The restaurant is at the Hotel Diplomat, an address packed with possibilities. On the extreme end of the ground floor is the speakeasy kind of bar, dimly lit with martini’s as their signature. Before the bar is the far from baleful entrance to the restaurant, with a chess board floor, and walls filled with eclectic art. All a brainchild of Sidhant Lamba who takes over the generations owned landmark hotel, come right in.

Looming before you is what Lamba calls an ‘upmarket London diner’, with a multi concept menu focusing on “freshness and ingredient quality”. This is nothing like the past Olive eatery style ambience, neither is it a startlingly realistic replica of what was. This is the historic Diplomat Hotel still breathing well, still alive and kicking.

The restaurant is completely non-toxic. Infact it’s a brand new construction, airy, well lit and surprisingly tame. Accommodating all occasions with its anything-goes feel and its mix of casually formal seating. Khurja crockery made bespoke, baked clay glasses for espresso, mirrors, deliberate mismatched chairs. You know the look. The al-fresco area, is very pretty with a porch thrown in. In my four visits, I was titillated by the surroundings only once, by a man sitting at the restaurant with a color coordinated vest and tattoos. Amreli Kitchen looks more posh than many eateries around the place.

After a minute or two, I understood Amreli Kitchen quite well. It is one of those increasingly rare restaurants – one that will rise or fall not just because of ambience or hype, but on the talents of the chef.

In the kitchen is Sabyasachi Gorai, possibly Delhi’s pre-eminent Kolkata born Chef, not that the competition is plentiful. His counterpart there is the very talented, young Chef Amit Naithani. Gorai became known for his cooking at AD Singh’s Olive, also housed here before Amreli Kitchen. He is by all accounts quirky and brilliant but also grounded. Amreli’s menu is curiously assembled, to say the least. The dishes are varied, from French toast to a Malabari Prawn Curry, with an over emphasis on egg based dishes. All items have their virtues, like the egg appam also called hoppers and a beloved food stuff in the spice- crazy Sri Lanka, this is spicy yet altogether docile. There’s nothing to dread and a lot to like, except the over use of butter, which is unheard of in an Appam. The spinach and philadelphia ravioli are impressively light and accompanied by a generous heap of parmesan shavings and chunky tomatoes. Perhaps done deliberately to emphasize the delicacy of the ravioli. It works.

There I was enjoying a nice enough meal, drinking a Rs 595 glass of red wine sangria from a regular looking wine glass, which I’ve never liked ever for wine, but that’s a personal choice, nothing wrong with the glass. I do this while admiring the encyclopedic ambience, over very interesting conversations, thinking pleasant and dispassionate thoughts when keema eggs benedict arrive. The poached eggs were served perfect over keema masala, with hollandaise sauce and cheddar.

You don’t see eggs benedict served this way everyday, I would say they were mighty delicious. If you’re unsettled by innovation, try sticking to the charcoal boti kebab and the kerela vegetable stew also served with appams, dusted with gunpowder.

The crispy filo wrap raan were oven baked layers of delicate pastry with pulled mutton and chipotle. A very well flavored dish though heavy but I would go back for this one. Sweet and savory and moist and gone.

The Diplomat ceaser salad comes with an option of tahini malai chicken tikka or garlic crispy bacon. The Diplomat house greens were vegetables slivers and argula with an interesting passion fruit vinaigarette and salt baked almonds. Tandoori Aloo Bravas serves as an interesting bar snack and starter, The Bravas sauce over the grilled potatoes is addictive. The service can be better in terms of time, the Martini’s were spectacular and blazingly wonderful was the food. Not just the presentation, but the ambience created solely by Sidhant Lamba. His education at Inchbald and Sotheby’s London clearly shows through in every inch of this space.

If there’s anything wrong with Amreli, its that the service needs to be spruced up, but Saby’s cooking is so exuberant, original, unconventional and compelling, that everything else seems to fade after a while. I don’t even know what to call his food. Maybe contemporary, but that is so yesterday. I don’t think it’s southern, i’ve been there and I never ate anything as good as this.

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