1 OAK

There are a lot of fine dines, cafes and pubs but the common issue with all of these is that you need to specifically plan to get to one, as most of them are located in a cluster market which is probably far away from your usual work place, This is one of the strategies behind the success factor involved but again, there are some that are located away from the market. These places do not necessarily care about being in a certain hub and yet do good business probably just by saving people time and doing good service over good food.

This very idea got me to 1 OAK (of a kind) cafe located just under the Moolchand metro station in Defense Colony, which is my usual travel route. The place is well designed to give you the right kind of seating as per your mood – if you are looking to bask the sun,head to the top floor with sun-faced seating or sit on the ground floor if you do not wish to get noticed, in one dark corner or the open front lawn under the shadows if you are a nature lover like me. The place serves everything from sheesha, liquor to liqueur and starters to main courses from across the globe.

I do not indulge in drinking so my best choice was to simply start with a salad and make way for more. Hence I ordered the North African salad, which had the rarity factor of couscous as a base – this was more than enough to make me try it.To say it was good would be an understatement. The next order was chicken samolina, which is a beautiful work of art when you look at it.It is made of small cut zucchinis stuffed with chicken shreds and cheese baked in an oven. It tastes good but maybe some more stuffing would have worked even better here.

By now I was already an hour down thanks to the tremendous active service, so I placed my larger order, which was the lamb burger with feta cheese.The patty was chunky and juicy, draped in fresh bread but the complementing potato wedges were over-cooked and were almost powdery on the crust. The last leg was the highly recommended grilled Basa Philadelphia which would be a delight to any seafood or Italian lover; the dish had a long slice of Basa on a bed of risotto. As a food lover, I had always loved Italian but somehow could never develop a taste for risotto. This one, however, sure changed my mind – the soft bread, the fish and Arborio all were like a perfect match made in heaven.

After the satisfying meal from across the globe I was unwilling to dwell in the tiny section of desserts they offered and hence opted for a brownie chocolate shake, which acted as a right move complementing my lovely lunch.

• PLF- 2000 for 2
• Contact number- (011)33105532
• Suggestive order- Chocolate Brownie shake, North-African salad & Grilled Basa Philadelphia