Talk about a neighbourhood ritzy Italian kitchen and you get Bella Cucina, soon to join your list of repeats. By Devi Singh
Translating to ‘beautiful kitchen’ in Italian, the place sure is a treat to eyes as you manage to somehow dodge through the Gurugram traffic and make it to le Meridien just to throw your worries away to the wind and enjoy a relaxed meal. Though not promising the warmth of a trattoria but the true opulence and a splendid service, this place would sure win your heart. The walls are adorned with photographs and art work from the 60s to the present, reminiscent of the popular Italian culture holding out a strong imagery. Be it the custom-built Molteni kitchen or the large Bordeaux glasses or their very own take on molecular gastronomy every sphere, inch and element of the space is done beautifully ringing the promise of the moniker true.
The young chef walks us through his workspace dropping hints at the beautiful platters we were going to witness soon and right he was. As we take delight in the atmospheric beauty we detect and catch an earthy, known whiff of mushrooms and there we have it on our table, our broth for the evening. The warm, creamy cappuccino of mushroom coupled with porcini brioche. The brioche had an unmistakable crumbly bite to it with strong aroma and flavour of porcini coming out well. The cappuccino, however, with its veloute like consistency was as average as it can get. Our next warm delight is the good old minestrone which turned out to be a tad runny with parmesan and pesto swimming separately. We just prefer our minestrone thick and rich.
The menu doesn’t run into pages but fulfills all your whims and fancies expected from an Italian eat house. Their wine list is what is bound to make you smile from corner to corner though, it’s more than comprehensive, you would find probably more labels here than any other place in the vicinity. Moving on we decide on the salad and settle for the compressed beetroot and baby arugula topped with nutty asparagus and a spray of goat cheese snow. This one made a very pretty picture indeed and will keep you hooked to your Instagram. The next salad to hit our table is smoked chicken done up with avocado mousse and cucumber gel. Refreshing to the core though it had smoky undertones to it. We dig into wild mushroom arancini next paired up with burnt garlic aioli. This was as good as they come. For the mains we were served prawn ravioli, sumptuous looking treat with all its sheen in the right place but again fell on its head where it mattered the most as the concasse lacked the earthy piquancy. The greener version of the same filled with spinach and nuts turned out to be a better variant.
Next came, pumpkin and goat cheese risotto, with pine nuts strewn across rounding the whole thing into a nutty bite. The cannelloni stuffed generously with roasted veggies and ricotta didn’t surprise us with any novelty. The Chilean sea bass came with garlic patato flan, broccoli puree, and coriander vanilla sauce; this piqued our interest a little as the flan was done superbly complimenting well with a rather interesting relish.
Even with all the food we sampled we still had to keep some appetite for the afters. What is a hearty meal without the sweet nothings after allIJ The pretty little Petit Antoine done in cherry sphere and chocolate soil was as good as it looked. We wondered who would want to spoil its beauty by digging into itIJ It looked picture perfect. Their Creme brulee came in three variants: coffee vanila and orange. Our pick coffee of course. Bella Cucina plays with your ersatz emotions in a very subtle manner nudging you for better promises.