Shiro, Samrat Hotel, Delhi: The Grill Festival

Ingredients of a successful restaurant — delicious food, impeccable service, great location, absorbing interiors, good music, unique concept!

While it would be difficult to find a place that shall have perfected all of the above but there could be a few restaurants that can boast to have attained most of these. Shiro, a Japanese term for Castle is one such place that I found to have most of the above key elements that make it a must visit.

Shiro’s ambience not only exemplifies the grandness of Japanese castles through its high ceilings, tall Buddha sculptures and murals but has also used correct blend of wood and building material that has been a unique characteristic of Japanese castles for ages.

On my first visit to Shiro, I was attending the bloggers’ meet organized to taste the dishes being served on currently running “The Asian Grill Festival”. The menu has an interesting combination of vegetarian, poultry, seafood and meats. In starters, the lemon and soy glazed chicken (Rs 450) served with corn kernels had a strong lemon flavour topped with smoky hint. Grilled Korean basa (Rs 470) had a spicy Korean sauce with a pleasant taste of chilly, honey and vinegar. Would like to make a special mention of honey black bean prawns (Rs 550) . Marinated with an interesting combination of honey and black beans, the Prawns were grilled to perfection. The chilli miso chicken skewers (Rs 450) were nice however the chicken was under-spiced and under marinated and the flavors had not seeped in the Twice Cooked Chicken (Rs 450) that was first steamed and later grilled.

On Chef’s recommendation I agreed to have Distant Twilight – a unique Tequila based drink with tamarind and passion fruit. I was assuming that the drink would have pungent taste given the strong flavour of tamarind, but it was remarkable that the chef had been able to retain the sweetness of passion fruit. The brown colour made the drink exclusive, the taste was refreshing. The California sushi delighted with crunchy tempura fillings and soft sushi. Surprisingly the combination also went very well with the cocktail.

In the main course we had seven spiced pork belly (Rs 700), miso herb lamb chops (Rs 780) along with hibachi rice. The pork belly was caramelised and had a lovely glaze that added to the visual delight of dish. The even cuts of meat were succulent and full of flavours. Sprinkled with a mix of seven oriental spices, the dish was highlight of the meal.  The lamb chops were over done and hence chewy.

Meeting the blogging community along with good food and personal attention by Shiro’s General Manager,  Daljeet Singh Bindra, made the visit memorable. The nightlife at Shiro is much popular. I have to revisit Shiro for the nightlife, honey prawns and pork belly along with the exceptional drink, distant twilight.

Ratings (out of 5)

Drinks: 3.5 | Food: 3.5 | Ambience: 4.0 | Service:3.0 | Overall: 3.5

Meal for two: Rs 3000 | Alcohol: Yes | The Asian Grill Festival – Nov 11^th to Dec 8^th 2013

Address: Hotel Samrat, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi | Contact No: +91 11 26876310 – 11