Cafe Qahwa

The only problems with Barista, Cafe Coffee Day and Costa are that they are formulaic, cookie-cutter clones of each other and that while their coffee quality is steadily declining, their snacks range from inedible to uninspiring. That is what you get when you’re a large chain and have to outsource your snacks to the same…

Manajsa

How bad can a restaurant actually be? If it is really bad, it could be like Fawlty Towers: hilarious when you’re watching it as a television serial; less so when you are actually in a place like Manajsa in Hauz Khas market where everything that can go wrong does. It was a Friday evening when…

Café Delhi Heights

Café Delhi Heights is a cozy space with a variety of moods in a single area. I chose the colourful Indian lounge area with gaudy cushions on a jute lookalike cushion that topped a “sofa” fashioned from bricks. Elsewhere, you can opt for bar seating, booths or low, comfortable-looking swivel chairs. The café embodies the…

YWCA Kitchen

The YWCA Kitchen is a great place to have a meal near Connaught Place: no messing with dug up roads and after office hours, there is plenty of parking too. The place is small and cozy and has a couple of tables in the charming pocket-sized garden. The Mediterranean blue and white eatery serves as…

Salim Kababs Khan Market Wale

After the sealing drive in Khan Market’s infamous middle lane (all you needed was three feet of vertical space and you could start a shop) quite a few little stalls found themselves out of business. The administration, in their wisdom, has decided not to sort out the manic parking, the potholed lanes or the interior…

Café Diva

Of late, the trendy market in South Delhi, Greater Kailash N Block, has been undergoing much changing of addresses. In the space that Full Circle vacated, Ritu Dalmia has set up a Diva Café. It was the need of the hour. The lady with the enviable brand equity has set up her own café, as…

L’Angoor

We cannot quite figure out why the owners of this sleek wine bar with great food to go with it has such a mischievous name, but rest assured: there’s no monkey business here. L’Angoor is a wine bar with a restaurant attached. No detail, however small, has been spared. The result is a refined space…

IT

Why would somebody spend lakhs if not crores on setting up an Italian restaurant in their hotel, complete with pizza oven, sophisticated wine rack and open kitchen, and then spoil it all by naming it IT? I haven’t a clue as to whether the name is It or IT either. However, if you look on…

Burmese Kitchen

It is surprising that out of all the cuisines that exist in Delhi, most come from far away geographically. Italy is hardly a close neighbour; even Thailand is a 5 hour plane ride away. We have never tried to explore the cuisines of our immediate neighbours, so although Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Myanmar have cuisines…

Iram

Omer Khushro has inherited his mother’s catering business. Like the best food anywhere, the late Mrs. Khusro did it strictly as a hobby, rather than out of economic necessity. The family is originally from Hyderabad and it is the food of that city that Iram prepares. There is a bunch of cooks, one or two…