I Tried Indian Food from the Best Chef in India Full Review

I'm currently about to eat a meal cooked by Chef Manish Mehrotra, one of India's best chefs. In a country with a population of nearly one and a half billion people, what does one of India's best chefs cook? Today we're meeting up with Chef Manish Mehrotra, one of the most respected Indian chefs in the country, to try his newly opened restaurant, Nisaba. An Indian restaurant, but my kind of Indian food. I can have more fun with the menu. He's famous for combining ingredients never before used in Indian cooking, so I'm curious to taste his food and find out how he pioneered modern Indian cuisine. So I'm in a taxi now on my way to Nisaba, but as we go I want to read you a quote by Chef Manish Mehrotra, which I found in an article and I found this really cool. He said, I don't cook for critics, I cook for the person who has traveled through deli traffic to eat at my table. If they leave happy, I've done my job. So we survived Delhi's notorious traffic, made it down here where I'm not quite sure if this is considered South Delhi, but New Delhi. Actually the restaurant is located within Humayun's tomb complex, a UNESCO world heritage site, part of Delhi's history, and then also Sundar's garden. So we have about 30 minutes before we go to eat, so we just bought tickets to come visit the Sundar gardens, which is a biodiversity paradise in Delhi with so much history as well. So it covers 90 acres and there's about 15 different heritage historical UNESCO sites within the park. There's something like 300 different species of trees within the gardens and it's such a contrast from the busy, the chaotic, the congested streets of Delhi, and then step into the garden and it's just so peaceful. And this is the site where the restaurant Nisaba is located, just on the edge there. So we're going to walk around, we just have a few minutes before we go eat. We just continually hear birds chirping, flying overhead. It's an oasis for birds and squirrels. If I don't talk for one minute, just listen. It's just a symphony of birds. And this is already setting the scene for the meal that we're about to have. Welcome to Nisaba right behind me, but it's located just outside of the garden, but still within the garden. And there's a whole courtyard here, beautiful surrounding trees, a few coffee shops as well. And this is really an incredible location. Okay, I made it. Welcome to Nisaba. It's beautiful from the outside. Hi, chef. Nice to meet you. I only saw you on a YouTube video. Thank you. Thank you. Especially your Thai food classes, I love. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can you tell us a little bit about your history, your story? So I belong to a place called Bihar in India. I was born and brought up there in Patna, the city called Patna. And then I did my hotel management from Bombay, started working in 1996. Worked at a lot of places. But in 2009, I started a restaurant called Indian Accent in Delhi, and ran it for 16 years. Then Indian Accent New York, Indian Accent London, Indian Accent Mumbai. Then I started a restaurant in 2018, another one called Comrin. It is in Gurgaon. So ran that restaurant for six years, and then took a break. Then I went to college. So took her there. And after a break, last six months, I was planning this restaurant, Nisabha, which is an Indian restaurant, but my kind of Indian food, which is Indian food at heart, but with a little bit of unique combinations and maybe some unique ingredients. That is what I do. And this is a fine casual Indian restaurant. Would you say Nisabha is more traditional or more? More casual. I wouldn't say traditional, but more casual. Okay. And not too stiff. Here I can, I can have more fun with the menu. Okay. There you are, you are limited to certain rules that it has to be go like this, it has to be served like that. Here you can have a little bit of fun on the menu. Amazing. Amazing. Okay, great. From here, I think we're just gonna take a little walk, a little tour of Nisabha, the restaurant. And then I can't wait to see the kitchen, see some of the dishes that we're going to be eating. And of course, try the food. This is the front entrance here. And what does what does Nisabha mean? Nisabha means a goddess of grain. Like in India, we have Annapurna, which is goddess of grain. So Nisabha in some ancient culture, Sumerian culture, goddess of grain is Nisabha. Okay, so we're going to start walking around right here at the front of the restaurant again at the entrance of Nisabha. This is the bar and bit of a lounge. Today, we