Unplugged Courtyard could very well have been one of those old courtyard tales if not for its high points, music and the huge space. By Devi Singh
After being greeted by that particular called-for tree, standing stoic and tall in the middle of the courtyard, you will notice how spacious the entire place is. They are big on space, we have to agree. We check out the terrace and does it get any bigger than this especially in a place like Connaught PlaceIJ Riding high on its open spaces, UC can build a niche of its own in al fresco. The inner bar is there to save the place from rainy days and quite literally at that.
The godly tree covers the entire area, almost all the tables and people, providing shade in the day time. But thinking of Delhi heat there won’t be many takers for outside tables and the tree tries to bring the temperature a notch down or so they claim. Talking about the nightly hours the same indispensable tree is adorned with fairy lights making it the cynosure of the place. And of course, there is the performance stage, had to be, for those clamorous nights. Surprisingly they also have wood fire pizzas filling the courtyard air with the certain inviting whiff. And a cute popcorn kiosk for whatever it’s worth. Comes handy any which way. The inside seating is the usual wood and leather with some spectacles thrown in which manage to hold the attention for some time. But people prefer sitting outside than inside and we know why. It’s to avoid the jarring music, what elseIJ Moving on the menu is continental and north Indian and a mix of both for the most part. We start with peanut butter cocktail which should have tasted like toffee but rather reminded us of coffee, nonetheless a nice attempt. Paneer croquettes which were very sweet — a jazzed up version of malai kofta served with pineapple and basil relish which acted as a saviour for the dish — refreshing indeed.
Chilli paneer ghosla which was nothing but a mesh created out of a mash with a slice of cheese over it. Ahem! As heart melting as it looked it couldn’t melt our heart when it came to the taste. There was nothing exciting about the small cubes of paneer and green bell peppers with hot and sour spices. Next came the burritos — these darlings came stuffed with basic bean stuffing, believe us you, that was the most basic stuffing we ever had, hands down.
Oh they also happen to have Braai — the South African import of grill. We decided to get some garden veggies grilled or should we say braai’d for usIJ The next thing we know is we were heading for some water as veggies were way too briny and brackish. Whatever happened to the grilled old veggies! Returning dispirited from South Africa we decided to taste some of Spain from the menu. We went for Paella; this time they left us dumbstruck with their nebulous concept of paella which was alarmingly identical to risotto. It’s not about the use of arborio instead of bomba, the paella even looked and tasted like risotto. And no tang whatsoever. To add the drama in between they tried to entertain us with their own molecular theatrics which is so commonplace that it looks all so hogwash. From the dessert section they brought us gur rabdi and aam ras — both faring average on our sweet tooth scale. Even the presentation wasn’t something to write about.