Lounge review: Jamie’s Pizzeria and Jamie’s Italian, Delhi
Excellent pizzas with an artisanal feel, and crowd-pleasing food using good, fresh produce
With the 50-seater Jamie’s Pizzeria and the 140-seater Jamie’s Italian opening in quick succession, the National Capital Region becomes the first Indian home of the Oliver brand. Both restaurants are homely and inviting, with wood and leather interiors, chalkboard announcers, large open kitchens and Jamie’s merchandise—cookbooks, branded napkins, porcelain oven dishes and wooden planks—on sale. While the decor and serving platters are similar, the Pizzeria is smaller, with a lovely Delhi-Gurgaon mural on a wall, and the Italian is spacious, with a long bar and a number of open kitchen stations, including a fresh pasta-making station. Prices differ, with the Italian being a tad more expensive than the Pizzeria for common items off the menus. The Pizzeria menu is also smaller.
The good stuff
All the ingredients are fresh, you can tell. Yay.
Jamie’s Pizzeria: The pizza dough is made every morning and, when baked, is thin and airy. The crusts are fat and knobbly, unevenly dark—rustic as it is meant to be, but by no means dense and doughy.
My favourite pizza was the Stargazy ( ₹ 449), a tiger prawn pizza punched up with capers and fresh lime. While a bit stingy with the prawns (seven small ones on six slices), this is the pizza to have. For vegetarians, I recommend the Courgette Pomodoro ( ₹ 349), a pizza with thinly sliced courgette on a bed of puréed tomato with slices of fried potato and some mozzarella. We tried the Delhi Hot ( ₹ 449), which came with tons of sliced red chillies on a base of tomato and cheese, topped with meatballs. Annoyingly addictive, even if I had to down many glasses of the delicious Homemade Iced Tea ( ₹ 75) to quell the fires. The Funghi Woodman ( ₹ 399) looked wonderfully unsophisticated with assorted mushrooms scattered among onions, smoked mozzarella and herbs. A great option for vegetarians. The pizzas are not smothered with cheese, but highlighted with little knobs of cheddar and mozzarella, giving them that much more of an artisanal feel.
Jamie’s Italian: The Antipasti Plank ( ₹ 350) was a delightful little assortment of a salad, pecorino with chilli jam, beautifully marinated and grilled seasonal vegetables, a pea pesto on a crostini and mini mozzarella. This appetizer platter came garnished with olives.
Vegetarians will love the Honeycomb Cannelloni Trio ( ₹ 490); spinach and ricotta, pumpkin, and aubergine with sun-dried tomatoes. They come sliced in eight little fresh basil-topped cylinders (which, when placed together, looked like a honeycomb) and baked to a crisp. Flavourful and steaming hot, it was my favourite dish. We ended the meal with a fudgy, dark Epic Brownie ( ₹ 345).
The not-so-good
At both places, the service is earnest albeit a bit confused. We had to wave our hands umpteen times to grab the attention of the stewards.
Jamie’s Pizzeria: The hot appetizers left us cold. We tried the Okra, Chilli and Lotus Fruit Friti ( ₹ 129), batter-fried veggies with an insipid green goddess sauce. Most of the food needed salt or some kind of extra flavouring, which we added in the form of oregano and chilli flakes. Similarly disappointing was the Polpette Crostini ( ₹ 249), topped with tomato sauce and bland meatballs (read under-seasoned again).The Proper Tiramisu ( ₹ 249) was dense and anything but proper.
Jamie’s Italian: Our Famous Prawn Linguine ( ₹ 350) was served on a bed of spaghetti that was far from al dente. We sent it back, as did the neighbouring table, for it needed more cooking. The Chicken Milanese ( ₹ 590), while promising in aroma from the truffle oil sprinkle, disappointed with flat flavours to match the flattened chicken breast. My British friend found flavour lacking in much of the food, so I wasn’t alone. Neither the lamb chops nor the pork chops were available. The lentils in the Superfood Salad ( ₹ 295) were also undercooked.
Talk plastic
Jamie’s Pizzeria: A meal for three (two appetizers, a salad, three pizzas, three iced teas and a pasta) cost us ₹ 3,138.
Jamie’s Italian: A meal for three (one appetizer, one salad, two pastas, one main, two desserts and lemonade and juice) cost us ₹ 4,641.
Jamie’s Pizzeria: Third floor, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon (9599180116).
Jamie’s Italian: Third floor, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi (011-40870032). Timings, 11am-11pm.
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First Published:14 Nov 2015, 01:39 PM IST
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