Konnichiwa Mumbai

There is a certain adrenaline and momentum that feeds the concept of a pop-up restaurant. A relatively new notion, the pop-up restaurant gives gastronomical artists a stage to tease their audience and have them wanting more just as they disappear again.

Reputable in its home city of Delhi, the Olive Bar and Restaurant-owned Guppy By Ai, which makes Mumbai its home for the next six months, serves Japanese fusion cuisine. Vikram Khatri, the award-winning chef, has designed the pop-up menu which offers a smaller choice of dishes from the original Delhi selection and has disappointingly omitted the much-hyped Gyoza platters. The cocktails and mocktails must be tried just for the allusive names they’ve been given.

The acidic yellow Gari Twist was a winner with its sugar-rimmed glass and an oasis of tang hypnotically tantalising on the palate. At the other end of the spectrum, the Amondo Mystery was nostalgic in that it evoked childhood days when your mother would force medicines down your sore throat. Feeling like an overripe berry with the whistlestop cocktail session, we moved on to the Tenderloin Tataki, a ripe pinkness folded over a mass of leeks julienne and mesclun greens, with a refreshing soy-ponzu dressing. You hardly have to chew the tender meat as it disintegrates right on the tongue.

Delving into an artfully arranged pile of Wok Tossed Exotic Teppan Vegetables, we emerged on the other side seemingly missing the “exotic” aspect. The smokiness from the wok-toss action masked any hints of sesame soy and the delicate flavours of bamboo shoot and asparagus. Ambience can be a compensating entity, and so just basking in its energy made up for some of these “misses”.

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