Why Plum by Bent Chair - Lutyens is Delhi in a nutshell

At this restuarant, everything’s over the top, and you can walk in and buy it all, except the real estate

A spread of the food at Plum by Bent Chair Lutyens

Concept stores are having a moment. As are immersive experiences, collaborations, online furniture shopping, and ‘Asian’ cuisine. In a mash-up (mish-mash) of all of these is Plum by Bent Chair Lutyens, where Bent Chair is a furniture company by daughter-father duo Natasha and Neeraj Jain that retails online, and at similar concept stores, in Mumbai, and Delhi’s Aerocity.

Plum brings in the food by Priyank Sukhija, Delhi’s very successful mass-market restaurateur (Lord of the Drinks, Lazeez Affaire). Here’s how the experience works: you walk in to art and statement pieces (about 80 pieces of furniture and 400 home décor bits), order (Pan-Asian) food which appears in mismatched crockery, and then leaf through the menu again, to see if you’d like to shop anything in the retail-restaurant space. You can tick off the animal-print upholstered, round-backed chair immediately; or the gold lip-shaped napkin holder.

The interiors at Plum by Bent Chair Lutyens

The vibe: A little overpowering, even dark. This is your space if you can multitask and order food, while taking in plum-hued walls, with faux plants cascading down from brass stands on the ceiling, poly-resin horses eerily cut in half, their heads on one wall and body and tails on another. “Quirky” is how it’s described on the menu. You’ll either want to stay a long time and look at every OTT chair and table, or get out — now.

Do try: Like most of Sukhija’s places, this is not gourmet food, but the 162-dish menu is decent enough and you’ll find something among the 13 divisions (soups and salads, baos, burgers and so on). We had the Pork Rib With Black Rice (all sticky and earthy with flavour) and the Fermented Garlic Oil Chicken With Sticky Rice and Edamame, reasonably good. The Black Pepper Chicken, Prawn Tempura, Rock Shrimp all went well with the drinks (I tried the Elderflower and Blueberry Spritzer, which I’d do again). Also try the Nutella sushi, gimmicky but effective, with a banana centre, rice coloured green around, and the choco-hazelnut goo all over.

Nutella Sushi Uramaki

Skip: The healthy stuff. You’re sitting in what you’d picture as a gangster’s paradise — you really don’t want Steamed Prawns.

Go with: Someone who is not easily overwhelmed by an onslaught of colour and size. Avoid taking kids, because there’s not much space between tables.

Space bar: 3,000 sq ft, 80 covers

How much? ₹ 2,000 for two (sans alcohol)

Reach: No. 22, Janpath, opposite Le Meridian (above the Lexus showroom); there’s valet parking and sparse public transport