ITP Indian Travel Places: Food, Travel, Tourism Business Events and Trade Shows
Phone: +91 8130620076, 011 41451535
Address: Shop 03, Ground Floor, Worldmark 1, Aerocity, New Delhi, India
Time: 12 Noon – 1 AM
Meals for two: Rs. 1,500
Cuisines: North Indian, Italian, Chinese, Mediterranean
Facilities: Home Delivery, Serves Alcohol, Live Music, Wifi, Indoor Seating
Tappa, Aerocity, New Delhi: Decor
It is (thus far at least) difficult to believe that you are in our noisy, overcrowded city while you drive or walk around Aerocity. Over the last couple of weeks, the weather has been almost miraculously pleasant and an al fresco dinner at Tappa is one of the highlights of dining here. A word about the brand. There are Punjab Grills, Punjab Grill Tappas and now just Tappa. Each has some common connection, but Tappa is certainly the way forward: salads, chilla, sandwiches, pancakes and waffles, Turkish pizza ‘pide’, small plates and main courses have all been given varying amounts of desi spin. Small bites, shared plates and fun eating is what Tappa is about.
Tappa, Aerocity, New Delhi: Food
From the bread bar, we tried red bean and kaladi kulcha (Rs. 145). The kulcha, astonishingly, was the finest you’d get outside Amritsar! Flaky and smoky, it was the highlight of the meal: the topping came from the Jammu province of J&K where rajma is grown and nomadic shepherds make fresh cheese with a shockingly short shelf-life – which is why you hardly see it on menus in Delhi. Jodhpuri chilli poppers, goat cheese mousse (Rs. 325) depended on its presentation, like fruit on a ‘tree’. The crumb-fried chillies were of the mild variety and the jaggery chutney was a fun touch. Multigrain sev puri with guacamole (Rs. 325) depended for its success on the verisimilitude of its seasonings to the Mumbai original; the guacamole was a pleasant innovation. The kitchen has a (very) rare feel for seafood, and the best preparation of the evening was gunpowder prawns, kuzhi paniyaram, yoghurt pachadi (Rs. 595). The gunpowder, normally, is a travesty of the real thing. In this case, however, not only were the small prawns fresh and perfectly cooked, the gunpowder was a flavor bomb. Crab Amritsari, sun-dried tomato jam, seaweed papad (Rs. 795) was a close second winner. Delicate crab meat had been packed into perfectly formed mini globes, deep-fried and paired with tomato chutney. What was even more surprising than the flavor of the crab dominating the dish was the name: the holy city of Amritsar is not known for crabs yet the spicing did not overpower the crustacean.
Tappa, Aerocity, New Delhi: Plus & Minus
Go in a group; order lots of plates.
