New menu at The Piano Man: Fish and spice, and everything nice

Every three months, The Piano Man menu does a pirouette. After taking in feedback, founder and CEO Arjun Sagar Gupta, owner of Delhi’s best-known Jazz club, sits with his partner chef Manoj Kumar Pandey and has a “stars and dogs” conversation. The stars stay, the dogs leave.

Delhi's The Piano Man has a string of new dishes on its menu

In the old ‘Comfort Menu’ four new items have been added, and it also has a new experiential menu of 30 dishes. TMS tried some of the latest offerings. The new menu has been launched at El Deco Centre, The Piano Man’s Malviya Nagar outlet with upcoming launches planned for its 32nd Avenue, Gurug ram, and Safdarjung Enclave locations as well.

We start with soup. Every spoonful of the Reconstructed Tom Kha Chicken is smooth, artful and delicious. Unlike the traditional Tom Kha, in which the vegetables, chicken, and broth seem mashed into one soup, here the soup is poured around the vegetables so that in memory each of them remains separate; yet the experience of it is one of a single wholesomeness.

I next taste Heston’s Fish & Chips. The flour, beer and vodka have been whisked well to make the batter, but the inside, where the batter meets the fish, feels a bit oily, and the accompaniment of Cajun chips feels like one oily item has been piled on another; it is not worth its price of Rs1,500.

On Chef Pandey’s coaxing, I try things vegetarian. The Ratatouille with Raja Mirchi Corn Bread is decent. The Edamame and Truffle Dimsum, a symphony of velvety edamame and decadent truffle, wrapped in a delicate embrace of haute-cuisine indulgence, is truly delicious.

The Spicy Miso Black Cod is another good dish with the fish, fresh and flaky, and laced with a creamy miso sauce. The black-rice fried rice served with it is flavourful, but could have been been softer. The combination, however, works well. The chef lets on that this was arrived at after trying five different combinations—rice with kimchi, schezwan, teriyaki, bulgogi and garlic schezwan—and, finally, went with what would “not overpower the fish”.

The rule of thumb, says Chef Pandey, keeping in mind The Piano Man’s clientele, is to go with a balance of flavours but keep the base Eurasian. “What never goes off the menu is the Butter Chicken Platter, the Mutton Rogan Josh Platter, and the Paneer Lababadar Platter – so that nobody feels left out. You can’t imagine Delhi without these,” he says.

As for the drinks, the range is big—from The Pisco Sour (an alcoholic cocktail of Peruvian origin with a smooth citrusy punch and velvety texture to The Truffle Negroni (marrying the bitterness of Campari with the earthy richness of truffle) to the Fat Wash Cocoa Old Fashioned (a glass bourbon and cocoa coming together in a rich, decadent finish). I sat comfortably with my mocktail – a Watermelon cooler.

The meal is finished with Molten Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Sorbet and Coffee Gelée, a stunning dish with ooze and drama, executed to perfection. So, this is Piano Man at noon—the chandeliers beam; the waiters, quietly go about their jobs cleaning the bells, placing and folding napkins on the empty tables, the giant screen behind the stage where each night 400 guests arrive to listen to some of the best jazz kept on but the music turned off, and Chef Pandey’s kitchens humming....

A meal at The Piano Man is Rs 4,400+ for two people (with alcohol) and Rs 3,600+ for two people, without alcohol.