Restaurant review: Gastronomica takes its diners on a food voyage

Proud to be Indians, we begin with the Quinoa Behl. A prettily-plated tak-a-tak (once you taste it, you can find no other descriptor) of quinoa, puffed rice or churra, since we’re being colloquial, and all those vegetables so essential to a desi kitchen, the dish is bound together with a tamarind sauce that would give your favourite chaatwallah a run for his money, or paani, as the case may be.

The next to be sighted on our horizon is the Tandoori Quail. Baited with yoghurt and various spices, and captured in a clay tandoor, the bird bursts with masalas and is infused with a seemingly inherent smoky flavour; no crying fowl here.

The Seafood Popcorn is a marine medley, comprising lightly battered, cajun dusted morsels of fish, calamari and shellfish swimming amidst a berry tsaziki. Textured like a Pixar film, and awash in a  sea of flavours, Finding Nemo has never been tastier all due respect to our younger audiences.

Despite the law of diminishing marginal utility (in this case, the menu) we still find ourselves diving with great enthusiasm into a mutton curry, slow cooked down to a melting melange of meat pieces and spices. It is accompanied by naans crisper than good cricket commentary. Lost in a fugue of food by this time, the exact classification of the curry fails us. But then we are merely the Virgil to your Dante, dear reader. Visit Gastronomica and find out for yourself.

Meal for two: Rs 2,000 (including taxes, excluding alcohol)

Address: M-55, M Block Market, Greater Kailash I. Contact: 91 9971172933