Moonlit romance

A rooftop restaurant,open air,located right next to a swimming pool. Sure,when it starts to rain,it must cause a little more than slight inconvenience.

A rooftop restaurant,open air,located right next to a swimming pool. Sure,when it starts to rain,it must cause a little more than slight inconvenience. But when its not,it makes for a brilliant evening. Best visited in the evening or at night,it is a treat to see the moon rise in the horizon: being about 10 storeys up,one gets an uninterrupted view of the city,a very romantic setting. And being so high up,a constant cool breeze ruffles your hair,truly a natural air-conditioner. This is Lava,the restaurant at Hotel Parc Estique,Viman Nagar.

This eatery has done a little experimentation,which seems to have been largely successful. For example,much of the cooking done here is live the patrons are welcome to stroll over and watch the chefs whip up a delicious dish,the act of preparation almost as satisfying as the meal itself. We take our seats: having arrived early,we can choose our table,and we take one right next to the swimming pool. The maître d’hôtel takes our order,and then we walk to the chef’s counter,where we see them firing up their stoves,rolling up their sleeves,getting ready to start cooking.

The starters and the aperitifs arrive together. The Bloody Mary is excellent just the right quantities of tomato juice,Worcestershire sauce and tabasco,but the long island iced tea,though tasty,fails to pack a punch. First,the vegetarian appetisers arrive. The restaurant speciality,the karara kabab,promises a lot a vegetarian kebab,it has a coating of maida and sesame seeds,and a filling of mozzarella. Unfortunately,it fails to deliver: the combination works,but not to the levels that it had been built up to. The Tandoori Aloo Parmesan,which came with a coating of cheese,was a little too dry for the palate. However,what was a hit were the tandoori paneer,which used deliciously soft cottage cheese,almost sweating milk,and the Stuffed Mushroom,which basically consisted of button mushrooms stuffed with molten cheese. Truly spectacular!

Next come the non-veg snacks. The Raunak Sheek,a mutton kabab,was merely okay,as was the Kesari Jheenga,a sort of saffron-flavoured,deep-fried prawn. The Kumbh Malai Pasanda was quite excellent,a chicken tikka which left us smacking our lips. But the pièce de résistance was the Kerala salmon shrimp cake. Shaped like shami kababs,these little bundles of taste and joy literally melted in the mouth,leaving the eater more than appeased.

The main course was,in contrast,merely good. The Roghan Josh had soft,boneless chunks of mutton,and the palak and broccoli paneer was interesting combination of western and Indian tastes. What stood out was the dal fry,but apart from that,the main course was good without being extraordinary. For dessert,we got a Green Tea Cheesecake,which was perhaps the only blotch on a otherwise perfect evening: the cheesecake base was salty,and the green tea flavour had a bitter aftertaste.

The verdict: go in for the restaurant’s ambience,go in for the entrées,and even the main course is quite satisfactory. But be warned! Be extremely cautious while ordering the confectionery.

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