After Chinese Cuisine, Italian cuisines are probably the most popular international cuisine in India. Because of its popularity, one can find innumerable places that serve fusion (Indian and Italian) versions, especially pasta and pizza. I do at times enjoy these fusions; however nothing can ever beat the authentic flavor that is unique to each country.
It isn’t difficult to get great Italian food – be it 5 stats, some of standalone places - authenticity do exist. To name a few, Artusi, Flavours, Diva serve great Italian food keeping authenticity in mind. Defining authenticity is difficult, however if you have been to these countries, or if you have visited restaurants that serve such food – you will get to understand the difference between fusion and authentic. Spaghetti Kitchen is also among those few standalone places where you get excellent Italian food without much twist.
First Impression:I have been to Grand Hotel many times for meetings, conferences but really never had chance to visit their Italian restaurant IT which is at the ground floor of the hotel. When I entered the restaurant, my first impression was like I have entered in a restaurant in Italy. Italian look with huge oven that churns pizzas, live open kitchen and excellent display of wines. The flooring too is amazingly done - Divided in three parts - stone flooring, marble and wooden. And if you love eating in the lap of nature then you have the option to eat al-fresco and it’s fabulous. The Gusto food and My Take: After the introduction and greetings we started our meal. Based on our discussion with chef and Deepika( their PR and Communication Manager) we let the chef decide what would we love relish, so that we could enjoy his best of the creations. Feta and tomato salad – fresh sliced tomato with feta cheese and lettuce with dressing of excellent quality of balsamic vinegar was light, fresh and flavored. The use of high quality balsamic vinegar makes a lot of difference and I felt the difference in taste. I and my colleague both agreed to it. A great start of the meal.Crema Di asparagi e gem beri – Creame of asparagus and prawn soup –broth lacked the flavor of asparagus and missed the essence. A little more generous use of asparagus could have been much better.Pizza – we asked them to make it two in one – veg and non veg. Both were excellent, perfect crust and not so overpowering cheese. Excellent pizzas And then came the star dish or the dish of the dayLumaconi Pasta Di gamberi e verdurine – large shell pasta which was stuffed with prawn and vegetales in chunky tomato sauce. Perfectly made pasta. They looked like snail shells( lumaca means snail )
Costoletta Di Angelo - lamb chops grilled to perfection in rosemary jus and served with mushroom risotto and grilled asparagus and baby carrots. Lamb was excellent, had the flavor and risotto was bang on al Dante. We finished our meal with assortment of desert including extremely delicious lemon tart, the classic tiramisu and chocolate mousse. After having an enormous meal at IT, no doubt, this is one of the finest Italian places in town. IT needs to work on marketing themselves as their food is fabulous and soon it will become talk of the town.
Quick Facts:
IT Italian specialty restaurant at The Grand , Vasant Kunj
Meal for two - 3500( without taxes and without Alcohol)
Disclaimer - This review was done on an invitation from the establishment. Views expressed in the review is entirely ours and without any bias. Pictures of the dishes are not the standard portions, they are sample portions.
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