Azulia, The GRT

I have been wanting to try out this restaurant for quite sometime now, but have never had the opportunity! So when it came, I jumped at it and it was well worth it!!

'Marhaba sir' is how you are greeted as you enter this place! You might expect exotic settings for an exotic restaurant, but the interiors are quite simple with a 2 member band dishing out soft Spanish music. The woman was full of life while the guitarist was toned down and this seemed a nice combination for the evening. 

I thought of Azulia as a Greek/Mediterranean affair, but they try to do full justice to the term Mediterranean- They serve the cuisines from Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, Greek among others, a total of 10 different country cuisines! The menu will confuse most of our diners and the chef is usually around to help you decide and this can be a boon. The most troubling event was that the chef blinked when I asked for Gyros- a Greek Kebab. He made it sound like he has never heard of it and here I was, thinking of this all day!!!! But that said, the food was exceptional for most part!

We started off with a starter platter which gives you samples of 3 starters (there is an option to take 6 as well). We had to have Humus (which is a chick peas paste with a tinge or garlic, but here you are offered different options for it) and Falafels (cutlet vada fusion) and the chef offered sausages for the third and we went with it. The falafels and the sausages were brilliant, the Humus was decent and the platter was served with 4 pieces of Kooboos (spelt differently in different places, it is nothing but pita bread). If I happen to go there again (which I hope I will), I would order the full platter with 6 starters and get done with it! 

For the main course, we had one garlic butter fish and one portion of lamb (which I was told has been cooking for over 6 hrs). The fish was AWESOME. It was the sea bass variety which is probably imported, but the lamb had so much tomato that it was overwhelming and completely masking other flavors, and was served with potato wedges. I commented to the chef that it was very average and he promptly removed it and served me some Mediterranean chicken, which was fantastic.

For desserts we just shared one portion of Baklava, which is a fantastic Greek sweet and I loved it! Service was great, ambiance was very good and the food almost excellent. I would love to go back here, but for the price - this meal for two cost us Rs 2950! But yeah, this is not a garam masala adulterated greek food, but close to authentic stuff! I have never been to Greece, but have had good falafels, humus and Baklava in good restaurants in the US and this place is pretty close!!!

Food 8/10

Price 7/10

Ambiance 8/10

Service 8/10

Azulia is the Mediterranean restaurant at the GRT Hotels, T. Nagar.