A special summer menu at Guppy by ai introduces unique Hanami dishes with some sumptuous offers. Sharang Bhaskaran checks in
The bright, cheerful colours and youthful prints give Guppy by ai a young, non-serious look. In contrast, the food is a canny combination of what Japanese expats would like to see, plus dishes that would please the ladies-who-lunch set. In a way, Guppy represents the evolution of Japanese dining in our city. The ambience of the restaurant is quirky, vibrant and eye catching and has a live sushi counter and a bar overlooking a delightful courtyard.
Guppy by ai has an array of delicious Asian/Japanese food with an emphasis on freshness and quality of ingredients. At the helm of Guppy is award winning chef Vikram Khatri, who believes in freshness, hygiene and technique. His offerings at the restaurant are inspired by Japan with bold prominent flavours. You could taste the spicy, the tangy, and the exotic all in one bite. Most of the dishes, from the mains to the condiments are made from scratch in the Guppy kitchen.
Away from the sweltering heat of Delhi, the food journey started with a cold sweet corn and avocado soup, enriched with soy milk. The soup was served with salt and a slice of lemon, which added a distinct texture to the soup. It is truly refreshing.
The menu has been thoughtfully curated with soups and salads as special vegan dishes. The three-melon salad with Yubari, musk and watermelon looks simple yet the umeboshi plum dressing makes it truly delicious. Umeboshi are fermented pickles made from young, barely ripe ume, a sour Japanese fruit that’s a cross between an apricot and a plum.
For us, the highlight of the menu was the mango and avocado cream cheese roll. Made with Alphonso mango, cream cheese, tanuki tempura fritters and kimchi, the roll was unique and flavoursome. The roll also had a similar variant with tuna. Another king size roll was the Hanami thick sushi roll combined with black and white rice with sakura dembu, tuna, salmon, crab, yellowtail and cucumber.
In the cold noodles — the three different variants were cold hiyashi tantanmen (home-made ramen noodles, served chilled with sesame flavoured pork broth, spicy ground pork meat and fresh vegetables), Hiyashi tanuki cha saba (chilled green tea flavoured buckwheat noodles, topped with tanuki tempura fritters, wasabi, grated radish served with a soy flavoured dashi broth). The Hiyash tanuki cha saba was the only vegetarian option in the noodles menu. The third option was Hiyashi somen (Japanese, thin angel hair wheat noodles topped with crab sticks, prawns, seaweed, cucumber and melon, served chilled with a ginger flavoured dashi broth).
Summer is incomplete without fresh cocktails and this new summer menu spoils you with options of cocktails like Sendai (vodka, fresh kiwi, fresh melon and lime), Plum Blossom (sochu, umeshu fresh plum and lime) and Umetini (sake, umeshu and gold leaf) amongst others. There are also several varieties of Japanese sake for those enlightened about the liqueur and possessing a taste for it.
No matter how good your meal is but it surely is incomplete with a dessert. We ended the meal with an apple and prune pie. The best pies, they say, start with a flaky crust, which has fantastic flavour. Try this if you love your pies.