Most restaurants strive hard to have you back at least every 15 days. Frankly, a tall order in a city spoilt for choice. But shiro somehow manages this feat with ease
Most restaurants strive hard to have you back at least every 15 days. Frankly, a tall order in a city spoilt for choice. But shiro somehow manages this feat with ease
It is indeed a tough job. Perhaps, almost as tricky as the government trying to make Anna Hazare give up his fast. Behind the merry and unruffled faces that greet us graciously and guide us to our reserved seats are men/women who are paddling like hell underwater to make you break bread at their joint once, and again and yet again.
Managers and their wives to whom they take back home the problem, consultants who extract a fat fee, owners and their in-laws, chefs and their humble underlings wreck their brains to come up with something new to keep Delhi's moody janta engaged. That is exactly why someone creatively comes up with a tri-colour cake on Independence Day or a Dhoni or Sehwag cocktail to give you a heady high during the matches.
Scoring that brownie point
Unfortunately, not all schemes lead to scoring a brownie point with the Dilliwala. Many a 'flavour of the month' turns out to be menus with no fizz. Last weekend when I was informed of the 'taste of monsoon' at Shiro, the Pan Asian restro-bar in Chanakyapuri, the skeptic lurking inside me took over.
u00a0With the kind of rains we have had this year, confronting a monsoon menu felt like Lagaan's rain-parched Bhuvan trying to take on his mighty rulers. But I entered the dragon's liar and I must say I came out unscathed and even smiling. 
Walking down those stairs makes you feel you are in a bad Chinese martial art movie. But once you stepu00a0 inside the 6,500 square feet restro-bar, you feel you have been transported to a surreal Kurosawa dream for the first few crucial fleeting seconds, until your eyeballs get used to it all. If a restro-bar can do that, I think the designer is worth his salt.
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Keeping it simple, silly
The monsoon menu is short and simple which I have always felt is convenient at times, but this one I felt was a little too diminutive. I ordered Prawns fried with Kaffir lime leaves and Thai red chillies. If monsoon means something chatpata for you, go for it.
If you want to take the experience a notch up, try the Fish with chilli mustard sauce. The soft and basic fish gives it a regal taste and then the chilli mustard sauce adds flamboyance and leaves a mind-numbing experience in your mouth.
Vegetarians can go for the Mushroom and babycorn stir fried with Thai spices. The meaty button mushroom chunks deserve to be tried once, the Korean spiced fried rice (veg) however lacked 'heat'. I would have loved to taste Wasabi sauce if it was to celebrate monsoon but I was informed the dishes were selected after an extensive feedback from clients in Bangalore and Mumbai. Sadly, that's Delhi's situation sometimes.
Nevertheless, instead of taking pride in the uniformity that their Mumbai and other counterparts serve the same monsoon meal, may be they could have tweaked the Delhi recipes to go with the mood.u00a0 Certainly, our monsoon cravings here are a little different from that of Mumbai's.u00a0
So will I go to Shiro again? Yes, for the ambience, cost effective food and their dedication to form a bond with their customer, at least every 15 days or so. Try it, if you don't turn up at a place after 15 days you know they are slipping behind in the race.
At: Shiro, Hotel Samrat, Chanakyapuri
Timings: 12.30pm to 3.30pm (lunch) 7.30pm to 12.30am (dinner)
Ring: 26876310
Meal for two: Rs 4000 plus taxesu00a0
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