A complete Oriental Experience – ‘Aniq’
‘Aniq’ at Greater Kailash I – N block market, New Delhi boasts of being a true Oriental restaurant. The place houses 3 different restaurants on each floor. The ground floor has ‘Dimcha’, a café styled restaurant that serves Dimsums and Chai. On the next floor is ‘Dao’, an Oriental fine dining restaurant. The next two floors houses an Oriental bar and lounge restaurant ‘Aniq’, one floor has comfortable sofa seating while the top floor has under the sky seating arrangements. This place doesn’t serve Indo-Thai or Indo-Japanese or Indo-Vietnamese food but authentic flavors and dishes from these places. To make sure they maintain the quality they have 3 different kitchens. Hats off to all the restaurants to have the guts to try true Oriental flavors.
The ambiance is outstanding in itself. The walls have Oriental wallpapers and sculptors. The place is decorated with Oriental lamps and has rich purple and red settings everywhere. I got a chance to try the best of these 3 restaurants but choose to sit at ‘Aniq’ as the atmosphere was cozy.
We started with ‘Mr & Mrs Mischief’, a cocktail drink based out of fig and mint. The sweet fig soaked in rum for days and then mashed into the drink gave it a unique flavor. Tried the ‘Vegetable Crispy Salad’, though it is featured in the salad section it was no less than a appetizer. The crispy vegetables were tossed in Sweet and Sour sauce and were awesome interms of taste. Also tried the ‘Som Tom’, a fresh salad made out of raw papaya and cherry tomatoes. The salad was tossed in with spicy sauce and completed with a generous sprinkle of crushed peanuts. ‘Awesome’ would just be an understatement. Next came the ‘Phad Phak Ruam Mid’, comprises of crispy Shitake Mushrooms cut into 4 tossed in light soy sauce. The dish was different as we can still taste the raw mushroom flavor.
Some of the Dimsums we tried were Glass Dumpling with Five treasures, Vegetable Chive Dumpling, Chili Garlic Dumpling and Vegetable dumplings-Shanghai Style. Each of these dumplings had a very different flavor and comes with a choice of sauce like red chili paste, burnt garlic paste, sweet chili sauce, light soy and sesame seed oil to go along. Next came the Sushi, California Roll – Uramaki (rice outside the seaweed layer) and Nori (seaweed) rolls one having Avocado and Cucumber and the other having Chives and other vegetables. To try the Sushi some of the sauces were mixed together and then the Sushi had to be dipped into it. The Sushi was topped with pickled Japanese Ginger and radish paste. To try food from a different country requires the taste buds to be completely altered. The Sushi was a little chewy because of the sea-weed. But both the Dimsums and Sushi was an experience in itself as most of the ingredients are imported from Japan and Thailand to get the authentic taste.
The Thai Herbs Martini was great, created from some exotic Thai Herbs. We then moved to the main course. We tried the Phad Ped or the Thai Red Curry with Jasmine Rice. The curry was mildly spiced and had exotic vegetables including bamboo shoots. The curry was delicious and fresh from the basil. The Jasmine rice has distinct flavor in itself and went really well with the Thai red curry. The coconut milk flavor in the curry was unforgettable. Delicious, delicious and delicious. Next came the Lotus Leaf Parcel with Sticky Rice and Veggies. A unique dish made from finely chopped soya and other vegetables sandwiched between layers of sticky rice. This was then steamed for 10 minutes in a Lotus leaf. The flavor of the Lotus leaf sipped deep into the rice making it more flavorful.
Next came the desserts and we started off with the black Sesame ice-cream, this may be the only place you will find this. The ice-cream was awesome and so damn delicious. You need to be here to try something like this. The coconut ice-cream came next, fresh coconut milk was blended together with cream to get the right texture, loved it. Next came the Tub-Tim-Grob, a Thai dessert made from water chestnut in coconut milk and sugar syrup. OMG! Is all I could say!
The Oriental experience ended with the sipping of Chrysanthemum tisane, a tea made from yellow Chrysanthemum flowers and is known to relief stress. The service is outstanding and each of the waiter make sure they know the in and out of the food being served. Another important point to be made is the quality of the food which was not compromised at all.
The Scorecard:-
Food/Taste – 8/10
Service – 8/10
Value for Money – 8/10
Ambiance – 9/10
Quantity – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.5/10
Must Have: Som Tom, Vegetable Crispy Salad, Thai Red Curry with Jasmine Rice, Black Seaseme Ice-cream, Tub-Tim-Grob
Breath-taking atmosphere, a food experience to remember!