Sohum Sutras: Qla: Restaurant review

Facing Qutub Minar is Qla, a contemporary and atmospheric restaurant with wooden floors and a menu of pan-European cuisine. It is a great venue for hosting events, meetings and parties.

Where the Qutab Minar touches the sky
blending the past with today
There stands a quaint place called Qla
far from the crowd, tucked away

Nestled in what they call the kila
An icon of modernity and style
Fine dining with European cuisine
with a natural atmosphere that makes you smile

French, Italian and Spanish influences
Imported meats, seafood, cocktails and wines
Intricate preparations, unique textures and balanced flavours
Making Qla a dream place to dine

Warm interiors, classic cafe chairs
and wood decor to give a graceful feel
Lounge music and candlelight ambience
Creating a tasteful and unique appeal

Come to Qla to quench your taste buds
Come to Qla and let yourself go
Take back an experience which is unforgettable
Qla-straight out of a European Bistro

The 3-year-old restaurant is the brainchild of Chef Priyam Chatterjee and Prateek Arora, who has been awarded Sommelier of the year. Recently they have launched a new menu for winters- fall-winter collection. They have a live kitchen and an excellent bar. Prateek pairs the wines with food so well that you are left spellbound. The service was a bit slow and can definitely be improved. The food gets full marks. It is picturesque, well presented, delicious food. The pairing of wines gets full marks too. I had tasters menu that did not leave me palette fatigued. Yet, I tasted everything, small portions in the original dishes in which they are served.
They seemed to be really focused. Qla is not just about hype created about concepts but they are about substance, where every bite and sip counts. For them, food is like the whole orchestra that comes together- food and wine, ambience, music, etc. Their idea is to keep it easy and organic. Thankfully, it was not some crazy food that would leave you overwhelmed. All your senses will come out feeling very happy from Qla.
Check out the food and wines we had.

^{I had first Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. It is}not French wine. For Sauvignon, the home is actually France but Chile also does it. It is a new world- signature style. It comes from Caliterra winery. It is fruit and grassy kind.
I also tasted Paul Jaboulet Parallel 45- French wine. This was heavenly delicious. One of the best wines I ever had. This wine is exclusively available only with Qla. It is from Rhone valley origin which passes through Leon. This region is known for 4 kinds of grapes.

^{Whites- viognier and Grenache Blanc}

^{Reds- syrah and Grenache}

^{This one is a blend of Viognier and Grenache.}

I was intrigued by Chef's tattoos. It had various fruits and vegetables and reads- MENU

Chef Priyam Chatterjee and Prateek Arora

We started with fresh ginger ale. Though it said fresh, I was missing the freshness of it, to be honest.

The garden 2017. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian. It had 16 diff ingredients. Perfectly prepared. Herbs are grown in the courtyard and plucked fresh.

Nice and crisp on the outside and perfectly tender inside. It tasted very fresh.

The sauce was very complimentary. It did not take away from the flavour of fish. It had smooth, creamy flavour and still gave kick from the chilli. It had a very nice balance. We polished it off. It looked beautiful and tasted delicious.

Pan seared Shimeji- Japanese mushroom

Appetizer- base with wild mushroom pate and black truffle oil

Sauce with white wine and butter. The only thing I could say about this was yum yum yum!

Baron- canard of duck- duck breast- served with fresh ricotta and confit of duck leg with reduced balsamic and herb oil. It was divine. It did not take away from the flavour of duck. Ricotta worked well with it. Little more balsamic could have been better though.

Steam silken tofu layered with French whole grain mustard. confit of garlic served with charred baby carrots and coconut veloute. This was my least favourite. But that could be my personal choice since I am not a big fan of tofu.

New Zealand lamb lion served with cumin jus

^{Wilted Dutch spinach- baby spinach.}Lamb was really amazing- perfectly cooked, medium rare. spinach had a lovely garlic flavour.

^{Compressed lentil cake- with a sauce of saffron and yellow bell pepper finished with herb crust and parmesan cheese. Usually, we see polenta. Here the chef gave the dish a twist and created his own version. It smelled great, had a good aroma and flavour but was too dry and was not my favourite. I have to confess.}

^{Fresh tagliatelle}with saffron and garlic sauce with fried basil and 21 age parmesan

^{The pasta was al dente (to the tooth. with a bit of a bite). But I liked it. It was delicious.}

^{Honeydew cilantro with}martini.

Crepes with wild mushroom and sautéed pumpkin with a sauce of kasundi madras curry. I loved it. It had a great taste of finely chopped, lots of mushrooms.

^{Bengal spot prawns with jade sauce avocado mousse, coriander and wasabi emulsion. It had a kick of peppery flavour. The shrimp was so good. perfectly cooked and had balanced flavours.}

Vulgar john- smoked pineapple vodka and fennel seeds.

^{Norwegian salmon (best salmon in the world) with}raspberry and green chilli, coriander emulsion by side. Tamarind and balsamic reduction. We had the winner. The skin melted in the mouth. You did not even taste it. It was amazing. They fly it fresh not frozen.