The menu offers an array of signature specials, savoury items, and desserts that are delivery-friendly.
The pandemic has changed various things about the hospitality industry. One of them being that five-star hotels are now more open to the idea of home delivery. “The thought process was that if you wanted to eat my food, you come to my hotel. That has changed now. We are all designing menus that work in the takeaway format, cooking dishes that have a life of more than an hour so that they can be delivered,” said Vijay Thapliyal, the executive chef at The Lodhi, New Delhi in an interview to me last week.
The Lodhi started home delivering in the last week of May and has a selection of Indian, European, and Asian dishes. These are all part of the menu at Elan – their multi-cuisine restaurant.
The dishes come beautifully packed in biodegradable packaging. Thapliyal says that it is their Indian and Oriental menu that is doing better than their European menu when it comes to home delivery. I can understand why. European food doesn’t travel well and loses its taste or texture on reheating. I ordered the grilled chicken with a side of grilled vegetables and mascarpone mashed potatoes. While the grilled vegetables and the mashed potatoes were great, I needed to reheat the chicken and I made the mistake of putting it in the microwave. It became slightly chewy even though it still tasted great. Thapliyal suggests that reheating should only be done in the pan or in an oven, and not the in the microwave.
Though I did not try anything from the Indian menu except the rasmalai which was delicious, not too sweet and with a distinct flavour of kesar, Thapliyal says the biryanis and curries are in demand.
The oriental menu is extensive with a selection of dimsums, baos, starters, mains and rice and noodles. I tried the chicken and celery dimsums and the asparagus and mushroom in curry flavour dimsums. For the main course I had the spicy mapo tofu which has cashewnuts and Sichuan pepper and sliced fish in black bean sauce (part of a special curation by the chef and not on the menu) with burnt garlic rice.
The double chocolate brownies were the perfect dessert to wrap up the meal. While mostly I feel brownies need to be accompanied by vanilla ice cream or some sort of sauce, these were ideal on their own. Though I loved the brownies, it is the tiramisu which is the most popular dessert on the menu along with the badam halwa. Delivery is available between noon and 10:30pm. The hotel recommends that the food is consumed within two hours of delivery or refrigerated within an hour.
Please call 011-43633333 to place your order.