Mistral Grill – a must visit South Delhi restaurant

We’re so fascinated with the Olive’s, Mamagoto’s and Smoke House Deli’s of Delhi, that we very often miss out on some gems in the market; Mistral Grill is one of those for us. One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, we very quietly received a mail inviting us to review the restaurant that actually made us take notice of Mistral Grill. We searched for information online, saw pictures and realized that the place looked decent, only why did we not know of the place; we’re foodies! That made us suspicious, that maybe it wasn’t popular because of some odd reason. Anyways, a couple of weeks passed and we did make it to the restaurant. Here goes the complete review.

First impressions

Getting up to the 2^nd floor of Ambience mall in Vasant Kunj, it took us a couple of minutes to spot the restaurant. Unlike an Underdoggs, it didn’t have any prominent branding in the mall, so as to reiterate its presence. But then we saw it at a corner behind Chili’s and adjacent to PVR Directors Cut. Actually getting past Chili’s was tuff, because we know the delights Chili’s can serve.

Ambience

We stepped into the restaurant and the place was as gorgeous as the pictures on the web made it out to be. It seemed very formal too; the kind that’ll require you to come in closed shoes and collared shirts (akin to Kylin at the other corner of the mall); but it wasn’t the case. The restaurant seating is L-shaped. It has a lot of seating capacity; easily can fit 80 people. The seating options were varied too. There were tall bar stool sized seats with round tables; there were well cushioned red sofas, rotating smaller sized purple sofas for 2 people and then regular leveled seating too.

The yellow lighting and wooden flooring gave it a very 5 star hotel coffee shop kind of a feel. The 2 level wine-cellars looked impressive. The separate sections where Indian and Italian are cooked revealed the attention to detail that the restaurant management had.

Food

Food has always been and will continue to be the make or break of your food experience. While at the restaurant, looking at everything that was great we were anticipating the food to be a downer, but even here we were proved so wrong.

For starters, there was a complimentary serving of white bread with a garlic dip and white vens sauce.

In main course we ordered a chicken and cheese burger. This contained a grilled chicken thigh with cheese, bacon, tomatoes and tartar sauce. The burger buns were soft, yet didn’t crumble. The chicken patty with bacon was meaty and quite a mouthful. The tomatoes were a great partition between the buns and the patty, as it helped the burger be juicy.

Next in line was the ‘Venezian’ wood oven pizza. It had mozzarella, red onions, capers, kalamata olives and pine kernals. It was crisp and tasty. The red onions were a magic ingredient because they consistently gave that sweet caramelized taste, which works well for me.

We finished main course with cream and cheese fettuccini with sautéed pancetta, fresh parsley, french cream and pecorino cheese sauce. This was a very simple dish, well made and if you’re having a hard time selecting what to go for, this is a very good choice.

In dessert we tried the granny smith apple and blueberry crumble with vanilla ice-cream and sugar free. The taste was lip smacking again. However, despite having a sweet tooth, it was a wee bit sweeter than what it should have been.

A major point to highlight was that the portion size of all dishes was great. It was actually refreshing to see this.

Price

The place is very reasonably priced, in comparison to other fine dining restaurants. With all that was ordered above, we could say the average price for a meal for 2 (without drinks) would be approx. 1200.

Conclusion

It was a delight to have visited Mistral Grill and we’re sure to return soon. 1 visit put all our apprehensions to rest. The ambience, food, service and price, have just one thing written all over it – it’s a must visit restaurant in South Delhi.

- Karan Bhujbal, contributing author