Little Italy goes for a makeover with cigar luncheons and art shows on its menuOnce a popular stopover, Little Italy at Defence Colony market, had turned nondescript, while other Italian eateries rolled out creamy pastas and installed wood-fire ovens. Now the restaurant has gone in for a makeover and is ready to retrace its steps and climb back on the city’s food map. On the cards is a swanky new menu to begin the new year but till then, soak in the new ambience.The doors now open into plush interiors resembling a classic Mediterranean villa. “We have re-branded the restaurant as Little Italy Villa Falconieri where Villa Falconieri is exclusive private dining and Little Italy is a fashion café,” says owner Manjeet Bullar. Decked in pale orange tones and a sprinkling of gold with fancy chandeliers and glass lamps hanging from the ceiling, the restaurant also plans to host fashion and art shows and cigar luncheons, and screen foreign films on Wednesdays. The Venice-based restaurant chain specialising in vegetarian food arrived in Delhi in early 2006 and quickly introduced salmon and meats with separate kitchens for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Now owned by Bullar, you can try sample platters of cheese and pair it with French wines at the restaurant. For starters, you can order a portion of warm chicken slices basted with butter and rosemary or sheets of lamb fillet with Parmesan shavings. If a heady seafood meal is what you are looking for, then a piquant fish broth should make a good beginning while fish florentine (Rs 375) with spinach cream can be the entrée to go for.We recall a visit to Little Italy a year ago when our portion of grilled sole fillet turned out to be a smelly block of shallow fried fish — that is thankfully not one of the surprises that await you here anymore. Among pastas, chicken and mushroom in red wine sauce (Rs 350) is well-done and so is penne with bacon and onion rings. There is also an offering of grilled sole fish in white wine cream (Rs 375), but some memories die hard. So we shift our focus to desserts, which are strongly recommended. Go beyond tiramisu and January onwards you can dig into a spongy Italian cake with berries or mini savarin soaked in rum.Meal for Two: Rs 2,000Contact: 41554991Location: 28A, Defence Colony Market
