Delicious, even four and a half meals later

Reason enough to try the new winter menu at La Piazza

Reason enough to try the new winter menu at La Piazza

As the days get shorter, the number of meals I take gets larger. I had already eaten four and a half meals by the time I reached La Piazza, one of the cosiest restaurants in the city, to try the new winter menu. Which, I warned, the rather patiently waiting (the wife was late as usual) Chef Alessandro, would make his job tougher than usual for this early dinner.

An ordinary start
We began with a Green salad with honey mustard dressing and creamy mushroom soup. The salad was just thatu00a0-- saladu00a0-- and there was nothing extraordinary about the soup either.

Better follow-up
By this time I had worked up an appetite after a particularly simulating debate and decided to have the Risotto before the main course. Unlike the soup, I did have an opinion on the Risotto. It was delicious and the chef's claim that he imported the wild mushrooms from some place in Italy did check out.

Much to the chagrin of my dinner companion, I let the server be generous with the Parmesan shavings, and who can go wrong with Parmesan? But there was nothing exclusive about the Risotto, nothing that would make me go all the way to The Hyatt from my small-townish comfort of GK I, II, Saket and Vasant Vihar.

Also, for the first time in the night, we agreed upon something when the wife said the same thing about the Chicken cannelloni with parmesan fondue.

We had to ask for the main course to be held back for 15 minutesu00a0-- am more a chalk than cheese personu00a0-- while I had some excellent wine to prepare for the Tenderloin. I was considering a seafood option but winter brings out the Neanderthal in me. It turned out to be a goodu00a0 decision because the Tenderloin was well-done and tender at the same time.

The Wild mushroom sauce, though excellent, seemed to be a tad too much after all the wild mushroom I had eaten in the Risotto. The Sea bass with eggplant caviar that was recommended to the wife, to my Bengali palate, was very good.

But she is not the one for Pan-fried fish and I think even told the chef that it should have been grilled. I am not sure because I had found dark nirvanau00a0-- there is no other kindu00a0-- in my all-time favourite Melting chocolate cake. No wonder I keep returning to The Hyatt despite my very
personal grudge of a luxury hotel charging a parking fee.

At: The Hyatt, Bhikaji Cama Place
Timings: Noon to 2.30 pm (Lunch) and 7 pm to 11.30 pm (Dinner)
Meal for two: Rs 3,000 + tax
Ring: 6677 1310