joint. “Karari roti is a bread made out of fine flour, layered with butter and sprayed with Indian spices. We have a separate machine to make it, too,” he shared.
The bistro also serves sangrias in red and white wine which compliment the food well. We started with red wine sangria and a platter of appetisers. The chicken olive tapenade was juicy with a subtle hint of wine. “This is prepared with sangiovese (wine), olives, parmesan and garlic,” said Ghosh. The char-grilled prawns were served on skewers and melted in our mouth. They were cooked to perfection and retained the softness too. An interesting dish was chicken maple soy. “It is cooked with maple syrup, spices and soy,” explained the chef. Thus, it tasted sweet and spicy at the same time. The varied flavours teased the palate perfectly.
The main course dishes served to us were the ones that are not yet in the menu. “We would be changing the entire menu in a week and these are a few dishes that would be on it,” said Ghosh. The pan seared tenderloin was not very tender, but emanated mixed flavours that were lovely. “The difference in this tenderloin preparation is that it is cooked with blue cheese. That makes it more flavoursome and tantilising,” he added.
The sea salt rubbed chicken was a little low on flavour but created a sense of neutrality. However, the char-grilled salmon was a perfect rendition of natural and added flavour.
The dessert closed the meal well. The Philadelphia cheesecake was a surprise. The cheese was rich, but a little too heavy for someone who just ate two courses of meat. However, the whiskey mousse cake was light and chocolaty.
Overall, The Wine Company is perfect for wine lovers since it offers good food and a large variety of wines. The sangrias are a definite plus point and we’d suggest you try at least a glass, if that’s what you can stop at.