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« Reviews on Ginseng
Rated: Good
Mar 13, 2008
For a Sober Ying and Yang
When it comes to eating out with wifey on special occasions, we somehow end up in a place owned by the BJN or the Royal Orchid Group. Like some inevitable truth, we find ourselves looking at some classy decor, great ambience, detailed menus with vivid descriptions under fancy titles. [It's about time they took us on board now :)]
Last week was no different. We headed out to Ginseng Oriental Restaurant, a family favorite, but one I'd never been to. After all the “wow, what food!!” stories I'd heard, I'd almost imagined a piece of China in there. It turned out to be, let’s say, more sober than I thought. The runway-like waiting lounge had a smiling hostess who ushered us in.
The decor didn’t do justice to my 'oriental' imagination. But that’s okay; I wasn't planning to eat the decor anyway. The tables had the required cutlery in addition to the dreaded chopsticks. Thanks to some earlier in-house practice I could at least pick up cucumber slices from the salad (me know no technical names of thees item) without causing much commotion.
We ordered mocktails which went by the names 'Shades of Blue' and 'Sober Ying & Yang'. The former was some regular blue stuff which I’m sick of seeing in Cafés and Bars, but the sober ‘thing’ had fresh green chili in it. Weird as the description sounded, it turned out to be quite an interesting drink with a cut, upturned chili piece emitting chili odour right into one’s nose.
I then ordered my favorite 'oriental' soup, the Manchow. It did not disappoint me. Its subtle flavours distinguished itself from the many regular Chinese joints in the 5 km radius. Unfortunately, an earlier heavy office lunch and my tight pants were becoming a hindrance to a wholesome meal and we ended up keeping our orders minimal.
One of us was off meat so we had to do with a largely vegetarian meal. The vegetable satay was quite ordinary and I wasted no time in calling it a con job. Single roasted pieces of Onion, Paneer, Tomato and Carrot on a stick smothered with some sauce (or whatever!) costing 45/- apiece will always be a joke as far as I’m concerned. This dish had 4 such sets and cost 175/-
We had hardly room for more so we decided on some simple fare. ‘Burned Garlic Fried Rice’ and ‘Vegetables in Fiery Manchurian Sauce’. (Burnt garlic sticks to the teeth like caramel but tastes a little krazzy4 consumption ;) so don’t try this at home). Each dish was flavourful and done to perfection. I polished what was served. Given the tight pants, it was an achievement.
This was easily one of my best eating-out experiences in recent times. The calm, smiling and concerned waiters asked us to comment on the food and suggested ideal accompaniments when required and kept away otherwise.
Dinner for two with a non-alcoholic beverage each is easily INR 1000 (provided you do not touch the Evian bottle at the table.) which is not too much considering the service and the simple-but-classy-ambiance which was way above average.
The last thing I expected here was Indian music. Well I was more shocked than surprised when I heard some Punjabi tracks from the Hindi movie ‘Boom’. I looked around nobody seemed to bother. I shouldn’t have too.
Verdict: Well, I'd love to go here again. But this time I'll be trying out anything but sober.
peace,
HD
