Pages and Pancakes

A modern Australian restaurant is the latest addition to Shahpur Jat.

Every reader has this fantasy of a perfectly constructed library,designed to their particular whim. Ivy & Bean,a newly opened modern Australian restaurant and honesty library,could be a revered refuge till yours is built. Here you can pick up a book,and even take it home with you,as long as you replace it with one of your own.

The restaurant itself is accessed through a wooden door past a flight of stairs,which leads you into a roomy space,split into outdoor and indoor seating areas,with library shelves located on the terrace. The menu has influences as far flung as France,Greece,Southeast Asia and,of course,Britain. This translates into cheese and potato pancakes,seafood,soups,oriental salads,sandwiches,and the more trite pizzas and pastas,apart from a range of other dishes. There is also an all-day breakfast menu with egg preparations ranging from plain old scrambled to Green Eggs and Ham,a la Dr Seuss as well as bagels,pancakes and yoghurt with topping options.

Unfortunately at the time of our visit,our luck seems to be out along with half the menu. Our eager-to-please waiter is forced to shuffle back and forth from the table and the kitchen to check for the availability of dishes. We finally settle on our starters,a Trio of Dips with Warm Pita Bread and Jasmine Scented Prawns with Cilantro Garlic Coulis. The former comprising toasted triangles of pita bread scattered across a platter laden with hummus,baba ghanoush and muhammara. The muhammara is so fresh that its akin to biting into a raw red pepper,an experience everyone should have at least once into their lives. The prawns are accompanied by a spicy bean sprout salad,which we actually enjoy. The prawns are succulent and the flavour of jasmine is as fleeting as the scent of raat ki rani on a drive past a park.

Our mains are Pickled Chicken Burger with Pate and Spicy Homemade Bbq Sauce and Mediterranean Lamb Stuffed Peppers. The burger comes with fries fried to a t and more bean sprout salad. The combination of the chicken patty and the pate make the burger a tad too fowl-flavoured,a condition much alleviated by the presence of the piquant yet sweet BBQ sauce. The Greek-inspired stuffed peppers dominate this course,comprising a rambunctious medley of lamb and tomato stuffed into yellow and red peppers,roasted and gratinated. The meat is stronger than a phalanx of hoplites with a flavour highly reminiscent of a smoky moussaka. Dessert is almost over,the only representative being a decrepit,gelatinous Blueberry Cheesecake which had seen better days . Well have to return for another sampling; book in advance of course.

Meal for two: Rs 1,700 (including taxes)

Address: 119,Sishan House,Shahpur Jat

contact: 30146033 ext:439

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