Raas, Hauz Khas Village

HKV (Hauz Khas Village) !! What an amazing growth this area has seen in terms of number of cool eating-out places.  To get a parking here after 9PM on a weekend is as much a challenge as getting a table reservation at some of popular places here like Amour, OTB (Out of the Box) Café, and Gunpowder (We never reviewed this place but its an easy 4/5 for South Indian Food) .

One fine late winter evening in Delhi, we decided to try this Indian and Pakistani cuisine place with a really “innovative” menu – Raas (with the same owners as OTB). The menu promised intriguing items like Wasabi Paneer Tikka and Lemon Grass Chicken Tikka, to name a few. So were we as amazed by the flavours of the place as the menu suggested? Let’s just say this was interesting and wasn't your regular eating out place. It did have a certain zing to it. Overall Rating 3/5

Why we might go again: We have seen a number of places choose interesting things to make a regular dish unique. Most of such places, however, struggle to do that successfully and you end up searching for that ‘different’ flavor. Thankfully, Raas was NOT one of those. The Lemon Grass Tikka was near perfect, and we can only imagine that the other such combinations would be good too. The vegetable galouti kebab came on small ulta-tawa parantha sorts and were melt in your mouth wonders.

Why we might not go again: The benchmark of all Mughlai cuisine places is probably Punjabi by Nature and Bukhara. These places are awesome because just to cater to a wider audience (read non-spice eaters) they don’t bow down to mellowing their dishes. They stick to their guns and provide that burst of flavour expected in this cuisine. This is where Raas fell short – most of the dishes, including the Pakistani chicken gravy that we tried, were a bit too mellow for our taste. Also, the ambience of the restaurant is more suited for large families or not-so-young couples (and we weren't any of those!)

Final Word: This is a place to go to when you are bored of trying “angrezi” cuisines and want to have something closer to the desi palette yet a bit different. Kudos to the Raas team for trying something innovative and coming out with, if not ‘flying’ then definitely ‘calmly cruising’ colours.