Taking a much needed break from the artificial splendour of an indoor restaurant to experience lavishly laid food at ‘Skylit’, a terrace restaurant at Citrus Hotel, Gurgaon, was a nice change. Skylit is a 32-cover grill restaurant with a spectacular view of the well lit Gurgaon. An added benefit is that the terrace is air-conditioned and has two live open kitchens. Food is served from the buffet and offers 16 variants of unlimited starters and four main course options along with soup, salad and desserts.
I made sure that I tried each delicacy and started with the lighter vegetarian preparations. The nuggets, served with a mayo mint dip were crunchy and soft inside. Marwari aloo and achari paneer tikka both were well spiced and tasty. Dal kabab and vegetarian seekh were disappointing and dry. This is a common problem with veg. kababs, faced by most chefs.
Skylit being a grill specialty restaurant, I then eagerly awaited my non-vegetarian starters. Mutton chapli, a delicacy from the neighbouring country, was delicious, proving to be one of the better chaplis available in Delhi NCR. The mutton was perfectly minced, with subtle flavours of traditional spices. I could even compare them to Rampur’s kacche keeme ke kabab. While the grilled chicken in Hunter sauce was a unique preparation, with the sauce giving the chicken a nice flavour, the grilled fish in BBQ sauce was very bland and needed a definite tweak. The Chef also made a really deliciousprawn dish which he finished in the tandoor, with typical Punjabi style masalas. The only disappointment was the pizza.
Both the vegetarian as well as the non-vegetarian variant were prepared for the sake of putting them on the menu. The pizza base was chewy and hardly had any topping. After them, I moved to the main course. Nizami veggies and mutton qorma went well with the lacha parantha but the meat of the curry was slightly undercooked. The biryani, made in Sindhi style, was decent but didn’t compare with some of the better ones available in the city. The Kashmiri pulao, also on the list, was tempting, nicely dressed with cashews, almonds and pistachios. Though one feels that a bit more saffron would have given the pulao a nice aroma. I signed off with some sweet phirni and a nice fresh pineapple pastry.
Buffet is priced at Rs.650 per person