ITP Indian Travel Places: Food, Travel, Tourism Business Events and Trade Shows
Phone: +91 9811134085
Address: 84, Aurobindo Marg, opposite to hero showroom, Adchini, New Delhi, India
Time: 12:45 PM to 11:55 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 1,600
Cuisines: Chettinad, French
Facilities: Full Bar Available, Free Parking, Wifi, Smoking Area, Table booking recommended
Chateau de Pondichery, Adchini, New Delhi: Decor
On the main Aurobindo Road, down a little cul de sac, opposite the Hero Honda showroom, you step into another world: a spacious, two-roomed place, where you’ll be transported to a world away from the snarling traffic of Delhi, into another, simpler age where owners used to manage their restaurants as a matter of course, and where the decor matched the promoter’s funds. If the seating is a little less than comfortable, it is because private equity funding has not played a part in Chateau de Pondichery. There was just one server and the owner couple on the day of my visit and though the spacious restaurant was full, there was no let-up in service. Tableware is a charming mix of steel thalis, handmade pottery bowls and Corelle plates.
Chateau de Pondichery, Adchini, New Delhi: Food
The chef has been a well-known caterer and restaurateur for at least two decades. She was not in the restaurant on the evening of my visit. Many of the appetizers consist of crepes with a variety of fillings. Large and hearty, we chose curry beans, chilli and formage (sic) (Rs. 380). Undercooked, under-seasoned rajma, a few green chillies and strands of what appeared to be processed cheese grated on top. The other crepes have regular French fillings, so I’d say they’d be a safer bet than our choice. The pouillabaise (Rs. 295) is a classic adaptation of the French soup to the expat community who lived in Pondicherry a century ago. Here, it was a disappointingly watered down version of the real thing with large pieces of chicken, some torn to shreds, in a soup that had spent time in the microwave oven. Just a marginal tweaking of the recipe and much more care in chopping the chicken would have resulted in a very imaginative soup, so it was intriguing why so little care was taken. It was the same with athu kary dalcha (Rs. 590) and kozhi kary vindail (Rs. 540): both were served in a thali; the former with rice and the latter with Ceylon poratta. Both were sloppily presented, with the mutton badly chopped and the gravy profuse but watery with a too-generous use of triphal pepper.
Chateau de Pondichery, Adchini, New Delhi: Plus & Minus
It is entirely possible that I ordered the wrong set of dishes.
