Where to eat in your city this September

A new spot in Mumbai wants diners to make their own pizza and pasta. tbsp.Tablespoon has opened its doors in the city after its success in Delhi NCR with a menu featuring handcrafted Neapolitan pizzas and handmade pastas, served with sauces and toppings of your choice. The American-Italian kitchen also serves salads, starters, sandwiches, burgers, grills and mains to desserts, waffles and soft serve. The in-house flavoured soda cans bring a fun touch to the table.
Where: tbsp.Tablespoon, Phoenix Palladium, Lower Parel, Mumbai.

Selva is founded by restaurateur Sarthak Sidana, who wanted to bring the unfamiliar flavours of Mexican cuisine to India. The space is a result of several months of travel and eating through South America and Asia. The menu features Tlayuda, the pizza-like speciality from Oaxaca, influences of Nikkei-Peruvian food in the form of nori tacos, where seaweed replaces the tortilla, ceviches, tiraditos, seafood cooked on the robata, sushi and more. The drinks programme takes its cues from South America, bringing together native fruits and Amazonian botanicals with cacao, peppers, herbs and spices.

Where: Selva, 4 Worldmark, Aerocity, New Delhi.

In Mumbai's buzzing dining scene, speakeasy-style bars are the flavour of the season. The Powder Room operates in this space, but calls itself a restaurant with a deliberate focus on small plates that combine influences and ingredients from Asian and Mediterranean cuisines. It is a cozy restaurant hidden within the restaurant Gong at Bandra West in Mumbai. The enthusiastic staff informs the menu is MediterrAsian. It's difficult to make sense of it all until the food arrives. There's the sesame prawn croissant, which combines Calabrian chilies from Italy and Japanese smoked Tonkatsu; harissa miso chicken skewers are accompanied by togarashi muhammara; and the French Valrhona chocolate fondant comes with miso ice cream. The menu is the brainchild of chef Sahil Singh who learned the art of flavour combinations while working at Indian Accent and Tresind. The bar menu is designed by Anonymous Food Labs—think flavours that mimic Turkish Delight, orange blossom, yuzu, and calendula to name a few.

Where: Powder Room, 8th Floor, Mansionz One, Linking Road, Bandra West, Mumbai.

Twenty-four flavours. One scoop of ice cream. Scoop Room opens in Bengaluru as a premium vegetarian and eggless ice cream brand, that intends to put the spotlight on the craft through the use of exciting ingredients, flavour combinations and techniques. Try from the Cookie Dough Hour and Paan-tastic to Pick Me Avo and Nutty Basil, in waffle cones accompanied by bakes, toppings and sauces all made in-house.
Where: Scoop Room, Ground floor, 151, Second cross road, Stage 2, Indiranagar, Bengaluru.

Chandigarh has a new cocktail bar and this one's pouring batch-made classics right at the table—all in the hands of mixologist Tanka Gurung. There are no cocktail names, instead the menu leads with three-digit codes, each one signifying the base spirit, technique and flavour as an inspiration of the city's sector-wise planning. The food menu is curated by chef Megha Kohli and Noah Barnes of Logic Hospitality, and includes tapas and small plates—a pani puri reimagined as Mexican agua chile, momos with a spicy sambal in a tom kha; prawns cooked over the plancha; and burrata with charred peppers are a few dishes to try. French interior architect Jean-Louis Deniot has conceptualised the space in keeping with his retro-futuristic design ethos.
Where: The Back Room, The Toy Hotel, SCO 165–167, Sector 34B, Chandigarh.