review : Tamra, the all day dining restaurant at Shangri-La | good food that lifts spirits

Last weekend we tried the food at Tamra, the newly launched all day dining restaurant at Shangri-La hotel here in Delhi. I was a bit sad as we walked upstairs realizing Tamra has actually replaced the 19 Oriental Avenue, the restaurant we have been to several times and have loved the dimsums,  sushi  and teppanyaki there, I thought we will miss our favourites from the older restaurant. We were in for a pleasant view of a beautifully designed spacious restaurant with a theme of Copper (Tamra means Copper in Sanskrit). A beautiful amalgamation of rustic and modern, the use of jute ropes as screens, wooden rolling pins as canopy, copper hued upholstery and crockery and pure Copper pots and pans making a hanging installation brings a very interesting vibe to this place.

You see the beautifully designed bar on your left side as you enter. We decided to stay off alcohol and enjoy the food more. The welcome drink was a guava based refreshing chilled drink (named as The big wave) served in an interesting glass. I loved the intense guava-cranberry combination with hints of Litchi and citrus. The mocktail was just rightly sweet for us.

Then we took a tour of the whole restaurant that actually boasts of five live stations with different cuisines. The Japanese counter and teppanyaki grill made me happy, we ordered sushi and tenderloin and prawns from the live grill. Was glad to see the Japanese food has not changed one bit, it was as good as the erstwhile 19 Oriental Avenue. The soups and dimsums from Asian counter were perfect too, you can actually make your own soup by choosing the ingredients of choice from the counters.

There is buffet as well as a-la-carte options you can choose from. The signature paneer wrap is presented well, signifies street food and is well done. But there are far better options on the menu than this I must add.

The Continental counter is interesting and very functional with aesthetic hot plates and cast iron pans. The background at this counter has a wall of planter boxes with wheat grass growing live. There is a huge elaborate salad counter where one can make a salad of choice. One is spoilt for choice here too. There were some ready salads on the platters as well, I loved the red cabbage and corn and an apple orange and walnut salad too.

I tried the polenta and lasagna too, polenta was very good while lasagna was okay. The good thing is, you can find something or the other that interest you or can get it made to taste at the live counters. Win win situation for a diner in fact.

The Indian counter has an elaborate station for chaats that I gave a miss. But this chaat selection would be a delight for chaat lovers I know. Various pickles and chutneys are added attraction to the Indian menu. I tasted the fish tikka and found it really good.

Chef Nattasak Montri from the Thai counter sent a massaman curry and fish in black bean sauce for us to taste and it was so good with warm jasmine sticky rice. I strongly recommend the dimsums, the soups and curries from the Asian counter.

They have a separate counter for made to order home style Indian food too, so you can choose your vegetables and they would cook a simple daal chawal subzi meal for you as per choice. How cool is that to have in an all day dining restaurant.

I will be back to try more foods from the Oriental, Japanese and Continental counters, may be more salads as I found the selection of salad dressings really impressive.

The ice creams and gelatos, fruit yogurts are all done in house and made fresh everyday. The dessert counter is elaborate, you can get crepes and cakes made to order as per your choice. There is an antique oven installed at the dessert counter to serve freshly baked hot desserts like lava cakes, creme brulee, souffle etc.

The Tamra chocolate is a specialty that they serve on the table. Hot toffee sauce is poured over a globe of chocolate that melts and oozes more chocolate from inside. I liked it but being a person who doesn't appreciate chocolate much I would go for the gelatos and frozen yogurts with loads of fresh fruits on offer. There are ample choices for everyone, every palate I must say. Go experience the fun if you like food from all corners of the world.

Last but not the least I loved flipping through the pages of the coffee table book by Shangri La. It has very informative snippets about Chinese-Oriantal ingredients and detailed recipes too.