Yet another, hitherto unseen, face of desi food
Serves: Indian food with an Azure twist
Atmospherics: The partners of this remarkable restaurant company, Rahul Khanna and Kabir Suri along with their food director Janti Duggal have been bringing forth one sassy concept after another, from Mamagoto to Sly Granny to Hotel Delmaar and others. The most recent one is Foxtrot, their first venture into Indian food, besides Dhaba Estd 1986 which they acquired more or less in its present form. Foxtrot has just one outlet as yet, in Khan Market. It is not a location that is known for desi dining and Foxtrot – both the name and the menu – is as far removed from the dals and butter chickens of bygone days as it is possible to get. On two floors: first and second, the décor (it used to be a café in a previous avatar) is underplayed, the better to show off the food which is undoubtedly the star here.
Table talk: cheese balls (Rs 350) are the most decadent way to start your meal: eight of the most chubby, cheese-laden fried morsels with hardly any resemblance to the ultra-light orbs that go under the same name, albeit with more flour and baking soda. The small plates menu, which is chock-full of chaat-like options, has Goa shack prawns (Rs 600). Lightly pan-fried with garlic and butter, they were not high on the Indian quotient: they would not have been out of place on a Spanish menu, interspersed as they were with olive oil-soaked pav for textural contrast. The kulcha section featured intriguing lamb galouti kulchas (Rs 450) among other less desi fillings, such as bacon and blue cheese or three cheese. As large as the palm of one’s hand, the kulchas were pillowy soft and the galouti kebabs that were smeared inside them made an imaginative filling that you would have to travel to two different states (Punjab and Lucknow/UP) to taste in original. The best, most imaginative dish of our meal turned out to be not only Indian (albeit a mash-up version) but vegetarian. Fried aubergine with millet pulao and moilee sauce (Rs 325) was a main course, so the portion size was generous. And if aubergine is the vegetable you love to hate, you must try the crisp, spicy batter-fried eggplant with mild millet pulao and creamy moilee sauce juxtaposed together.
Plus and minus: Their coffee menu has been put together by a genius.
Food: 3.75; Service: 3.75; Décor: 3.50
Must try: Willingdon Club breakfast; southern style fried chicken; chocolate lava cake
Shop 18, first and second floor, Middle Lane, Khan Market
Tel: 9650026454
Open from 9 am to 11.30 pm
Alcohol served; credit cards accepted
Meal for two: Rs 2,000
