Inside Nathupur village, down a narrowish lane lies Wokamama, a three-year-old Pan Asian restaurant with a pleasant casual ambience and a charming open air terrace giving the whole place a nice open feel. I am back here at the invitation of the energetic and welcoming Surajit Sanyal, the General Manager of the group that owns the eatery. He has planned an elaborate 22-dish tasting menu of all the new additions to the menu for me which looks most inviting.
As we are seated, I am also joined by Sameer Puri, one of the two owners of the restaurant. Before the dishes start rolling in, I ask Sameer to describe what Wokamama stands for. Without hesitation, he replies “truly Asian”. Looking at the menu that has close to 300 dishes on it representing nearly all major cuisines of Asia, this is a statement most accurate.
Mr Sanyal gets up to take charge as an orchestrator of an impeccable service that follows. While every dish is good, I will segregate the dishes in three categories – great, good, and ‘can become great with a little tweaking’.
Starting with the greats: The first starter I am served, Balinese chicken satay (Rs. 395) has aromas of bird eye chilly, and kefir lime on a lemon grass stick. It is aromatic and melt-in-mouth soft. The butter pepper garlic squid mix of butter, chilly & garlic (Rs.595) is cooked to perfection. Asian Caesar’s salad (Rs 345) with galangal, kefir lime and lemongrass puts pizzazz in the otherwise benign salad. Tom kha chicken soup (Rs. 175) has a chunky rustic character with lots of goodies in it. Pla pad karcha (quick fry fish fillet with Thai ginger, kefir lime & chilly; Rs. 455) is an amazing play of textures and flavours. Grilled fish in banana leaf Indonesian style (Rs. 455) is a wonderful variant of our own Bengali fish paturi. Diced chicken with water chestnut & black pepper (Rs. 415) excites with its heat and taste, and the eggplant in guilin chilly (Rs. 375) is surprisingly addictive. I adore the stir fried vegetable sticky rice (Rs. 275) for the texture of the Japanese rice which surprisingly works very well as fried rice.
The dishes that are competent but not great are: fiery Ming chicken (Rs. 415), chili pepper crispy corn on spinach (Rs. 355), prawn tempura (Rs. 595), chicken pesto salad (Rs. 375), sum tom Thai (Rs. 345), quick fry Chinese greens with Thai spice (Rs. 375) and the two desserts – coconut roll (Rs. 295) and moccarage (Rs. 295).
The dishes that can become great with some tweaking: Canadian pork belly Japanese char grilled skewer with mirin, sake & Japanese soya (Rs.595) needs to be slow cooked more to give it a softer, more yielding character. The salmon and tuna nigiri sushi (Rs. 725) needs more depth to the rice and a greater balance that can be achieved by seasoning the rice with vinegar a trifle more and reducing the amount of rice in each sushi. Steamed fish Nonya curry (Rs. 455) needs to capture its true Malaccan taste with the addition of fermented shrimp paste and heat from all the ingredients that go in true Nonya cuisine plus have more gravy. The minced lamb with crispy rice (Rs. 425) is a great idea that probably needs to be plated more imaginatively to work out as a combo. The concept of the vegetable green curry noodle (Rs. 275) seems to be flawed when mixed in advance which gives the dish a somewhat gluggy texture.
What is remarkable is that none of the 22 dishes served can be called a miss. There are some gems in the menu and some unpolished diamonds. But the restaurant could think about reducing the choice overload to its diners by reducing the menu to all time greats and give free reign to its creativity through a ‘today’s special’ section.
The afternoon tasting session is most enjoyable, thanks to the delicious food, Mr Sanyal ensuring a perfect service, and Sameer Puri’s engaging company. Wokamama is and is likely to remain a favourite dining option for families seeking an Asian escape very much within Gurgaon.
Ratings (Out of 5):
Food: 4.0 | Ambience: 4.0 | Service: 4.5 | Overall: 4.0
Meal for two: Rs. 1400 (Without Alcohol) | Credit cards: Accepted | Alcohol: Yes
Address: NR Road, Above Italiano Restaurant, Nathupur, DLF Phase 3, Gurgaon | Tel: 0124 4969191, +91 9958919191
