MOSHE’S OLIVA
The capital court, Olof Palme marg, Munirka
Moshe’s Oliva seems to be the talk of the town since it opened last year. Bright, breezy and cheerful, this sixty seater restaurant has everything to hold the modern –day yuppie enthralled, with plenty of sunlight streaming in from the windows, from where you can get a good view of the clean surroundings.
Chef Moshe Shek ensures that all his dishes on the menu are worth a try and he would never keep anything on the menu which he doesn’t like.
Wondering what to order, went by the suggestion of the friendly restaurant manager Suman Sharma and started with Ribollita (Rs 95), a Tuscan soup, with fresh vegetables, tomato, olive oil and bread dumplings. The soup was accompanied with warm and fresh breads from their in house bakery- indeed a good start!
The Stir fried Chicken honey and hoisin with bean sprouts, peppers and sesame on fresh lettuce salad (Rs 185) is absolutely a must try.
For main course we ordered Char grilled Rawas with caper, lime and coriander sauce (Rs 275), which was served along with roasted Mediterranean vegetables and Conchigle with aged olive oil, zucchini, peppers, mushroom, garlic and fresh marjoram (Rs 190), one, has the option to add chicken at an additional cost of Rs 75 and turn the vegetarian pastas into non-Veg. Both the main course dishes were nice and had freshness in the taste. For upkeep of freshness I’m told they are very particular about the quality of meat and fish and also the vegetables so much so that they even have an herb garden on their terrace.
“Hameen (Rs 275), a traditional Sabbath pot roast of chicken, rice, potatoes and spices, cooked overnight in the oven, served with crusty bread, is Moshe’s favorite dish and he mostly chooses to have that for a meal himself” says Suman, who’s worked with Moshe at Athena (Mumbai) as well. Although I did not much care for the Vanilla Crème Brulee, (Rs 80) which I ordered, there are other tantalizing desserts at the counter ranging from black bottom pie (Rs 90) a gooey chocolate soft crust tart, served warm with vanilla ice-cream, to Cinnamon apple crumble tart (Rs 90).
Moshe is planning to have a takeaway counter for his breads, desserts and cookies since they have lot of visitors to the restaurant who rarely leave without a loaf or two or pick up cookies and desserts to carry back home. They also make breads and cookies to suit special dietary needs. Service is good. Restaurant is open seven days a week from 10 am to 11pm.Reservations advised at lunch time.