Renowned for its fun quirky platings, popular joint Monkey Bar has come up with a brand new menu, Tales of India, which showcases a rich tapestry of flavours from across the country.
The food menu, curated by corporate chef, Monkey Bar - Irfan Pabaney and Chef Sumit Choudhary complements the exotic, heady sips stirred up by the group’s mixologist Harish Chhimwal. Harish has drawn inspiration from Indian culinary traditions, and regional ingredients, capturing the essence of the diverse regions in the texture and taste of each drink. We settled with a tall glass of Pop pom cola — a take on India’s quintessential favourite rum (Old Monk) and cola — house pomegranate cordial and lime juice topped with cola. For all those rum lovers out there, this is a must-try.
Starting with Prawns kheema pav, an East Indian style minced prawns cooked with confit tomatoes, ginger, garlic and 12 other spices, this was simply love at first bite. We nibbled on the delectable, spicy prawn bits with butter garlic pav and lime pickle and longed for more until Fish, Chips & Dips diverted our attention. Don’t expect anything familiar in terms of taste with this dish that’s overloaded with tempura batter fried fish, served with roasted garlic, Amarillo chilli-infused cheese sauce, Andhra style tomato chutney, refried beans, honey and kasundi mustard, and guacamole on the side.
The Wazwan style Kashmiri lahabi mutton kebab, layered with a mint and hung curd emulsion on a Kashmiri lavasa bread, was served with a smoked tomato and yoghurt gravy. It was a little too smokey for our palate, but if you are a fan of kebabs and barbeque grills, do give it a chance. Another house favourite was the pillowy soft Chicken nihari kulcha stuffed with shredded Awadh-inspired chicken, well-marinated in nihari masala and slow-cooked with pippali and coriander. Dunk the bread in the spicy gravy with shredded chicken bits, or have it dry, this dish will win your hearts for sure.
What we found interesting is that every item on the menu comes in small plates, allowing you to try more items. We rounded off our food trail with Gur kulcha, a North Indian home-inspired jaggery paratha stuffed with mewa and nuts. Served with vanilla ice cream, jaggery and pepper-caramel sauce, the sweet dish delectably brought the curtains down to a perfect food show.
Meal for two: Rs 1,400+ (without alcohol)