A vast courtyard, beautifully decorated with lights and trees, welcomes you as you set your foot into Qla. The smiling staff usher you inside to a table that overlooks the courtyard. The ambiance is mellowed, the lighting is perfect and soft music completely relaxes you especially after you have braved the Delhi traffic for an evening of good food and drinks.
Qla, a modern European eatery, neatly tucked behind Qutub Minar arrests your attention as soon as you step in. Soft music is playing somewhere in the background as we sit inside overlooking the beautiful courtyard. The staff takes no time to serve the entrée that the Chef has specially handcrafted for the evening for the diners. One bite into the freshly baked bread and you know that you are set for an evening of gourmet indulgence.
Décor: Qla believes in open spaces. The minimalist look dominates the entire restaurant. Simple long benches and tables are placed outside at the courtyard which makes the place look spacious and welcoming. Trees border the courtyard and soft lights and placed in such a way that ambience is warm, welcoming and homely. Inside seating has a fascinating wall, well stacked with the choicest of the wines overlooking the kitchen which forms the other end of the restaurant. The kitchen has a glass wall, which serves dual purpose- it gives its diners the feeling of a live kitchen and makes the room appear bigger. Done beautifully in bronze and dark wood, Qla also has seating area on the terrace and a concert area where events take place regularly.
Food: We start with the entrées specially designed by Chef Sanjay Chowdhury first. We are served three kinds of breads- which are crisp outside and soft and warm within- with garlic butter and a parsley dip of sorts. Soon after, we are served bite sized spiced melons with three kinds of sauces. A sweet, tangy melon taste is juxtaposed with a hint of chilli which makes the dish rather interesting.
For starters, we order Pimento and Jacket Potatoes. While the set menu offers Pimentos with Tuna, we opt for the vegetarian one and get it customized with black beans instead of tuna. While the jacket potatoes were tad bit underdone, it was the Pimentos that totally arrested our taste with its delicate flavours. A taco made of cucumber skin, the filling was spiced salsa and beans which made the taste very balanced. What is interesting is that within the realms of conventional, popular European dishes, the chef designs the menu with some very interesting fusion, blending in two different tastes which may have not have occurred to you before but when you taste it, you can’t help but give it your approval.
While the starters are amazingly niche and a have a certain character, the main course may leave you a tad bit underwhelmed. We ordered the Belgian Pork Chop which came with pan roasted peppers, zucchini, onion and caramel pop corn. The presentation of the dish was very interesting and the popcorn added the fun element to the dish. Never before have I been served popcorn with pork chops! But the strong taste of the pork chop was nicely neutralized with a dash of caramel popcorn and mildly stir fried zucchini. The pork was well done, juicy and the flavours burst into the mouth with each bite.
The other dish that we ordered was rather experimental for my taste but something that out of curiosity I decided to try. Confit of Thai duck was customized for me and made with chicken. Accompanying that was mashed potatoes and mushroom risotto. Chicken batter fried was not as crisp as confits ideally should be. And somehow, it did not blend with the taste and flavour of mushroom risotto. The risotto unexpectedly was a bit dry and made me constantly crave for a liquid.
Coming to drinks, Qla boasts of a wide range of wines and beers. The Martini was just right but the Jellytini’s jelly was hard to break making the scooping of the jelly rather difficult. Jellies ideally should wobble but this one was hard.
The options in beer were vast and varied. I must admit that Qla is one of the rare places where they readily served Hoegarden beer.
While we were a bit disappointed with the confit, the deserts made up for it. The Valencia cheese cake was creamy and delicious and the raspberry sauce added the extra zing to the cake. The star of the night could easily be the Lager Beer Sorbet, Meringue and Nitrogen foam. A bit bitter sorbet, juxtaposed with ice cream and nitrogen foam made the dish absolutely delectable.
Being experimental and covering a bit of every country- the food has interesting blend though some of the dishes need a bit of rethinking. Being a fine dining restaurant, the delectable items may look fancy on the iPad (which serves as the menu card) but not all make for a good dish. Having said that, the concept of the restaurant and the thought that goes behind every dish is worthy of an applause.
Qla is not the sort of place where you can go with a shoe string budget. It is style and opulence in subtlety where fine dining meets experimental food.
Meal for two (with alchohol): Rs 5500
Address: The Kila, Seven-Style Mile, A 4 Kalka Dass Marg, Mehrauli, Opp Qutab Minar, New Delhi
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