Cuisine: Modern Japanese
Blurb: The ambience is deadly and you certainly don’t feel that you’re in a mall, but the food is a shade better than the decor
Atmospherics: The music – Asian underground – is one of those love it or hate it things. I personally found it too Indian inspired. The decor on the other hand is much grander than anything else we have in the NCR and while it sports an international look with a giant statue of the Buddha, the glamorous interiors and the music with a heavy Indian touch seemed like a mis-match. The food is surprisingly good and overwhelmingly South East Asian, particularly Japanese, so B Bar comes across as a club for Japanese expatriates in Saket. When the first Buddha Bar started in Paris, it must have been considered exotic. In today’s Delhi it seems overtly ethnic.
Having said that, the food will probably serve B Bar better than the ambience, because night clubs have a short shelf life and good restaurants are always in demand. White fish with kizami wasabi and tosazu (Rs 655) represents the new style of sashimi as well as great value for money: typically, this quality of sashimi would be found only in a couple of five star restaurants, at stratospheric prices. Spicy tuna tartar with pink grapefruit and avocado (Rs 655) embodies the B Bar cuisine. The lobster dumpling 
was a cleverly constructed dish with lobster cooked to perfection encased in a dimsum wrapper and napped with a delicious crab sauce to enhance the seafood appeal. The dimsum was lightly fried before being served. How customers are expected to take cognizance of the subtleties of the cuisine against the backdrop of the very loud music and the drop-dead glamour quotient I don’t know. It is my feeling that the party crowd just munches on without giving much thought to what they are eating, but given the quality of the food, it is rather a shame.
The Chilean seabass with sautéed vegetable, red curry froth and kiwi mango salsa (Rs 1955) is a witty dish that embodies the soul of South East Asia without purporting to be a traditional dish from one or the other country. It is one of the main courses in this surprising outpost of modern Japan that lies in the shadow of a Buddha statue.
Must tries:
Level 4, Select Citywalk, Saket (there’s a dedicated lift from the basement/ground floor)
Ph: 011 46098989
Open from 7.30 pm to 1 am
Alcohol served; credit cards accepted
Meal for two: Rs 4,000
Ratings: Food 3.50, Service 3.50, Decor 3.50