have a large table. So we put table also here. Okay. Then from the bar section, then you get to the main dining area, which is kind of divided into two sections. I love how it's so spacious and so modern and roomy and just it feels good energy, good positivity, really nice and spacious. And then you come to the back here. This is the private dining room. Oh, nice. Okay. Great. Now we're moving on to the kitchen. Okay. So this we are making. All right. Oh, chef. Lamb curry with lamb bones. South Indian pineapple curry. We're doing a mushroom confit for a Calcutta style mushroom Okay. Then the tandoor is here. All right. Oil, ginger, garlic, green chilies, mustard, the mustard seed, chat masala, bit of ginger. Oh, and potatoes go in? Potatoes. So that tempered down spice mixture with the mustard seed potatoes go in. Chopped coriander, a little bit of green garlic, the crispy potatoes. Okay. Those potatoes are going to be incredible. And now moving to the next dish. All right, chef. So you must be familiar with dahi vadas. Oh, yeah. You have eaten in South India also in North India. With yogurt, right? With yogurt. Okay. Like lentil dumplings with yogurt. Okay. So here we do it with a beetroot. And instead of yogurt, we use goat cheese yogurt. Wow. Okay. That's the twist. Okay. That's the twist. Ah, cool. This is the goat cheese yogurt with a little bit of cumin. Okay. Goat cheese yogurt. And tamarind chutney, a little bit of mint chutney, a little bit of chili chutney. And now my beetroot vadas. And those go right on top. A little bit of green candy tomatoes, some roast beetroots, red peanuts, nutmeg powder. Oh, nice. Okay. The chaat masala. Nice. Okay. And puff rice. Wow. So chef, what is this dish called? This is from my home state. Yeah. From Bihar. So this is a Bihari style mutton from a place called Motihari in Bihar. Basically, this is onion, ginger, green chili, garlic. That's it. No yogurt, no tomatoes. Wow. And here goes in the mutton. Oh, that is going to be so tender. Spices in there. Garlic. The masala. The blend is incredible. So this is some stewed garlic. Okay. Coriander. Okay. Claypot. Perfect. Oh, yeah. And immediately, they float to the surface and puff up. So made from chickpeas. Yes. This is flour. Okay. Flour, but stuffed with chickpeas. Okay. Okay. What is this? So please, your banana chili shadow. Thank you. Cheers. Thank you very much. And what is in it? That's a gin-based cocktail with bananas, syrup, and a hint of chilies. Nice. Very cool. Thank you. Enjoy your drink. Thank you very much. Oh, wow. Start with the blue cheese naan. Nice. Okay. Very hot from inside. Okay. It will drip. Okay. Thank you, chef. Cheers for this banana cocktail. Oh, the kick of chili in the end. Oh, that's incredible. A blue cheese naan. You bite down and there's this pillow of melted blue cheese oozes out into your mouth. Oh, it's so good. And it's not overpowering. The blue cheese is not overpowering. Just a perfect balance in harmony with the gooey naan baked around it. That's superb. Mutton seekh kebab with blue cheese butter. Amazing. And it has to be eaten along with this baked naan, too. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Second one is called beetroot goat cheese dahi vada with fresh green candy tomatoes and nutmeg miso rice on top. Thank you very much. That's your samosa muradabadi dal. Oh, nice. Everything chutney on top. The everything chutney. Yes, sir. Okay, let's move in for the seekh kebab with the blue cheese butter. Oh, oh, you definitely don't need a knife for this. It feels like a pillow. And you can just see the spices in there. The melting pool of blue cheese butter on the bottom there. And actually, he said we must be eating it with this bread here so that we don't miss out on the the melted blue cheese butter on the bottom there. Wow. That's so soft. The texture is really incredible. It just kind of crumbles and melts in your mouth. Again, the blue cheese is not overpowering, but it gives it that layer of richness and complexity with the butter. Just the spices and the chili. And you need that bread to be able to absorb all that flavor. Oh, that's insanely tasty. Okay, next up for the chef chef Monisha's version of dahi bala. But with beetroot, let's split one in half and see how crispy this beetroot is. You can just feel like the textural feels like shredded beetroot that made into a little cutlet. We'll get some of the yogurt all together in one bite with all the different chutneys all together. The crispy puffed rice. You want to get as much as possible of everything in your spoon at once for