Experience a slice of Indian history

WD House is nothing like its elder brother and the super successful Whistling Duck in Chandigarh. While its sibling is all about luxury dining, cosy romantic dates, jazz gigs, seasoned generously with a gastronomic roller coaster courtesy Whistling Duck’s old hand, chef Richa Johri. WD House is a polar opposite. As one enters the place, all the notions that the Mehrotra couple of Ambar and Ragini (co-owners) are trying to replicate the same look here quickly disappear. The 90 plus cover restaurant is a breezy fillip from gaudy, garish eateries that have become obliquely synonymous with Dilli. Minimalist, unpretentious, it is clean in architectural details, which have been borrowed from Le Corbusier, the man who designed Chandigarh. The walls, as the facade, are plain-bearing with sporadic frames of black and white photographs that narrate the tale of early Indian modernism. The era reflects in the menu, according to Ambar, and embodies a young nation’s spirit of being progressive and inventive. While we listen to the host, a smiling staff hands over a file — the kind babus sweat over in sarkari offices. It turns out to be the menu. 

Food: “The food at WDH is a preservation of Indian regional recipes and interpretation of global cuisine within our local context,”says Johri even as we marvel at locals like bael ras, dhakai chaat, misa mach poora, happily placed against exotic dishes like spinach and rosemary broiche, gnocchi con fungi, guay tiew moo and sundubu jjigae. There are some unusuals too like eel, karela, gobindobhog. 

We quench our parched throat with Rhododendron Squash-refreshing both in taste and the experiment of using the flower from the hills as a beverage. Not overly sweet, the drink is healthy too as the plant is powered with antioxidants. Next is kokum saar — the garlic and hing in the cooler blends nicely with the sourness of kokum. In between sips, through the open kitchen Johri can be seen preening and fussing over her signature karela salad.

The vegetable will find many takers as the bitterness is cleverly camouflaged. Crisp roundles of bitter gourd are laced with tangy raw mango dressing. Smoked beetroot and chevre salad, that has smoked chicken, lots of greens in pleasantly flavoured orange and mint dressing easily wins us over. The salads  are, however, priced steeply at Rs 650 and Rs 750 respectively. 

Cleansing the palate with jamun and dill mattha (mildly sweet lassi), we take a spoonful of Dhakai chaat, a delicacy from eastern Bengal that has arbi as its surprise element. The saunth has the right flavour and the papadi is fluffy and crunchy inspite of the chutney. Next come edamame dumplings and almond crab cake. The latter is average, hardly doing justice to the seafood, and leaving a greasy layer on the palate. The dumplings, meanwhile, resting in a warm broth, are delicately soft in texture and taste. Current love of a lot of chefs, blue cheese is served in Tomato tarte tartin, bite size pastry that doesn’t let us stop at one bite. The chef finally brings the celebrity dish, tabak maaz— shallow fried mutton ribs, served with a dash of plum and ginger chutney accompanied with springs of onion. It is an ideal melange of juicy, succulent mutton with sweetness and spiciness of plum and ginger, with bouquet of cardamom and kesar fragrance. The onions that are dashed with raw mustard oil are an added explosion of flavour in the mouth. Murg bano-chicken pieces wrapped in egg and bread crumbs, smokily grilled, is a meal in itself, the only drawback the cost. Though a meal in itself, the price of `700 makes it expensive. We also savour Johri’s signature, haleem. The aroma of desi ghee wafts around as we take in generous helpings of the comfort food that consists of broken wheat, mutton, and lentils. Sri Lankan curry Elu Mas Boreta is spicy, pepper playing a key role in it. It is Tauq dal (gobindobhog served with dhuli moong cooked in fresh sugarcane juice and raw mango) that steals our heart away. 

The stomach almost bursting with the food and sensory overload, desserts do not seem a wise proposition but Ambar is insistent on just two of the six. We try Mango and passion fruit verrine. Kafir lime and black pepper shards in the dessert is proof of Johri’s craftsmanship. The orange creme brûlée served with coffee rusk just about breaks our vow to consume sugar moderately. It is one happy marriage of orange zang and bitterness of coffee, gooey brûlée matched with crusty rusk. 

As a wrap up to an expensive but delish meal, try the mountain rose and Darjeeling oolong tea from their specially curated tea box and don’t forget to read the fine print at the bottom of the menu that says, ‘Our food is best enjoyed in good company. Please keep the phone on silent’. 

Meal for two Rs 3,500 plus taxes
Where: WD House, M Block market, GK-II