I happened to be in New Delhi for a couple of days. Other than the business agenda, the plan was to visit atleast 2 watering holes without the worry of 11.30 closing time. Well what is an “11.30 deadline”, never dare ask a Bangalorean.
Staying close to Connaught Place or CP as everyone calls it has its advantages though you may not get a auto/cab from the Taj Mansingh Hotel to reach CP. Did a random survey and landed up at Q’BA in the Inner Circle area of CP. Next time, I should just look up in Mouthshut. Blame it on me being old fashioned for preferring word of mouth rather than looking up MS.
As we entered Q’BA we liked the entrance, lot of space with a neat bar area surrounded by glasses and high stools. Being non-smokers we were whisked to the first floor area inside the place, we gave the open air space, a miss. Before the order was completed, we decided to move to the smoking section as we liked the 2 high stools table just next to the bar, not to close not to far. The position of this table was good considering the ambience.
There was a limited vegetarian menu, atleast for the likes of me, paneer doesn’t qualify as a vegetable. Apologies to those cottage cheese lovers, but the steward was willing to coax the chef substitute the paneer items in a subz platter. The platter was good and went well with the fresh draught beer. Coming from Bangalore, sometimes I get very finicky about the date of the draught barrel, it has to be of the same day or the day before, period.
Well there was fresh draught here and willing to please steward. Fairly crowded for a Monday night, I could say. The waiters took good care of us for the chutneys and ketchups. After trying out most of their vegetarian fare, it was time to leave the joint. The best one went by the name "Tandoor Subz" or something.
The lighting and the ambience was not in your face, but nice. To sum it up, good starters, fresh beer and never-to-miss-a-moment waiters made up for nice evening at Q’BA. It is definitely on my to-do list when I visit the Capital again.