’Chi’lled out

Did you know the humble Americanised Italian pizza is actually chinese? Find out more at Chi in Saket

Did you know the humble Americanised Italian pizza is actually chinese? Find out more at Chi in Saket

There are a few advantages of
visiting a restaurant set in a mall. For one, if you are largely bored, you can get entertained by watching the amusing scenes that go on in the bustling shopping mall outside. Or you can give into the mall rat/shopaholic in you and indulge in some retail therapy of your own -- the food be damned.

Trouble is, such places are not the best if you want to unwind, especially if you have a quiet afternoon or evening in mind (unless you go very late in the evening, say post 10 pm when most of the shops are closed anyway) or just want to be with yourself. But for families, such places come as a boon, if you aren't largely worried about the dent it would make in your otherwise fat wallet. These, and the thoughts of some prawn skewers were on my mind when I walked into Chi, in Select Citywalk Mall.

Keeping warm
The first thing I liked was that the menu card had a glossary of terms often used to name or describe Chinese cuisine. This is of great help to people who would blindly order a dish without knowing what it actually is, like tempura or congee or yakitori for that matter.

I also liked the fact that they have a whole host of choices for the tea drinkers and that includes the best of Darjeeling and Assam tea and even the Kashmiri kahwa. These make for perfect beverages during the cold winters when you want to shy away from the drinks and the cold coffees. And like I figured out, they go pretty well with the Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine that are available here.u00a0

Don't dump these
I started with some hot dumplings along with Kahwa. The dumplings were delicious. I tried the seafood dumpling and Chicken and coriander dumpling which were both very well cooked.

A friend, who is a regular at this place, had waxed eloquent about the prawn skewers here. So that was obviously a must order, though when I had it, I was a tad disappointed. It was okay, but nothing to write home about.

The spice trail
If you are a big eater, go for the Hunan pot for main course. It's a delight for chicken lovers with generous amounts of chicken on a bed of rice and comes in a pot.

It is impossible for one person to finish all of it alone so I would suggest you share and if you have gone alone, order something else. It tastes good even if it's had all by itself but I tried some Singapore style chilli prawns which were spicy as spicy can be.

Happy ending
For desserts, I was quite tempted to try something chocolate (yes again), but went with the
manager's suggestion -- Dates, toasted nut and honey pie with vanilla ice cream. And I didn't get back home disappointed.

At: g-70, ground floor, select citywalk, saket
Timings: noon to midnight
Ring: 40566919
Meal for two: Rs 1,000 + taxes