Turquoise, the all-day-dining restaurant at the newly-opened Le Meridien in Gachibowli, has the advantage of being swathed in natural light — doing wonders to food photography. So when I wanted to have the mushroom soup, served with the essence of truffle oil, my excitement to photograph was more than obvious. After I was done hashtagging it and posting it on Instagram, I took a sip of the soup. It was just at a temperature that was perfect for me. While the rest of the restaurant was busy with people moving from one island to the other picking their choice of food from the buffet, I opted to go a la carte and stuck to Indian food even though the Asian menu looked quite tempting.
When it is Indian, you are not likely to miss out on certain dishes. These also happen to be the marker to test and judge the food. But even before I could ask, chef lined up the starters ranging from beetroot tikka, to sheekh kebab, chicken tikka and shikampuri.
After polishing off the starters successfully, I was in two minds about any more food. And the chef insisted I try some of the signature dishes. So they brought out haleem, biryani, nihari, and naan while I asked for the khatti dal and dal makhani.
I’d say they will have to work on the haleem to have people licking the bowl at the end. The biryani however was on point for me, as it was not spicy nor oily and yet was aromatic with the meat cooked to perfection.
The khatti dal was good enough to be eaten by itself and if I have any more space left, I would have tucked in some hot rice and ghee and maybe some fries. But that’s for another day.
Dal Makhani is a must try like the kebabs and biryani. And if you visit the restaurant with not too much time in hand, make sure to at least try the aloo bukhara.