your bite. That beetroot, the shreds of beetroot melt in your mouth with the crispy fried outer exterior. And that goat yogurt has this depth of flavor that's a little bit sour, a little bit sweet with that chaat masala sprinkled on top. Then you've got the puffy crispy rice. The tamarind gives it a tanginess as well. And then that mint chutney. Everything combined together. That's just flavors hitting all your taste buds and textures all at once. Okay, next up for the mini samosas with everything chutney. Chef, what is the everything chutney? Everything chutney is inspired from a New York style everything bagel. Bagel, you put all the all the toppings and very good chutney is many chutneys in the kitchen we make. We mix few in a proportion and make a chutney which is everything chutney. Incredible. Okay, incredible. So with the moon doll on the bottom, everything chutney, there's a little bit of onions and tomatoes in the center as well. I knew I was gonna love this from the way it looked. That doll is just it's like a gravy of doll that just dissolves on your tongue. Then you've got the mini samosas have that little crunch and then that chutney that everything chutney it really is everything flavor. That is absolutely superb. So this one is baby back ribs, pork ribs. Wow, tossed in a sweet mango pickle from Gujarat with a little bit of bacon and sour fennel. Thank you. Looks like a sticky glaze. Oh, oh, look, it just falls off the bone. That's that's a bone on the inside. It just literally falls out. All the tenderness, all the aromatics, like every single dish so far, you can just the aromas hit your nose before you taste it. That's a total contrast of flavors from what we've been eating already so far. That really is a sweet and sour flavor, but sweet in the perfect kind of way, where it enhances that sourness that sugars have caramelized. So it's a little bit crispy. And the pork on the inside just melts in your mouth with tenderness. The gentle subtle spices in there as well. It's going to elevate the complexity. It's actually so tender it you risk it collapsing when you pick it up, but I'm willing to take the risk. This is a pork rib that doesn't require chewing. Phenomenal. And I was reading another article about Nisaba where they mentioned and Chef Manish had a quote in there where he said, Nisaba is not about like having that set 12 course kind of stuffy meal. Nisaba is about a meal you'd want to be eating on any random Tuesday night, or any night for that matter, but just goes to show how he's serving food that's more casual, that's laid back, that just tastes incredible. Almost forgot about the bacon that slid off, melt in your mouth. Okay, and here comes the main courses. On the menu, there's so many regional varieties and also some combinations of things I don't think I've ever experienced or had before. So this is a meal that's an experience and showcases different pairings of ingredients and flavors that you might've never thought before. So these are the potatoes we saw Chef make with the dog mustard seed and all the spices which he tempered down in the fire. Then with crispy potato as well, but I think it's all about highlighting the dog mustard seed. Oh man, that sauce has formed a glaze. You taste all that garlic in there, the coriander, the flavor of that mustard seed, all caked on and formed like a glaze that sticks to the potatoes. When you judge that from the outside, it looks good, but it looks like potatoes. But when you taste that, it opens up a new world of flavors on your taste buds. Seriously, those are right up there with some of the best potatoes you'll ever have. Okay, next up for the pineapple curry. You can see some of the tempered down curry leaves, mustard seeds on top. There's pineapple in here. I think there's nuts in here as well, like cashews. I'll just taste the full spoonful before eating it with a dosa. Oh, the creaminess of that, the sour acidity, and then that sharp sourness of the pineapple and those fragrance of the curry leaves and the mustard seed. To me, this has the flavors of South India, but with the richness of North India all in one. Then this is served with like a fluffy South Indian style pancake, like a thick dosa. That is so rich, so creamy and flavorful. Outstanding. And next up for the dal, and I'll take some of this bread. And this dal looks incredible. Oh, it's so flavorful. It's like a dal gravy, but it has this almost a fluffy texture, studded with all the spices. Again, nothing is overpowering. Everything is a harmony of flavor. And actually everything, nothing seems spicy