Restaurant Week India: Studio – The Pan-Asian Galerie, Novotel

A cube of watermelon, delicately tied with a ‘string’ of scallion, and sprinkled with a little hint of shichimi togarashi is set before me. Not too fond of watermelon, I hesitate a second before plopping the cube in my mouth. The watermelon cube is cold and juicy, not too sweet, and the tiny hit of spicy pepper just bounces it off the sweet and straight into the savoury counter. It’s the most welcome start for me after a rather long taxi ride, and it promises delights I cannot afford to miss.

I am here with D, tasting the Restaurant Week India menu that Square, the Pan-Asian restaurant of Novotel is offering. If you have missed out on the previous posts about the event, you can check my experience at Zen and The Oriental Express, and I must say, each restaurant is trying their best to outshine the others.

I have always had a terrible, horrible weakness towards potatoes, and the Potato Starch ‘Gnochhi‘ lures me with a thousand promises. The cubes of potato starch are deep fried before they are tossed with a chilli garlic sauce, and they are sweet, tangy, and worth every calorie.

I had imagined the chicken and glass noodle spring roll to be thin rolls filled with chicken and green, Vietnam-style, but these are more like croquettes, filled with chicken sausages, deep fried, slashed and put on a bed of creamy mayo. I like its crisp coating, but it is not exactly what I had envisioned. D ventured towards the Prawn Tempura, which is a specialty here, but well, I steered clear of it since my allergies are kicking up viciously.

We had ordered both rice and noodles, and the hot basil rice comes first: the basil lends a rather heady aroma to the rice, which is tossed with some scallions and chicken, and it is rather nice on its own.

The Grilled Chicken with Leeks and Teriyaki Sauce is rather nice too, with a jumble of assorted vegetables apart from leek and juliennes of chicken – it is quite nice to pop a snowpea or a broccoli with my chicken and feel the vicarious pleasure of assuming this is healthy eating.

The server suggests the spicy garlic noodles to accompany my main course – and yes, it is quite spicy and nice, and ends up being the dish I take second and third helping of. The noodles are surprisingly non-greasy, with a bunch of tossed onions, chicken and red bell peppers thrown into it.

And, as always, I am once again enchanted by the lamb, and the slivers are cooked to perfection, with a handful of greens tossed into the dark gravy redolent of oyster sauce and soy. I love this with my noodles, but would be equally happy to consume it with some plain steamed rice – the meat and rice gloriously decadent to my lamb-adoring soul.

In any dessert menu, I would pick chocolate because its who I am I really like it. No exception here. The silken rich dark chocolate mousse had a hint of mint added to it, and a rather sour cherry preserve to even out the sweetness. This was a rather decadent finish to what I can call a really satisfying meal, and if you want to taste the same, do not waste time, and head over to Studio – The Pan-Asian Galerie, Novotel Kolkata Hotel and Residences, where you can avail these dishes as well. Also, if you book now, you would get two vouchers from Ola Cabs worth 150/- INR each to go and come back from the restaurant in their newly launched Ola Prime. So, I would suggest you take advantage of Restaurant Week India today!