By Sourish Bhattacharyya
When Singh had said in an interview with me last August that he was going to launch 20 new restaurants by 2014-end, I half-believed him. With Olive Bistro opening after Guppy By Ai, Soda Bottle Openerwala and Monkey Bar, I don't need more convincing. Adding to my faith in Singh's ability to pull off this dasavatara act is the new winter menu unveiled at Olive Kitchen & Bar, Mehrauli, by Sujan Sarkar, who just got married after his return to his mother country following a successful stint in London. If the dishes that Sarkar has lined up for the winter menu taste as good as the pictures, I can assure you we have a new star in our city and he's going to have us eating out of his hand.
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| This quirky chandelier promises to be a conversation point at Olive Bistro, DLF Cyber Hub, Gurgaon |
OUR Republic has just celebrated its 65th
birthday and tomorrow is a working day. For most of us, it will be just another
day; for AD Singh, it will be a day of managing one more restaurant.
Olive Bistro has opened at DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon, right on top of Soda Water Openerwala. Looking very much like a stately restaurant from the 1920s, it has a sprawling balcony protected from the elements by a foldable umbrella of awnings. Just right for this season, now that the sun seems to have made a comeback. I am also told that its USPs are going to be a first-of-its-kind pizza menu and never-before-seen granary breads, which are made with brown flour and malted wheat grains, added for their distinctive nutty flavour. And the picture of Olive Bistro's unusual chandelier accompanying this blog post, which I owe to a Facebook post by Singh's Guppy by Ai business partner, Rohit Grover, proves that like all AD Singh restaurants, its design will have a quirky theme that promises to become a conversation point.
When Singh had said in an interview with me last August that he was going to launch 20 new restaurants by 2014-end, I half-believed him. With Olive Bistro opening after Guppy By Ai, Soda Bottle Openerwala and Monkey Bar, I don't need more convincing. Adding to my faith in Singh's ability to pull off this dasavatara act is the new winter menu unveiled at Olive Kitchen & Bar, Mehrauli, by Sujan Sarkar, who just got married after his return to his mother country following a successful stint in London. If the dishes that Sarkar has lined up for the winter menu taste as good as the pictures, I can assure you we have a new star in our city and he's going to have us eating out of his hand. |
| Sujan Sarkar's wood oven-roasted baby pumpkins with green beans (above) and pear tarte tatin (top) are some of the picture-perfect dishes that the newly-wed chef has put on Olive Bar & Kitchen, Mehrauli's new winter menu |
At the rate at which independent restaurateurs such as AD Singh and creative chefs like Sujan Sarkar are raising the bar for excellence, I don't see five-star hotels, the old bastions of fine dining, continuing to be relevant to the universe of Delhi-NCR's foodies. That's bad news for an industry already struggling under the twin loads of debt and mounting operating costs. They have three options: reinvent (a distant possibility because of their bureaucratic management structures), re-engage (maybe they can retrieve their dwindling F&B market by selling their restaurant spaces to inventive chefs and visionary entrepreneurs), or perish.
Keep reading to check out my reviews of Olive Bistro and Sujan Sarkar's winter menu. I have had my dinner and yet, I can hear the rumblings in my stomach.
When Singh had said in an interview
with me last August that he was going to launch 20 new restaurants by 2014-end,
I half-believed him. With Olive Bistro opening after Guppy By Ai, Soda Bottle Openerwala and
Monkey Bar, I don't need more convincing. Adding to my faith in Singh's ability
to pull off this dasavatara act is
the new winter menu unveiled at Olive Kitchen & Bar, Mehrauli, by Sujan
Sarkar, who just got married after his return to his mother country following a
successful stint in London. If the dishes that Sarkar has lined up for the
winter menu taste as good as the pictures, I can assure you we have a new star
in our city and he's going to have us eating out of his hand.
At the rate at which independent restaurateurs
such as AD Singh and creative chefs like Sujan Sarkar are raising the bar for excellence,
I don't see five-star hotels, the old bastions of fine dining, continuing to be
relevant to the universe of Delhi-NCR's foodies. That's bad news for an
industry already struggling under the twin loads of debt and mounting operating
costs. They have three options: reinvent (a distant possibility because of
their bureaucratic management structures), re-engage (maybe they can retrieve their
dwindling F&B market by selling their restaurant spaces to inventive chefs
and visionary entrepreneurs), or perish. Keep reading to check out my reviews
of Olive Bistro and Sujan Sarkar's winter menu. I have had my dinner and yet, I
can hear the rumblings in my stomach.
To read about Sujan Sarkar, copy this link:
http://indianrestaurantspy.blogspot.in/2013/11/three-new-pedigreed-chefs-land-in-delhi.html
To read about AD Singh's business expansion plans, copy this link:
http://indianrestaurantspy.blogspot.in/2013/08/ad-singh-goes-lean-to-roll-out-20-new.html
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