There are only a few restaurants in Delhi NCR who serve the actual authentic Italian cuisine , the rest serving the ” Indianized” versions of it. Italian is a beautiful cuisine which the Indian palette finds quite less spicy and as they say ” Pheeka ” reason being less spices and less pasta sauce on Pasta’s, so the Indian restaurants started adding a lot of spices and sauce to make it more Indian and hence loosing the beautiful cuisine’s authenticity.
Thankfully this place is serving Authentic Italian food, a bit enhanced I agree, but doing great justice to the amazing Italian cuisine.
So this place is located in Holiday Inn, the first Hotel in the row there.
Warmly greeted by the hotel staff, the hotel looked beautiful, with a Vertical garden just on my entrance. Upon entering the restaurant the manager very warmly greeted us and made us seated.
The interior was very colorful and chic, I was thinking it to be a fine dine but it wasn’t. Beautiful colorful walls with quotes and pictures of Rome and Italy. With pretty Vespa’s parked inside, because in Italy and Rome due to traffic problems people have started using Vespa’s instead of cars. A area with a glass wall, which I’m sure will look really good in the rains. They had this open kitchen with a coffee machine brewing amazing coffee. This place had wooden chairs and tables with a casual setting and a perfect place for my family to talk and chill.
For starters we ordered-
1. Arancini Funghi- Served in a tin basket with pomodoro sauce which was actually very good. They were mushroom risotto balls with melting mozzarella. It’s good a cool thing as you know you can share it with everyone while you chat and the quantity is all quite good.
2.Chicken WIngs Italiano- Marinated with garlic, lemon and chilli and served with romaine lettuce and garlic mayo. It was quite tangy and the chicken was well prepared.
3. Calamari- I had never tried a squid, and was actually in a mood to experiment. It was a lightly breaded and deep fried tender squid served with garlic mayo, the taste was fine and I regret not tasting it before.
Coming to Pizza’s we ordered-
4 Cheese pizza- I could actually feel the different flavors of cheese blending in my mouth. The pizza was a thin crust with a very crunchy base. If you’re a cheese lover like me. This is a must to try!
5. Chicken Barbecue- I’m not sure if everyone will like it, as its a bit sweet but its amazing. I mean you have to try it. The crispy base with the barbecue sauce and chicken topped with excellence. I absolutely drooled over it as it was just so amazing. We re-ordered it. I totally recommend this pizza, you’ll love it.
6. Pizza Vita- Olive- So this one was ordered by my super health conscious sister, there was a very little buffalo mozzarella cheese on top, fresh basil, cheery tomatoes and olives as the toppings. So my sister really liked it, but being a cheese lover I was just done in one bite.
7. Calzone- We ordered a veg calzone, it was thin and looked absolutely drool worthy. Full of cheese, roasted peppers, roasted red onions, mozzarella, goat cheese, baby spinach, black olives, peperonta sauce.
8. Risotto spinaci- Creamy spinach risotto with lemon zest & rocket leaves finished with garana padno cheese shaving. It was just average.
9. Lamb Shank- Lamb shank slow cooked in red wine, garlic and rosemary sauce, served beautifully with mashed potatoes and green peas. The lamb was so juicy and soft, spiced up beautifully.
10. Pasta Carpa- It was a red sauce pasta, but not arabbiata sauce. It was not at all spicy and had this salted cheese on top. So, I’ll suggest if you’re ordering this first try it with cheese, if you like it only then mix the cheese with the pasta, because it can make it quite salty. However I loved it with cheese!
11. Ricotta e funghi ravioli- It was really soft and I actually loved how well it was cooked and all my cousins loved it, but my palate being Indian I mixed a pit pasta carapa’s sauce to make it a bit spicy and tasty. Hehe, then I loved it.
After having alot of food, we ordered all the desserts,
starting from-
12. Limoncello meringue pie- I have never in life tasted something like this ever before. IT WAS SO GOOOD! Crispy soft crust pastry filled with limoncello custard topped with soft meringue. It was an ultimate refreshing pie, I hid on my lap so I could eat all by myself and I don’t have to share it anyone, because desserts are not meant for sharing is my motto and I follow it very strictly. Haha you have to HAVE to order this.
13. Cookie Dough Lava Cake- Served with Vanilla ice cream, it was a moist chocolate chip cookie cake and as I sliced it into two, melted chocolate started to ooze out. If you’re a cookie and chocolate lover, you’ll love this.
14. Pannacotta- Creamy Pannacotta served with Cherry sauce. It was very creamy and certainly I’m not a cream fan. However I loved the combination of cream and cherry!
15. Chocolate Divaola-Mosit chocolate fudge cake topped with vanilla ice cream. Can chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream ever go wrong? NO! It was amazing!
16. Tiramisu- Layered amaretto and coffee savolardi with mascarpone cream and a light cocoa dusting. I loved it :’)
Zingy Zest 