Nook, Vatika Business Park, Sohna Road, Gurgaon: Old World Charm

The ‘Nook’ at Vatika Business Park has been in existence for more than a year and even though I have heard some good feedback of the place, I never got an opportunity to visit the place until last Wednesday. The huge space is divided in three sections – Restaurant, Cafe and the party hall. I am told that cafe is soon being converted to a private lounge.

Nook can seat almost 90 people and I am happy to see the old world charm at this restaurant. The not too brightly lit up set-up with hand crafted light glasses and interiors mostly done mostly in wood, including the ceiling and the walls, with the carpeted floor are nostalgic. These days most restaurants try to appeal to the youngsters and hence give more casual and industrial look. Perhaps this is also to save on the interiors cost. Nook pleases with its interiors and soft instrumental music, however it does get a bit noisy when full.

Nook serves Indian, Oriental and Continental dishes and I stick to Indian cuisine this time except for ordering the Chinese soup. The Lemon Coriander soup has good flavour of coriander but lemon flavours are very subdued. The Veg Kebab Platter is complete value for money with enough kebabs for atleast three diners. I enjoyed the Cheese Stuffed Mushroom and especially the Kandhaari aloo. The platter also has Palak ke Sholey, Seekh Kebab and Paneer Tikka. In the non vegetarian section, I love the Sikandari Raan. This is a very interesting way to present the raan where it is wrapped in big size roti dough and baked. This ensures that this moist and juicy raan stay warm for long enough to eat.

In the main course Lal maas is served with Rajasthani baati. This baati is made so tough that I could not even break it using my both hands. But both the quality of meat and flavours of lal maas are intact. I loved their Dal Makhani too.

For desserts I try the homemade Figs Icecream. Figs are used in abundance with lots of flavours but there is no air in the iccream and it tastes more like figs kulfi.

Given the number of people I could see on a week day, I can well understand that Nook is very popular with its patrons. Especially the live bollywood and sufi night on Friday and Saturday would see even more footfalls. This place deserve a visit.

• Pawan Soni

(Post first published in Suburb Magazine, Gurgaon)

Ratings (Out of 5)

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

Meal for Two: Rs 1500 | Wheel Chair Friendly: Yes | Credit Card: Yes | Alcohol: Yes

Address: Ground Floor, Tower A, Vatika Business Park, Sohna Road, Gurgaon | Phone: 0124-4253222

Disclaimer: This review was done on an invitation from the restaurant. Due judgement and care has been applied by the author to remain objective and unbiased in the review, but readers need to consider this review keeping this fact in mind.