A Fiesty Italian Feast @ Pomodoro, The Hilton: Blogger's Table

At our Bloggers' Table, we have some fixed guests partaking the meal. The people, duh. Their cameras. Sometimes plural. The occasional diary. The occasional iPad. Instagram. Facebook. 

And a lot of love and sharing. So, a lunch on a Saturday afternoon with friends? That's pretty much all I ask of life! Travelling half the world to get there? A bit of a problem, yes. But it's Italian food! It more than makes up for any distances traveled and any weather borne.

So this time, our lunch was at Pomodoro, the amazing Italian restaurant in The Hilton, Janakpuri. High ceilinged, with an open kitchen, with pans the size of my kitchen, chillies, garlic, onions, myriad shapes of pasta, arborio rice in pretty vats to decorate.With me being the first one to arrive, I was offered wine, and a platter of some amazing fresh and warm breads. I saw a crusty crunchy ciabatta and some olive studded slices, served with a pesto and a red pepper sauce. I swear you guys, the rest of the table and I could easily have wiped off the entire meal on the breads alone. The pesto was so good, I wanted to take a bottle of it home. Did I say bottle? I meant a tank. As soon as we finished it, our amazing servers would refresh it, amid sighs of our tabke that "If you keep this one, we won't be able to eat anything else!". And then we took another slice. 

Once everyone came, we started our meal with a fresh bottle of Reisling, and some Bruschettas. We had the artichoke and olive, and the tomato, garlic and cheese. The tomato one was miles ahead of the other. It was juicy, sweet yet tangy, garlicky, almost like a beautiful salad. The artichoke one though, was very good.

We continued on to the salads. I took a Insalata di Gamberi e Calamari con Burro Fuso, which is Warm Squid and Prawns cooked in Brown Butter. In one word, fabulous. The calamari was not in the rings you see in Goa shacks, but in an entire piece, sliced till the bottom but not quite, so that on cooking it just blooms outwards. The prawn was jumbo and perfectly cooked. It was garnished with salad leaves, these tiny skinless cherry tomatoes, a bread crisp and anchovy paste. Very very good.

Sid had taken a Pomodoro e Mozzarella di Buffalo all Caprese, which was discs of tomatoes and soft buffalo mozzarella stacked around salad leaves with a balsamic dressing. I took a bite of the mozzarella, and it was divine!

We followed it up with a Minestrone di Legume con Pasta, served with a long piece of garlic bread. The soup was homey, warming and rather yummy, with a smattering of Parm on top. The garlic bread was so good I really wanted to cuddle it and go to sleep. 

We were next served the Pizza Pomodoro, which was a lovely vegetables on a beautiful thin crust. We spotted zucchini, spinach, onion, peppers and may be some mushrooms. Sid and I felt that it needed a it more cheese, but we loved this version too.

We moved on to pastas, where I took the Rigatoni alla Pastora, that's the slow braised lamb ragout with pecorino cheese and red wine. While the pasta was absolutely perfectly cooked, I found the lamb to smell a bit gamey. Although here I must say that this is my personal taste. there was also an option of Fusilli in a Mascarpone sauce, Mushrooms and Parmesan.

By this time, we were fit to burst at the seams. But the main course was just appearing. I took a Trancio di Salmon, which is a Pan seared fillet of salmon with creamy parmesan mash, baby vegetables, served with a caper parsley butter sauce. The fish was pink and perfectly cooked, the skin was crispy on top. The mash was luscious and it came with a parmesan crisp I wish I could have more of. More than recommended. Charis and I both loved this course.

Mukta had a Costolette di Agnello, which was lamb chops with garlicky potatoes and grilled vegetables. Mukta's plate, ordered well done was perfectly done, but Sid's came out on the rare side after ordering a medium-well done. Nonetheless, the chops were literally juicy, something I haven't had the fortune of having anywhere else.

Ruchira had taken the Verdure alla Griglia e Polenta (grilled vegetables on polenta with a spicy tomato sauce, which she said was quite good. Rekha had taken the Risotto al Pomodoro e Asparagi (Risotto with fresh tomatoes, parsley, asparagus and pecorino).

For dessert, we were served a lovely Tiramisu. There was a problem here. There weren't really layers of the sponge, it was two layers, way at the bottom of the glass. There was also too much of the mascarpone. So much so that the first couple of spoonfuls did not have any sponge on it at all. It felt like a mousse. And thirdly, the coffee component was way too little. Ruchira tried it out with an extra shot of coffee, and then it seemed to work.

With our bellies too full of delicious food to say even a word, we sipped on green tea, coffee and a few tiny petit fours. I have to say, out of the way or not, Pomodoro at The Hilton Janakpuri really is a must visit! And look at us, the full and very happy table!

Till the next time!