Served with Panache

The new Oriental five-star at Nagar Road sits pretty and impresses with their generous portions, innovative menu and polite service

They've got a brand new hotel, a daily eatery and now, they have their first specialty restaurant. Panache, at the Four Points By Sheraton, Viman Nagar, is an Oriental offering. Simple but elegant, with a lovely red flowing screen to add a bit of drama, Panache looked pretty. Their sit-around teppanyaki and sushi counters and a chef-interactive dining room, indicated they are definitely looking at a fun, personalised dining option. On their menu were options of authentic Chinese, Japanese and Thai.

Panache
Food: excellent
Service: outstanding
Ambience: stylish


Panache Restaurant at Nagar Road. pics/ kunal grosaviu00a0u00a0

We went in the first week of opening when Panache didn't have a finalised a-la-carte menu yet. Instead, they offered us vegetarian (Rs 550 plus taxes) and non-vegetarian (Rs 750 plus taxes) set menu options. Plus, they were courteous enough to allow us to order from their yet-to-be-finalised a-la-carte menu.


Dessert Mango Pudding

Our meal started with a complimentary salad of fresh lettuce and greens topped with crunchy tempura crumbs. We opted for the non-veg set menu and a feast followed. It started with an unlimited variety of four chicken dim sums. We loved the Xiao Mai (steamed open-head chicken dumplings with ginger and waterchestnuts) and the Hong Kong-style Cheung Faan(delicate steamed rice rolls with fermented Sichuan chicken) and ordered seconds of those. Each basket offered three dim sums and even without a repeat order, they were more than filling. This was followed by a spicy, gullet-cleansing Tom Kha, a Thai coconut-based soup with herbs and chicken. We loved the fact that it cleared all our sinuses and set our tongue on fire in a lovely way.

By the time it was time to choose our mains, we were already stuffed. Among the options between Thai Red Curry, stir-fried chicken and fish, we choose the KratiemPrikThai. It included lovely pieces of pan-fried fish. Between stir-fried noodles and Cantonese fried rice with scallions and chicken, we chose the latter. Our fish was fresh and juicy and deliciously tossed with chilly, garlic, crushed black pepper and coriander. It went perfectly with our rice.

The portions were almost good enough for two but that would be unfair to the restaurant. So, we also ordered the Vegetarian Flat Noodles. With their fragrant basil base, these were a good choice. Finally, it was time for the dessert, which is also part of the set menu. On offer were Chilled Thai Lychee with vanilla ice-cream. We didn't care much for plain vanilla so we chose chocolate instead. The extremely polite service staff politely told us that the combination wouldn't complement each other. But we persisted and they conceded. We stand by our choice. All in all, Panache has a warm, well-informed service and creates a world where you feel pampered and looked after.

From: 7 pm to 11 pm
At: Four Points by Sheraton, Nagar Road.
Call: 39406699