Smoked duck and fillet mignon? On The Rock's newly expanded menu 'meats' all of our needs

We say well done to the five meat option, although we choose ours medium rare...
Grilled jumbo prawns, pan-roasted chicken & lamb bourguignon
Grilled jumbo prawns, pan-roasted chicken & lamb bourguignon

There are a host of reasons why I’m partial to On The Rocks. Most of which involve blood, sweat and tears. Blood from a perfectly rare cut of meat. Sweat from the brood of chefs who slave over getting that supreme sear (in the kitchen and not on the plate, mind you). And the tears, you ask? Tears of unabated joy when I find that my meat is grilled rare without having to cajole the chef into it. So when I heard that the Crowne Plaza Adyar Park’s most refined restaurant was adding an ‘On the plate’ experience in addition to their grill-your-own-meat lava stone trademark, I was ever-so-slightly concerned. In diversifying, which is what most fusion restaurants are calling it when they expand their menu, I wondered if that attention to the rareness of the meat would somehow diminish. Lose that shade of pink. I shuddered.

Turns out, I needn’t have worried. In moving the grilling away from our table and into his well-staffed kitchen, Executive Chef Deva Kumar has ensured that not even by some quirk of fate will any meat leaving his kitchen be, god forbid, over-cooked (If you’re a lover of well-done steaks, then that’s what we call your brand of food.) “That’s just not how you eat meat,” he tells me, not even mentioning the ‘W’ word. “When it’s cooked so much there’s just no natural flavour left,” he adds firmly, “Not from my kitchen. Somewhere between medium-rare and well done is as far as I will go.” I nod vigorously. Clearly we are kindred spirits when it comes to cooking steaks. 

<em>Pomo Cino</em>
Pomo Cino

Armed with that conviction, I called for the five meat course option. There’s also a three meat option, but I am Indian, after all. We start off rather sagely on a well-grilled medallion of chicken — marinated with a host of spices and rubs that the chef has been toying with around in his kitchen for three-odd months. There’s a hint of rosemary, there’s a splash of thyme, all is well. 

While I was expectantly waiting for the Tiger Prawn and the Fillet Mignon, the one thing that completely blew me away was the Smoked Duck. Served surreptitiously, it sat on my plate like a hunk of dry meat until I sliced into it. My rather rubbery past experiences with duck vanished in a trace. Crisp on the outside and perfectly tender within, it was the one meat that didn’t need to be dipped in the bevy of sauces on offer. And that’s saying something, because the home-brewed sauces and dips were pretty stand out themselves.

<em>Seared scallops with  pumpkin purée </em>
Seared scallops with  pumpkin purée 

“We went through a whole lot of food trials to get something as simple as a BBQ sauce right. A lot of our regulars, expats mostly, love classic European flavours, so we had to hit that balance — of coming up with something new while staying classic,” explains the chef, as I slathered the piece of dryish Lamb Loin in their rather bright-red BBQ sauce. Some of the marinades and dips are partly inspired by IHG’s heavily rated Brazilian restaurant in the capital, Wild Fire, so look out for some blue cheese or red wine jus. “There’s a little bit of everything in the marinades,” he admits, but quickly adds, “But not so much that people will think we’re doing fusion food.” He mock grimaces. I laugh. Clearly our fusion food trysts haven’t been fruitful.

The portions are just about right and laid out on a bed of mashed potato and steamed vegetables. They proved an adequate foil and stopped me short of getting comatose on the meat. But five different meat courses are, well, five meat courses after all. I can barely down a couple of spoons of the Espresso Creme brûlée and the less said about the decadent chocolate plate, the better.  

<em><g class=
Bailana Nutmeg Ice Cream" />

The risk of grilling so much meat in sequence is that it can take a lot of time, but if you aren’t going to On The Rocks to enjoy a long, dimly lit, wine-laden, mildly bourgeoisie meal, then you’re better off getting some KFC. That’ll be cooked through, for sure.

PS: There are some fancy options for the vegetarian soul involving some pumpkin purée and some guacamole, but I cannot speak for what I have not consumed. But I can vouch for the fact that if they are grilled, they probably spend a lot more time over the flame.  

(The five meat course is priced at Rs 3,450 plus taxes, the three meat course at Rs 2,950 plus taxes. 
Open only for dinner.)

 

Related Stories

No stories found.
Indulgexpress
www.indulgexpress.com