Spain was on my mind, thanks to the developments in Barcelona, when I got a mail about a new café in Khan Market with what it described as a “Spanish Theme”. Ole, I said to myself, and landed up there.
The restaurant, called The Beer Café, is present in many parts of Delhi but has just opened up an outlet in Khan Market. It’s in the middle lane, on your right if you enter the lane from the Rabindra Nagar side. The cafe is on the second floor (Phone No. 9711316004).
It’s a neat place, with a bar on one side, comfortable sofas, tables for dining and a small terrace where you can sit and contemplate nature. There is music playing, but not so loud (as it is in several cafes) that you cannot hear yourself think.
They have a Spanish theme, but actually it has a lot of other stuff as well — from dim sums and Bruschetta to pasta, pizza and grilled food and from keema pao and biryani to even peanut chaat.
But my mind was on Spain, so I was keen on tapas and such like. A platter of tapas — Spanish finger-food — arrived, with pulled chicken, mustard and scallion herb fish, garlic prawn crostini, caprese, marinated olives, pickled gherkins and fried chillies (₹695).
The first dish to arrive was a prawn preparation — gambas al ajillo — prawns sizzled with garlic, chilli, parsley, olive oil and lemon (₹425). Then came the pollo al ajillo — pan-seared garlic chicken thigh, sausages and wings (₹375). And then there was coca-Catalan flatbread — oven-roasted vegetables, roasted tomatoes and fresh herbs (₹325).
The tapas were good, and I enjoyed the pulled chicken, the caprese — a piece of soft mozzarella and tomato stick — and the garlic prawn crostini served on a piece of small flat bread.
The platter included some basa fish, which I politely refused. Basa, in my opinion, is the fish world’s paneer.
The main prawn dish was served on a small slice of lemon, which gave it a nice tangy taste. The main flavours for the chicken and prawn dishes were similar, except that the chicken was chilli-hot. I enjoyed both.
I liked the Catalan flatbread quite a bit. One, of course, because of the developments in Catalonia, and, two, because it was a crispy thin-crust bread with some delicious roasted toppings.
It is almost like a pizza, but without the mandatory tomato sauce. It came with yellow and red roasted peppers, broccoli, zucchini, aubergines and tomatoes. The veggies were juicy, the bread was crisp, and the two complementary textures jived well together. And what added to the taste was the basil, which left its characteristically piquant flavours on the toppings of the flatbread.
It was quite a nice meal, and since I was in The Beer Café, I had some Belgian beer to go along with the food.
However, since the café has a vast wine collection, I think they should tone down their spices so that the food can complement the wine, and vice versa.
But the menu is interesting, the place is comfortable and the food, enjoyable. Muy buen, I’d say.