This year will see a lot of restaurants experimenting with Indian food and trying out fusion dishes. The trend would be to present Indian food in a cool way so that youngsters could also relate to our regional cuisines. Starting the year on a similar note is Amandeep Singh who has come up with a restaurant called Desi Roots at Ras Villas Mall in Saket, New Delhi.
I must say, it’s a cool Indian bistro which serves food without compromising on the core desi flavours. Even the interiors are done smartly with a corner displaying Champak and Tinkles which can easily take you back to your childhood. The whole feel of the place is quite positive with vibrant colours all around.
Being a cold day, I asked for a soup to start with, which for a change, was not served in a bowl but interestingly in a small customised kullad. Palak shorba was the soup of the day and was served piping hot which helped to cure my cold. The chef followed it up with chicken tikkas which were marinated in chipotle and served on a stainless steel small iron with smoke coming out of its base. I liked the idea of smoking it on the table which got the aroma of desi ghee absorbed to the core of the tikkas.
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Biryani croquettes with salan aioli was a very thoughtful dish. The croquettes were crisp but lacked flavours of a biryani. The accompanying salan aioli looked beautiful on the platter. But the dish which stood out was the galawati kabab which was presented in the form of a pate in a closed jar. Galawati kababs have more or less a very pasty texture. So to serve them actually in a paste form was not a bad idea.
Main courses at Desi Roots are served as individual platters with customized plating for every dish. Like the Ambala Cantt mutton curry was served on a wooden truck in a desi mug. Nehari a la Oudh was also served in a glass jar on a mini truck with a kulcha. The good part about the nihari was that it tasted very traditional and the mutton curry had a very typical Ambala flavour. All said and done, the whole experience at Desi Roots was good. Every dish had a story of its own.
In desserts, boondi brownie and bachpan platter are must try dishes.
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Meal for two
Rs 1200 plus taxes