at first, but when you keep on eating, you start to feel the chili, which is layered within each dish and the balance of all the spices. It's extraordinary. Everything so far, and the starters as well, have been phenomenal. But we're moving on to probably the dish I was most looking forward to trying, the Moti Hari Mutton from Bihar, from the home state of India of Chef Manish. That mutton, perfectly tender without being mushy. It's that type of mutton that's been braised for so long, where it just kind of melts on your tongue, but you still feel the texture and the stringiness and the bounce of it. That's how you know when it's good mutton. It's like that type of masala that at first starts off mellow, but gets stronger and stronger as you keep on chewing until like the full force and balance and flavor is there. That is superb. Okay, and then you take one of the puris. Well, these are like complete, oh, they're completely puffy. Okay, I'll just take a piece of the mutton into the puri and just bite it from there. That puri, when it puffs up, it's so thin and so crispy, so it just collapses. And it gives you a nice vessel for carrying that gravy and that mutton for taking it to your mouth. Fantastic. Now you know what I have to do next. And remember that garlic he added in as he was frying this? I found it below here. We'll top it with the garlic. There we go. We have to, our mission is to get it to our, oh no, it's going to fall off. I got to take it to my mouth fast. Oh, it's a big risk to pick up the bone because it's so tender, but it had to be done. Check this out. You can just shake it, give it a little wiggle. The meat will just slide off. Did you see that? I guarantee you'll be licking the bone when you come here. I'm very happy. Yeah, this is an extraordinary meal. Decades of experience, Chef Manish and his passion, his love, his dedication. Indian food has been popular around the world, but Chef Manish, he wants to cook Indian food for today's India. It's not progressive. It's not fine dining. It's Indian food for today's India. That's taken right from a quote from Chef Manish. And I think that summarizes what he's doing here perfectly. So two different desserts to try. And we better start with this dessert because the ice cream is starting to melt, but this is a barfi, an Indian barfi served with pecan ice cream. Oh, you feel the custardiness of it. And I think this is like a different interpretation of barfi because barfi is a traditional Indian dessert, which I've had a few times in India at the market or deep within lanes. This is definitely a different version. Oh, and you just smell the aroma of the pecans. That is the perfect sweet contrast with that pecan ice cream that's cold. And the barfi is warm as well. Really rich, buttery, sweet, caramelly barfi. And that pecan ice cream, I can't believe the quantity of pecans in there. It's like pure pecans with just ice cream holding it together. Superb. Another one of their signature desserts here is their ras malai baked into a custardy like, oh, and it's like oozy and creamy and sticky on the bottom. Ras malai is a very common, a very classic Indian dessert. I think it's these milk curd balls within a milk, like a milky soup almost. But this one is baked. I think the milk has kind of like caramelized, like condensed milk. It almost looks like because it's been baked. Let's try it out. And then it's cold as well. Oh, for some reason I thought because it's baked, it's going to be hot. Oh, yes. You can still tell that it is ras malai, that familiar Indian dessert. Yet at the same time, it has that dulce de leche kind of flavor. It's sweet. It has the flavor of saffron. Then the milk balls just kind of like absorb more juiciness. That is incredibly dense and rich, but so good. Tastes like a butterscotch crispy ball. Incredible desserts as well. The whole meal has just been phenomenal and well-rounded. 1.46 billion people, and Chef Manish really is one of the best chefs in all of India. And he's so humble, yet he's one of the most recognized, one of the most respected and highly awarded and successful chefs in all of India. I loved hanging out with him. He's such a good guy. His food was outstanding, highly recommended. It's non-gimmicky. It's just in the words of Chef himself, today's Indian food. Thank you for watching. Be sure to check out Nisabh when you're in Delhi, and thanks for watching this video. Be sure to check out the next video here. We're eating some of the best food in Delhi that you're not going to want to miss. Good night from Delhi. See you on the next video.