It's a long flight from Cape Town to Delhi, arriving at an ungodly hour, and the city, with its heat and hectic bustle, is not for the faint hearted. There are treasures - beautiful parks, mosques, tombs and government buildings - but you have to elbow your way through crowds, run-down areas and cluttered market lanes to get to them. The vast differences in wealth are obvious, even on a fleeting visit and as (relatively) rich foreign tourists, we were acutely aware of this. So on our first day, we opted for an easy way out: dining in one of the hotel's restaurants. It's not what we usually do (feels a bit like cheating), but we were really pleased that we did so when we discovered Chutney.
It's a sleek, modern-looking restaurant. The fact that we were at one of the few occupied tables meant that there was not much atmosphere, but for the state we were in, a quiet dinner in a comfortable and air-conditioned restaurant hit the spot. We were served a trio of the chutneys (tomato, pineapple and mint) that gave the restaurant its name as a welcome by the attentive waiter, then straight onto the main course. I had only ever come across fenugreek before in a Rudyard Kipling story (The Cat Who Walked By Itself, perhaps?) In the Mehti Murg I finally tasted fenugreek. Hard to describe the savoury and complex flavours of this chicken in a yoghurt-based sauce, but delicious. With dal and garlic naan on the side and a cool, thick and sweet mango lassi, a wonderful choice for a first dinner in India.
Chutney is located in the Metropolitan Hotel on Bangla Sahib Road, New Delhi, telephone number 91 11 425 00 200.
It's a sleek, modern-looking restaurant. The fact that we were at one of the few occupied tables meant that there was not much atmosphere, but for the state we were in, a quiet dinner in a comfortable and air-conditioned restaurant hit the spot. We were served a trio of the chutneys (tomato, pineapple and mint) that gave the restaurant its name as a welcome by the attentive waiter, then straight onto the main course. I had only ever come across fenugreek before in a Rudyard Kipling story (The Cat Who Walked By Itself, perhaps?) In the Mehti Murg I finally tasted fenugreek. Hard to describe the savoury and complex flavours of this chicken in a yoghurt-based sauce, but delicious. With dal and garlic naan on the side and a cool, thick and sweet mango lassi, a wonderful choice for a first dinner in India.
Chutney is located in the Metropolitan Hotel on Bangla Sahib Road, New Delhi, telephone number 91 11 425 00 200.
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