Discover Shiso: Amritsar’s newest culinary hotspot

Some restaurants are about the food they serve, others are all about the ambience. It’s hard to know which impresses more at Shiso, the newest restaurant in Amritsar. Located on the bypass road, with easy access to Ludhiana, Patiala and other parts of Punjab, this Pan Asian restaurant is a maiden venture of Vansh Aggarwal with Aftab Sidhu, Honey Mishra and Mankaran Johar as management partners.

Japan meets Bali in Amritsar

At 8,000 sq ft (excluding the kitchen), Shiso is unfathomably huge and cleverly broken up into a capacious dining room and a private dining area with plush suede sofas and statuario centre tables. The interiors by Aayushi Malik of Aayushi Malik Designs (known for her work on Delhi’s Cosy Box, Chica and Marieta), has an earthy aesthetics with just the right amount of lighting. On entering, one instantly feels a sense of comfort and cosiness, thanks to the soaring triple height ceiling and the ample use of wood, stone and bamboo. A gently lit bar blends naturally with its environment, while also subtly standing out with brass accents and a bamboo rice paper installation. There’s also an alfresco with cabana style booths and mood lighting. 

Asian but with a twist

The menu curated by chef Honey Mishra puts the spotlight on Pan-Asian inspired dishes. Starters include tacos filed with 5 spice roast duck and mini appams topped with mutton boti. Both are daringly delicious. The Thai betel leaf rolls that are assembled table side, bring a slice of theatre to the dining experience. The leaves come loaded with banana blossom and a whispering of lemongrass. The tongue has fun rolling all the flavours and textures of this starter. I also tried the visually trippy summer salad that picks up its funk from sweet and sour mangoes and a zesty chilli-citrus dressing.

Some of the dishes are classical in sensibility but irreverent in spirit. Take the chicken puff for instance. The frilly edged puff fashioned out of taro and egg yolk hold parcels of succulent butter chicken (after all, you are in Punjab!) inside. Then there are other comforts, like pillowy baos, exquisite dim sums, perfectly scorched gyozas and freshly rolled sushi on the menu. But it was the aromatic and slow cooked lamb rendang with flaky roti canai that stole the show. The flavour-packed curry came with a lamb leg so succulent and yielding, it practically fell off the bone under nothing but a hard stare. Teppanyaki seemed to be a hot favourite among diners gauging by the speed at which the stir fries were flying from the live counter. If you truly want to be dazzled, opt for the 9-course omakase (loosely translates to “I’ll leave it up to the chef” in English) dinner with dishes like karaage, laphing, omu rice and nigiri.

Meanwhile, the drinkers in our midst approve of the cocktails, most of which smack of having been shaken and stirred by a serious mixologist — in this case, Ivan Alekseev. Interestingly, all the signature and classic cocktails are crafted using in-house ferments made from apple, sugarcane, pineapple, berries, etc. There’s also an indigenous rice beer and a rice wine (something like a soju).

By the time the desserts are unleashed, we are stuffed. But it’s impossible to leave even a morsel of the evocative and comforting brownie or the judiciously sweetened Kyoto Swiss Roll behind. It’s only been a couple of days and we are already plotting our return.

Meal for two: INR 3,000.

Timings: Lunch 12:30 to 3:30 pm | Dinner 7:30 pm to 1:30 am (Closed on Tuesdays).

At Majitha-Verka byass, Shastri Nagar, Amritsar, Punjab.