Red, Gold Souk Road, Gurgaon: Pretentious

[Rated: 2.0/5]

As I entered R.E.D., even though the aroma wasn’t pleasing and was smelling of fresh furniture, the clean ambience pleasantly stunned me. I was expecting anything but the neatly laid out table in a comforting atmosphere. The village market on the Gold Souk road has transformed, and become a heaven for corporate crowd who want to throng here for BYOB (Bring your own booze) Aahataas. This still remains a non-approved market where government taxes are not levied.

Buddha paintings on shiny red sheets on the wall with dim spot light look classy at night, but the vinyl carpet was out of place at would soon get dirty and smelly at this new restaurant which is located at a place which is not known for clean surroundings.

It looked like that finally there is a restaurant which can fulfil the gap between street food and known restaurants on the pricing front, and I looked forward for the menu to be served. Started as a pan-Asian restaurant, R.E.D. claims to keep everything a good restaurant should – from Pork, to Prawns, to Lobster, to Sushis. This made me uncomfortable. Without proper storage and good turn-over these ingredients are the recipe for disaster. But who am I to comment on storage if it can draw good crowd and manage the turnaround.

Menu however was shocking. Most products were priced obnoxiously high for the location. I immediately compared the pricing to the better restaurants in Gurgaon, and each of the dishes barring soup or noodles were atleast 20-30% higher to the best in class.

I still ordered for Dimsum, Korean Kimchi, Pork Spare Ribs and Lemon-Coriander Chicken soup with egg drop. The soup came after over 30 min. It was comforting at best, and tasted like a good Chinjabi soup, immediately taking away the tag of ‘authentic’ Pan-Asian. Owner was busy taking orders while other guests were now getting restless for their order and trying to call the waiter who was no-where in sight. There were guests who came from nearby Aahata, drunk, and negotiated for discounts even before ordering.

That was the time I decided to make a move without eating anything further. If I am going to pay through my nose, then it better be an authentic place, at better surroundings, and with efficient service. Such pretentious place with dim lights seems dinghy at night and surrounded by village and Aahatas could be an invitation for trouble and given the recent incident in Delhi may better be avoided.

Ratings out of 5

Food: 2.5 | Ambiance: 3.0 | Service: 1.5 | Overall: 2.0

Meal for Two: Rs 2000 | Alcohol: No | Credit Card: Yes| Timing: 7.30PM – 11.30PM

Address: Red, Gold Souk Road, Sector 52, Near Wazirabad, Gurgaon