Please note: This review was done on an invitation from the restaurant to taste their food, and no bill was presented to the author. While the author assures you of objectivity, the review may be influenced by the personalized attention the author got.

Kafe Fontana is reborn in a much simpler format. And a smaller, more focused menu. I am here at Taj Palace to check out the newly christened Capital Kitchen. The place looks the same, with a different menu. I choose to sit out and bask in the sun.

The menu is now focused on comfort food, which makes it rather difficult to choose the dishes to taste. But since there are some other bloggers here, we decide to order, between ourselves, all the Taj Signature dishes and some other international comfort food dishes, while I leave the tasting of Indian comfort dishes like rajma chawal, chhole bhature etc to a later date.

We start with a great Roma Tomato Soup (Rs 500) which captures the essence of the tomato beautifully and has a great depth.  Hanoi Grilled Lamb (Rs 1000) has grilled lamb chaps marinated in Vietnamese spices, rice noodle and iceberg salad and is quite chatpata.

             Roma Tomato Soup                                 Hanoi Grilled Lamb

We now start with the Taj Signature Dishes, the start being made with Fish & Chips (Rs 700), a signature from Taj St. James Court, London. It has a beautifully fresh sole fish fillet fried in beer batter with chunky chips, tartare sauce and fresh lemon. The chips however are dry and disappointing.

                                       Fish & Chips

             Chicken Bunny Chow                                      Crab Cake
 

New England Lobster Roll (Rs 1000) from Taj, Boston is most disappointing though. The roll is not fresh and the lobster meat is too little and dry. It is nowhere near the New England classic with chunky lobster meat.

The Sri Lankan classic Lamprais (Rs 1000) finds the chef totally at home. The signature from Taj Samudr, Colambo is faithfully replicated and is quite enjoyable. For those who don’t know, Lamprais is a Sri Lankan specialty of yellow rice, lampara meat curry and vegetables served with sambal. Cobb Salad (Rs 700) from Taj Pierre Hotel, New York is an American garden salad of chicken, bacon, avocado, letture, tomato, hardboiled egg, cilantro with spring onion and buttermilk dressing and is competent.

                                            Lamprais

Cobb Salad (Rs 700) from Taj Pierre Hotel, New York is an American garden salad of chicken, bacon, avocado, letture, tomato, hardboiled egg, cilantro with spring onion and buttermilk dressing and is competent.

                                       Cobb Salad

There are three things going for Capital Kitchen. The comfort food can be good. The pricing, given the five-star standards, is reasonable and the setting is great. I am sure it will have a much bigger success than its previous avatars.

Ratings (Out of 5)

Food: 4.0 | Ambience: 4.5 | Service: 4.0 | Value: 4.0 | Overall: 4.0

Meal for two: Rs.2000 | Alcohol: Yes | Credit Card: Yes | Wheel chair friendly: Yes

Address: Taj Palace Hotel, Diplomatic Enclave, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Tel: 011 33105320