BY NIMMI RAGHUNATHAN
The thing about Indian food is its variety and adaptability. The potato is made into a curry in every home; still in each home, just the sleight of the cook’s hand or a pinch of a different spice, yields a marvelous new dish. Indian chef Sanjeev Kapoor takes full advantage of this, picking up a host of flavors from across gastronomic...
The thing about Indian food is its variety and adaptability. The potato is made into a curry in every home; still in each home, just the sleight of the cook’s hand or a pinch of a different spice, yields a marvelous new dish. Indian chef Sanjeev Kapoor takes full advantage of this, picking up a host of flavors from across gastronomic...
India and then mixing and mashing his way through, giving a joyful kick to the food. So, while the gourmet may say there really is nothing special about his recipes, his food still intrigues. Most times, he has homemakers dissecting a dish and rushing off to replicate it in their kitchens. Kapoor has shrewdly monetized this interest. In the food empire that straddles continents, Kapoor has in his stable the Yellow Chilli brand of restaurants. In SoCal, his franchisees are the couple Satwinder and Kamal Gothra along with their partner Manoj Sukumaran. The restaurant, clearly aware of what will draw customers, bears a huge image of the celebrity chef at the entry. While that might be the USP of the place, the Gothras are clear – there is freedom in day to day operations.
Under them the restaurant, previously home to another Indian eatery, has had a facelift. New to the industry, the duo have admittedly had their fair share of stumbles but a year into their new venture, say they are on firmer ground. The buffet prices have been dropped and Indo-Chinese, Italian and Thai dishes added. The weekend buffet features a live counter where the street food offering changes every week. Then there are pre-set lunch meals where the sticker price is not a surprise. The adjacent banquet hall remains busy with anniversaries, wedding events and birthday parties.
But undoubtedly, the food is the star here with the famed Kapoor twist evident. The jalfrezi features water chestnuts and broccoli; one fish dish comes flavored with mustard and dill leaves; coriander pesto coats a mango and sprout salad while arugula and pomegranate bond with sweet potato in another salad plate.
Reading the menu is half the entertainment here. The names hint toward what the dish might be but necessitates reading the description. Tandoor mushrooms stuffed with cheese is shabnam ke moti; subz panchavati is a veggie dish that probably is meant to invoke the holy town in Maharashtra. The menu also offers a culinary tour of India. The steamed Parsi patrani machchli; from Kolkata’s Chowringee Lane is a chili chicken; Awadh cuisine’s offering is a kabab that traditionally includes green papaya; Kerala is represented through coconut milk infused fish and Tamil Nadu with a beetroot and pea stir fry. Mostly though, the focus is Punjab so there is the obligatory Amritsar and Ludhiana inspired ones. he signature dishes are stand outs. There is the opaquely named shaam savera which when it comes to the table conjures the idea of the bread-based birds in nest dish. It is actually balls of blanched spinach lined with fried chickpea flour and stuffed with paneer. Cut in half, on a bed of tomato gravy, the dark spinach is becomes shaam or evening and the bright white paneer, the morning.
Aloo nazakat involves boiling, frying and baking the potato and at the table stuffed with a multitude of ingredients including cheese and lentils, it is a tongue pleaser. When the lalla mussa dal comes out from the kitchen, the chef Surajit Kumar Barai follows to explain that the dish was 36 hours in the making. At first glance it looks like mush but is a splendid, robust dish that is creamy and spicy all at once. Another dish is straight up what it says it is: ginger and cilantro coat the cubes of the adraki dhaniya paneer for a crunchy outside. Indeed paneer dominates the vegetarian menu. Kapoor was in the news recently for creating the infamous Malabar paneer, when he took the Arab, Brahmin, Zamorin and Chirakkal influenced cuisine and threw in the paneer which is foreign to the region, drawing heavy fire. But whether griddled, stuffed or scorched in the tandoor, this cheese is used with versatility and spiced uniquely at Yellow Chilli, for the diner to savor. For one who is partial to chicken, this casual dining restaurant will provide satiation. Satwinder says the restaurant only uses thigh meat, a favored cut for the Indian palate. Squarely aimed at the discerning Punjabi is the Puran Singh da tariwala murgh: the peppery curry mimics a roadside eatery on the Delhi-Ambala roadway. Chicken tikka here, again with fanciful names, are of various varities – creamy, spiced with bedgi chilli or flavored with key lime. Whatever the dish, the meat falls apart with a gentle nudge of the fork. Another point he makes is that the restaurant does not use artificial coloring; the tandoori chicken looks like meat not a bolt of fire.
Yellow Chilli of course has a slew of breads including a gluten free one, rice that of course has the ever popular biryani – finished in the oven, it gets served in a hot clay pot and a range of pleasing non-alcoholic drinks that are salted and sweetened. Here, you will not find the ubiquitous mango lassi. “It’s retired!” exclaims the energetic Kamal who is the PR and marketing brain of the operation.
