A couple of days ago, an Instagram food reel featuring yaki sauce, a modern-day condiment glazing delicacies across Japanese and Korean street cuisine, prompted us to try it out. You would be surprised at how close its spice profile comes to the Indian masalas. In no time, that pursuit took us to Tiger Yaki, which recently opened its doors in the city after two successful stores in Mumbai.
Before approaching the counter to order, we took a good look at the scarlet shade interiors that reinforced the restaurant’s pan-Asian influence and shared a similar appeal with its menu as well.
On offer are their bestsellers like the cheese corn dog, takoyaki, gyozas and other popular street items you can find in Korea and Japan. We first ordered the Fried Chicken Tenders.
Tossed in Japanese spices, this crispy chicken hit it out of the ballpark with its flavour profile. Right from its seasoning to the crispy golden brown frying, this delicacy was a total palate-pleaser and a must-have from the menu. The paprika coating might smudge your hands a little bit, but that’s all part of the dining experience.
Next, we picked the Spicy Tiger bowl, which took care of our protein intake with its Korean braised tofu and brown butter cabbage that added to its texture. The bowl comes with a generous serving of gravy with tofu chunks. As for its taste, since spice is in the name, we can find a notable level of spiciness in the gravy which, of course, is balanced by the umami-rich flavour of the tofu and the delicious crispy caramelised cabbage.
However, neither of them could tackle the spiciness that lingered in our mouth a few bites in. We recommend you pair their bowls with one of the kombuchas, preferably the peach-flavoured one because it successfully mitigated the heat for us. We also ordered the Hibiscus & Thyme iced tea which we later paired with the Chicken Gyoza.
If we gave you the impression that the bowl was spicy, we apologise. The gyoza, which was six pan-seared dumplings topped with burnt chilli, truly got us sweating. We are talking watery eyes, a stinging feeling in the mouth and also a runny nose. But even that did not stop us from going for seconds.
A juicy offering, this dish is well-fitted for those with a high tolerance for capsaicin which we came to conclude is a prerequisite for sampling every second dish here.
Meal for two: INR 800 onwards. At St Mark’s Road.
Mail: muskankhullar @newindianexpress.com
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