Chef at Large

We visited Blanco a few days back for a drink and some food.

Quite a nice place. Either I haven’t been getting around as much as I used to, or restaurants are becoming more and more daring and experimenting with bold themes for their decor. I did like the way Blancos was set up. The staff was quite friendly and attentive and we never had to wait for more than a few seconds for service.

They have these quaint wooden tables, a kind of ‘polished around the corners’ rough look, very dim fluoroscent lighting and quite uncomfortable chairs. They have a smoking section and serve drinks. Talking about drinks, for some reason, their bar just consists of a few cubby holes in the wall, where bottles are stacked two deep, which doesn’t let you see what exactly they have in stock. What they did have, didn’t seem like too much, but then looks can be deceptive.

Strangely, they *only* stock Kingfisher beer among the Indian variety, which we chose to avoid and instead selected ‘Tiger’ (125 a pop) - never drunk it before - quite nice. Also note, their peg size isn’t mentioned on the menu and it is the normal quantity - 30ml. Some places don’t mention it, but use 25ml as the norm.

The wine section of their bar menu was probably the most exhaustive I’ve seen in quite a while. While it was grossly overpriced, as retail liquor in India usually is, it did have different sections for different wines described as ‘full bodied’, ‘rich flavor’ and so on.

On to the food. The menu was very interesting, with a wide range of extremely tempting food. Curiously, it was hand written, which I guess is a nice touch.

We ordered a Sushi Platter (INR 500 for 8 pieces) to go with our meal. This included California Maki, Salmon Nigiri, Prawn and Zucchini rolls. They looked absolutely delicious! It was served with a dip (probably soya and rice vinegar and/or mirin), sushi ginger (gari) and wasabi paste. Quite nice, though the taste of the rice wasn’t coming through as it does when fresh. We also ordered ‘Legendary Vietnamese prawn rolls with Sweet Chilli Dip’ (INR 350 for 6 pieces). These too looked just the way they should and tasted fabulous. The dip served with it was very delicately flavored and just right.

In retrospect, we really should have had dinner here, however, plans dictated another location for dinner. I’m sure that too would have been just as great as the starters.

Definitely worth a visit.

Smoking: Yes | Alcohol: Yes | Meal for Two: INR 1500 | Cards: Yes

- Sid

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