The restaurant has a full bar and the Gothras have in place a happy hour every day. An attractive feature particularly given that it is situated in a touristy neighborhood where at the end of the day the SoCal visitor can come and unwind. Satwinder says the aim of the place is to see that everyone has an exceptional experience with food, family and friends. Cheerfully blunt, he says his challenge over the months has been to keep the kitchen consistent but the restaurant has now hit its stride.
The food is expansive in its flavors, faultlessly delicious and very rich. If that’s for you, head out there.
Under them the restaurant, previously home to another Indian eatery, has had a facelift. New to the industry, the duo have admittedly had their fair share of stumbles but a year into their new venture, say they are on firmer ground. The buffet prices have been dropped and Indo-Chinese, Italian and Thai dishes added. The weekend buffet features a live counter where the street food offering changes every week. Then there are pre-set lunch meals where the sticker price is not a surprise. The adjacent banquet hall remains busy with anniversaries, wedding events and birthday parties.
But undoubtedly, the food is the star here with the famed Kapoor twist evident. The jalfrezi features water chestnuts and broccoli; one fish dish comes flavored with mustard and dill leaves; coriander pesto coats a mango and sprout salad while arugula and pomegranate bond with sweet potato in another salad plate.
Reading the menu is half the entertainment here. The names hint toward what the dish might be but necessitates reading the description. Tandoor mushrooms stuffed with cheese is shabnam ke moti; subz panchavati is a veggie dish that probably is meant to invoke the holy town in Maharashtra. The menu also offers a culinary tour of India. The steamed Parsi patrani machchli; from Kolkata’s Chowringee Lane is a chili chicken; Awadh cuisine’s offering is a kabab that traditionally includes green papaya; Kerala is represented through coconut milk infused fish and Tamil Nadu with a beetroot and pea stir fry. Mostly though, the focus is Punjab so there is the obligatory Amritsar and Ludhiana inspired ones. he signature dishes are stand outs. There is the opaquely named shaam savera which when it comes to the table conjures the idea of the bread-based birds in nest dish. It is actually balls of blanched spinach lined with fried chickpea flour and stuffed with paneer. Cut in half, on a bed of tomato gravy, the dark spinach is becomes shaam or evening and the bright white paneer, the morning.
Aloo nazakat involves boiling, frying and baking the potato and at the table stuffed with a multitude of ingredients including cheese and lentils, it is a tongue pleaser. When the lalla mussa dal comes out from the kitchen, the chef Surajit Kumar Barai follows to explain that the dish was 36 hours in the making. At first glance it looks like mush but is a splendid, robust dish that is creamy and spicy all at once. Another dish is straight up what it says it is: ginger and cilantro coat the cubes of the adraki dhaniya paneer for a crunchy outside. Indeed paneer dominates the vegetarian menu. Kapoor was in the news recently for creating the infamous Malabar paneer, when he took the Arab, Brahmin, Zamorin and Chirakkal influenced cuisine and threw in the paneer which is foreign to the region, drawing heavy fire. But whether griddled, stuffed or scorched in the tandoor, this cheese is used with versatility and spiced uniquely at Yellow Chilli, for the diner to savor. For one who is partial to chicken, this casual dining restaurant will provide satiation. Satwinder says the restaurant only uses thigh meat, a favored cut for the Indian palate. Squarely aimed at the discerning Punjabi is the Puran Singh da tariwala murgh: the peppery curry mimics a roadside eatery on the Delhi-Ambala roadway. Chicken tikka here, again with fanciful names, are of various varities – creamy, spiced with bedgi chilli or flavored with key lime. Whatever the dish, the meat falls apart with a gentle nudge of the fork. Another point he makes is that the restaurant does not use artificial coloring; the tandoori chicken looks like meat not a bolt of fire.
Yellow Chilli of course has a slew of breads including a gluten free one, rice that of course has the ever popular biryani – finished in the oven, it gets served in a hot clay pot and a range of pleasing non-alcoholic drinks that are salted and sweetened. Here, you will not find the ubiquitous mango lassi. “It’s retired!” exclaims the energetic Kamal who is the PR and marketing brain of the operation.
The restaurant has a full bar and the Gothras have in place a happy hour every day. An attractive feature particularly given that it is situated in a touristy neighborhood where at the end of the day the SoCal visitor can come and unwind. Satwinder says the aim of the place is to see that everyone has an exceptional experience with food, family and friends. Cheerfully blunt, he says his challenge over the months has been to keep the kitchen consistent but the restaurant has now hit its stride.
The food is expansive in its flavors, faultlessly delicious and very rich. If that’s for you, head out there.
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