Fig & Maple
New Delhi
When something blows up on social media, it turns into a fad. When it’s a restaurant half of Delhi’s gushing over, It goes right on top of my to-do list. Fig & Maple created all the right buzz. Chef Radhika Khandelwal seems to know her Social Media Ps&Qs and as she’s known as @pandoodle in the virtual world. So off we went to sample the #foodporn title deserving waffles & other dishes on offer.
I started with a seasonal special hot chocolate that came with strawberries & marshmallows. What I loved at first was the dedicated hot chocolate menu. With 7-8 options to choose from, I picked a dark hot chocolate and this really fell into the hot cocoa quality. Good quality chocolate which I'm presuming to be Callebaut was thick, luscious & dark. A fabulous accompaniment to a winter evening.
The hot chocolate set my expectations sky high, it was elevated with what came next. We ordered for the whimsical looking Fig & Maple salad. Now, when a dish is named after the restaurant, we know the chef is supremely confident about it. That confidence translated beautifully on the plate and the salad wasn’t just pretty to look at but is probably the best way to eat clean. A burst of flavours from the bitter lettuce, the berries that burst with flavour, the nuttiness of walnuts & the cooling goat’s cheese.
Up next was the Tomato, basil & mozzarella flatbread, that was again very nice if usual. Then came time for the popcorn shrimp, it only reeked of mustard. The baked penne with chicken was like any other white sauce pasta and honestly, felt a little uninspired.
The only disappointment was the Jambalaya. They claimed that every table in the house ordered for a portion. After the hit that was the Fig & Maple salad we blindly ordered it. They never informed us it had shrimp, a friend had a shrimp allergy. Even if I let go of that, the dish was too salty. That’s all I got- Salt.
The chef was extremely accommodating though and took constructive criticism with a smile. We then ordered the Salted Caramel Waffles which weren’t added to our bill. I know I shouldn’t be commenting on them since we weren’t charged. But, boy! Were they good! I haven’t had such killer waffles in a really long time. Berries, Caramelised Pecans, Salted Caramel & a really good quality Vanilla ice cream topped this waffle. I would go here just for the waffles if nothing else, next time I’d order for the Dolores Park ones. The only downside is the way up.
The approach to the establishment is appalling. The stairwell is downright dangerous, one of my friends actually tripped & hurt himself. The elevator by the looks of it is not meant for the faint-hearted. The feeling it imparts is that you’re visiting somebody’s home but not in a good way. All in all, I feel that the place partly lived up to its hype, it wasn’t exactly a much ado about nothing kind of a situation but it also didn’t blow my mind.