If you enter Chew - Pan Asian Café with the pre-conceived notion that this is one among many other restaurants serving the usual Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Indonesian fare to cater to the foodies in the Connaught Place area, you are sure to come out deliciously surprised!
Being one of the few places in the City which serves ‘good’ food, Chew stands way above Metrolife’s expectations. The culinary experience provided by the restaurant can be defined through its name, for the only thing that a gourmand needs to do is sip the mocktails and ‘chew’ the food.
Executive Chef Sunil Fotedar is adroit in ensuring that no time and energy is wasted in fragmenting meat and presents each dish in a marvelous manner to feast both the eyes and the palate! This is evident in Pork Belly with Teriyaki Sauce which is nicely cut into quadrangle pieces after being braised and then grilled to perfection.
In between managing all this, he also balances the flavours of the Asian dishes for the Indian palate. For instance, the Chicken Drumsticks are tender and thankfully devoid of the repelling taste of a gram flour coating. “It is marinated in a seasoning with ginger and corn starch and then shallow fried to be tossed in soy sauce with garlic and butter,” says chef Sunil.
Though he keeps the Prawns with Sriracha Sauce more on the sweeter-side yet the succulent seafood has the capability to be relished by a North Indian. To give a twist to the regular corn starter available in restaurants across the City, he prepares Fresh Corn Tempura and serves in a boat-shaped plate with pineapple sauce. These crunchy balls make way for the tender ones in Veg Dumplings which taste much like a well-cooked manchurian.
The balance of flavours in the starters is commendable which make way for the sushi and the dimsums, the main meal and the curries! The list is long, as is the impressively colourful menu, spread over a lot of pages.
Browse through it to try your language skills with unpronounceable names of sushis such as Flying Fish Roe in Nigiri and Dynamite Uranchi under Japanese Maiki Rolls. Those who have an appetite for sushis, will relish the crabstick in Tobiko (a Japanese caviar) wrapped with sticky rice to create Dynamite Uranchi.
But if you are not a sushi person then try the sesame-coated vegetarian Philadelphia Roll and you would want to have more of the gooey concoction.
The twist in Khow Suey evokes a luke warm reaction, but the fish scores full marks for be it the Grilled Teriyaki Seabass Fillet (with flavours of banana leaf in which it is steamed), Chinese Pomfret (shallow fry slices of fish in fermented black bean sauce and cooked in Chinese Shaoxing wine) or Kari Ikan ie the Indonesian Fish Curry, all makes one gorge on them till the last morsel.
Notably, the Indonesian Fish Curry is savoured the most for its gravy, similar to the yellow thai curry, but without lemon grass and lemon leaves, that makes for a smooth and creamy base in which the fish is simmered till eternity.
‘Elated’ is the word that describes the feeling on seeing a dedicated page for desserts. Though the salt (possibly from yellow butter) content in Choco Lava cake spoils the taste, the rich Blueberry Creme Brulee makes up for it.