Bottles and Barrels, yet another microbrewery in Gurgaon, is selling its food pretty aggressively. By Jigyasu Joshi
Opened in the mostly empty Star Mall in Gurgaon’s Sector 30, Bottles and Barrels unlike other microbreweries in the vicinity, pays much heed to its food or so it seems. The décor tells the history of beer since it was brewed some 7,000 years ago. The place also doubles up as a sports bar with pool and foosball table and live sports screening. The attached terrace gives a good view of the millennium city’s skyline.
We sampled the four in-house brews namely, Pilsner lager, jaggery ale, Belgian wheat and American bitter ale. The malty jaggery ale turned out to be a complete treat for beer thirsty people. The alcohol content in this one was comparatively high from the other three but went well with bar staples. Moving over to the food, the menu was large and had a lot to offer in North Indian, Asian and Italian. For the starters, we were served the Chelo lamb kebab, degi mirch ka paneer tikka, cheesee baby potatoes and phyllo artichoke. The Iranian lamb was well marinated and gave out the succulence in each bite. The rice crust complimented the tender kebab.
The cheesee baby potatoes were however plain boiled baby potatoes with cheese filling and can be ignored for the better ones. The artichoke was again a hit from the menu. The phyllo tart shells were very soft and melted in the mouth. They came in variety of toppings like veggies, sour cream and cheese.
From the main course we went for their house special, B&B dal makhani, laal maas and the Greek pizza. The dal was cooked over a period of 12 hours which gave a cream like texture to it. The not very thick, smooth dal, was near perfection. The laal maas was the star dish. The pieces of lamb were well-marinated in the flavours of spices. However, the authentic dish from Rajasthan is very spicy, here it was cooked in moderate spices. But they are more than willing to serve you the spicier version if need be. The pizza was just fine. The thin crust was likeable enough.
After having a satisfying-to-core feel, we did miss the desserts at the end as the microbrewery was unavailable with desserts at the time. In a nutshell, the microbrewery crafts some of the good beers we tasted till date, the staff was amicable. The ambience alluring.