The all-day dining space is surprisingly good for a fine meal.
ATMOSPHERICS
Light and airy, the unending space is simple and unfussy, yet colourful and welcoming. The best part is that though service is casual, the food is far better than you would expect in a mere coffee shop, which is, at the end of the day, what Pluck is. Thinking has changed over the decades and whereas in the era bygone, all tastes would have been catered for, none of them particularly well, Pluck serves only modern European food with a tiny section of Indian food, but do not imagine buckets of gravy – the Indian section is just as nouvelle as the European. There is no Chinese on this menu, and no Thai curry, Mexican tacos, Lebanese dips etc that most all-day diners feel obliged to include, in the interests of pleasing all palates. All the meats have reportedly been cooked sous vide.
TABLE TALK
Farm to fork is the ethic of Pluck, so don’t be surprised if you are given a bowl of freshly plucked lettuce to munch on, with garlic mayo. It sets the tone for the rest of the meal: irreproachably fresh vegetables, with delicate presentations and subtle sauces. Take the Scallop Carpaccio with Truffle (Rs 800). Orange segments, cauliflower florets and a tantalizing hint of truffle oil made for a great starter. Lobster Salad Avocado Cheddar Pancetta (Rs 1100) was the best dish of my meal, with the presentation of asparagus and avocado forming an emerald backdrop to the tender, flavourful lobster. Confit Duck Rillettes “Broken” Potatoes, Red Pepper Nectar, Burnt Orange (Rs 1000) turned out to be as daintily presented as the rest of my meal, except that it turned out to be extremely filling. Desserts are the best part of the meal: my own dessert was not on the menu, having been made sugar-free, but was delicious nevertheless, being a semi-freddo covered with chocolate.
PLUS AND MINUS
More than the superb presentation and the actual food, it is the concept of Pluck that is laudable and will, hopefully, be copied by others in the city. Pullman actually grows some vegetables in one of its gardens and the rest are brought from a single farm just outside the city. The one quibble I had was with the extremely tough duck, that was supposedly cooked sous-vide.
Must Try: Roasted Cod with Lentil Stew, Roasted Pumpkin with Mustard and Tomato, Quinoa Broccoli Cakes.
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