Aanch, a chic and urban restaurant in Rajouri Garden has been successfully running since 5 years. Bringing innovation to menu and food presentation ideas is the need of any restaurant today to constantly keep surprising their customers and retain their interest. Aanch is also all set to do the same, as they planning to launch 25 new dishes in their menu. We were recently invited for a preview table of this Terrific 25 menu and honoured with this privilege of tasting everything before it opens for general public from August onwards.

The place is located at the top floor of shoppers stop mall, and is an extensive spread with a huge terrace and outside expanse where in private parties and weddings are held.

Drinks:

Coming to the menu, we were first served the new mocktails on the menu, the regular mocktails done with an India twist to them. The first one was Tulsi and Melon Fantasy. It was refreshing but the flavour of basil was a little overpowering, and if that is taken control of, it definitely a perfect summer drink.

Next was the Veggie Virgin Marry, which was a desi twist to the popular Virgin Mary, but here there was no use of tobasco to make it spicy, it was instead made spicy by using red chillies, also there were cut pieces of capsicum in the drink which made it spicy and crunchy at the same time. I am a virgin mary lover and thus I preferred this Veggie Virgin Mary and loved it. It was slightly on the spicier end, but yet it was amazing. I also loved the presentation of the drink very much.

I also tried the Virgin Orange Caprioska and Very Berry Slush, both of them were good too, but the berry slush was mind blowing, it was best of the lot and I highly recommend the same.

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Starters: To clear the palette, water melon cubes with cheese was the first thing to be served and it was refreshing.

Soups- Mushroom Cappuccino and Chicken Tom Yum, both of them were amazing, though I preferred the creamy mushroom soup over the chicken one. Mushroom soup was served with a mushroom toast which was good and the fried chicken roll that came with tom yum soup was just amazing.

Mahabali Paneer Tikka- a spicy version of the regular paneer tikka, this one was truly awesome. I also loved the presentation of the same.

Roti pe Boti-This was an out of the menu dish, that the chef created especially for us bloggers to taste and I fell in love with it instantly. It was a soft and tender galauti kebab placed on a very khasta mathi with a dollop of green chutney. The combination was amazing, the galauti kebabs just melted in the mouth and I can go back for this dish anytime. In fact I would really urge them to include this as a part of their regular menu.

Shahi Be Mahi- This was a very tender Fish Malai Tikka, and it was one of the best starters of the entire evening. The fish just melted in the mouth, was mildly spiced and too delicious. This one is a must try.

Gabbar Ke Sholey- It was an innovative and interesting way to present bread rolls stuffed with cottage cheese, they seemed like small hand grenades that looked amazing and tasted good too.

Lemon Grass Mushrooms- Oh these went on to become my personal favourites. The spices were perfect and the most amazing part was a mild cottage cheese filling between two mushrooms. I haven’t eaten anything like this before. It was really awesome. Also the presentation on a small rolling cart was very very cute.

Galouti Golgappe- These were the golgappas filled with a small piece of galouti topped with some green chutney, onions and pomegranate seeds. The concept was good but the golgappas need to be a little more juicy, they were dry.

Tawa Ka Burrah and Chooza Murg were next, both the dishes were regular, the mutton burrah was tasty, juicy and tender and I loved the way it was presented. Chooza Murg was like Tandoori Chicken, and was perfect.

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Banana Chik and Mango Chicken were presented next, they both came in sweet looking hand carts. The Banana Chick tasted more like a Thai steamed chicken which I didn’t like much. The Mango Chicken had a tangy fruity taste with a hint of Chinese flavour and it was good.

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It seemed like a marathon of starters, as they were just not ending, and trust me it takes a lot to taste and try 25 items on the menu, but they were all so exciting that even though the tummy space was reducing, we just could not give up.

Chilly Chicken Pao and Veg Cheese Quesadilla were next in line. The chilly chicken pao was spicy and nice and so were the quesadillas.

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After trying so many delectable starters, there was hardly any space left for the main course, but being a blogger one has to try and write about it, sometimes its not easy you see. But yes I did. The first thing on the menu was Haleem, followed by Balti Murg, Murg Makhanwala, Creamy Gosht, Dal Makhani and Paneer Pasanda. All the dishes were perfectly done, minus the murg makhanwala, as I found it a little too sweet. The creamy gosht could have been a little better too and I am sure the management will take our feedback constructively.

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There was Cheesy Baked Pasta and Chicken Spatchcock too, but they seemed a little out of place with the more emphasised Indian menu. They were good no doubts, but certainly didn’t gel with the entire palate.

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Finally the meal came to an end and the dessert was served, It was Coconut Cigars with Vanilla Ice-Cream. The Coconut Cigars were crisp and tasted excellent dipped in Vanilla Ice-Cream. The presentation was great and it looked like a few birds sitting in a pool of ice cream.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience. We also met the owner Mr Bhuvnesh Bhalla and his wife who paid attention to every feedback we had to offer and they came across as very warm and hospitable people. Also met Chef Ashish Massey who is the man behind this amazing culinary experience and is a great person. Last but not the least this privileged of experiencing a new menu before it gets launched for general public was bestowed upon due to my friend and an excellent PR person Neha Bahl from Qube Communication and had a pleasant experience meeting other blogger friends too. The menu gets launched for public August onwards, please do give it a try and you will be pleasantly surprised with the small twists and innovations.