Phone: 011 71565128
Address: 3rd Floor, Ardee Mall, Sector 52, Ardee City, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Time: 12 Noon – 11:00 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 2,000
Cuisines: Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai, Asian, Beverages
Facilities: Home Delivery, Indoor Seating, Table booking recommended
Soy Soi, Ardee City, Gurgaon: Decor
Almost black walls with huge murals, hanging bamboo lights and enormous bamboo backrests for some seats defines the mood of Soy Soi. Southeast Asian restaurants are a dime a dozen in our neck of the woods, but this one is in another league: in serves mainly the street food of the few countries in our neighborhood where the core team of the restaurant visited. So, grand spectacular dishes from the royal houses are not part of Soy Soi’s menu; instead, you will get the far more homely soto ayam madura and samosa thouk from Indonesia’s night markets and Myanmar’s street stalls respectively. This is a branch of Savya Rasa next door and if there is one thing they have in common, it is the quest to give the diner an unusual experience. Therefore, there is no idli-dosa-sambar-vada next door and no chilli-chicken-hot-garlic-sauce here. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on your perspective.
Soy Soi, Ardee City, Gurgaon: Food
Whatever you do order, please do not miss the Larb Isaan (₹ 375) which has moist minced chicken flavored with a myriad seasonings. Served in a whole cabbage leaf, you can, if you are adept at it, make small parcels of the leaf and pile it up with the chicken as they would in North East Thailand. Other outstanding flavors included sate kambing Padang (₹ 395): juicy lamb piccatas grilled till almost charred on the outside, then napped with peanut sauce made the traditional way with palm jaggery and roasted peanuts being cooked before being ground. I have hardly encountered any restaurant in the NCR taking such pains. The one section where nouvelle liberties have been taken is in the sushi section. My crispy tuna maki (₹ 345) was firm to the bite and would be great for those who like nouvelle sushi. Finally, Burmese chickpea tofu (₹ 325) had bite, spice, flavor and texture yet was vegetarian.
Plus & Minus:
Corn and spinach dumplings with blue cheese sauce (₹ 345) had no discernible flavor of blue cheese (the only reason why I ordered them). When I pointed it out, I was brought a fresh helping, with the blue sauce component increased. Such tricky flavors should be introduced in a second iteration of a menu and not in a brand new restaurant.