• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Neeta Lal

At Threesixty Degrees, the chefs go the whole hog to tickle taste buds and even customise the guest's order.

It's been forty-five minutes and we're still hunched over the voluminous, multi-sheaved menu card trying to order dinner. Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Thai, Australian, Greek, Norwegian, German... the mind-boggling choice has us in a soup. Meanwhile, our hostess has come and gone repeatedly to clinch our long incubating order. Smiling politely now, making polite conversation then, filling our goblets with sparkling aqua, she's hoping to bag the elusive order but alas! The interminable list of `world cuisine' offerings at Threesixty Degrees, which debuted recently at The Oberoi, New Delhi, has only added to our difficulty.

Making our task a tad tougher is the tantalising aroma wafting from across the restaurant's four kitchens. A Yakitori grill, where one can spot the chef lovingly arrange motley meats onto miniature skewers; the wood-fired oven for Mediterranean fare where pizzas threaded through metallic bars are bobbing inside a cavernous shell; the tandoor section has a toqu-ed chef squirting lemon over plump, golden birds while the well-thronged sushi station is plying people — perched atop stools — with freshly rolled sushi and sashimi. The atmospherics here is clearly supper theatre at its entertaining best.

Given the above exhaustive — and exhausting, too — choices, we summon the hostess to bail us out. Here's what she conjured for us — Prawn Tempura, Caesar salad with chicken tikka and tandoori prawns, Malai Jhinga (Kerala prawns in cream and cheese), Batter Fried Bay of Bengal Bekti, Dum Biryani and a yakitori platter.

The tempura soared with its execution — pink and crisp on the outside, soft inside, delicious all over. The Malai Jhinga, however, with its frugal gravy was nothing to write home about. The bekti scored full marks for its freshness. In fact had it been a wee more fresh, it would have slithered off our plates. Thankfully nothing quite so dramatic transpired and we soberly worked our way through the fish.

But the piece de resistance was the Yakitori assembly. Nine skewers, all dramatically presented on a splendorous platter — shitake with minced chicken, pork belly with miso, Atlantic scallops, chicken with leeks, lamb chops with black pepper... Scrumptious!

In other words, once you've tided over the small matter of ordering your food, there's little to cavil about at this eatery. It radiates with positive energy, packed as it was even on a working day with the Capital's who's who. Within the space of under three hours, for instance, we spotted a well-known fashion designer, a renowned politician's son, a social diva and a celebrity editor. Not bad going, you'd admit, for an outfit that's just a few weeks' old. However, though such a rich congregation makes for great atmospherics — and super economics for the hotel — it also means that this is not quite the venue for a quiet, romantic dinner. The cosier Travertino next door for that, perhaps?

Back to the food at Threesixty Degrees, which reflects the spirit of the restaurant — interesting and international. The accent is on three cuisines that are currently the rage on the global culinary landscape — Mediterranean, Indian and Japanese with an underpinning of authenticity in terms of flavour, ingredients and method of preparation. This explains the restaurant's emphasis on interactive kitchens where chefs will go the whole hog to tickle taste buds and even customise your dish.

The eatery's décor is refreshingly contemporary. A dark timber flooring, offset by views of well-clipped gardens and the interactive kitchens. Plus a dramatic sculptural art installation suspended just above the central seating all of which adds to the wholesomeness of the dining experience here.

The restaurant's walk-in wine bar, Enoteca, is noteworthy not only for its repertoire (some 1,200 classical and new-world wines), but also for its tasting table where you can even sniff and taste your spirit before ordering it. Certainly a consideration in food-and-liquor vibrant Delhi, where competition in the food business is so intense now that unless you think out of the box and offer superb food, you'll be chewed up by competition.

Meanwhile, the sweet tooth is begging for attention. Our hostess gets us another set of menu cards. We refuse to have anything to do with the restaurant's literature this time lest we get ensnared — yet again — into the time-consuming exercise of choosing our food. So promptly a cherry tiramisu, strawberry kulfi and fruit salad with ice-cream materialise before for us. The tiramisu looks bewitching, entombed as it is in a pretty chocolate wrapping that unfurls gradually as one spoons it up. The strawberry kulfi is delicious, the fruit salad is garden fresh even though passable. Semi-comatosed by much good food, we trundle towards the car park. Tomorrow, the gym.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
You've got to listen to this

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line