Mismo ( )
Med-Tex-Mex.
There’s a cute, reasonably priced Mexican
restaurant and bar on Janpath, but you probably
don’t know about it. Not yet, anyway. Mismo is so
newly opened that Hotel Janpath – behind which
the restaurant is located – vehemently denied its
existence. Mismo does exist, however, and
walking around the hotel from the right, we felt
we’d wandered into a secret little pavement café
down an Oaxacan alley.
There’s an outdoor seating area with wooden
tables, chairs and benches. The patio ends with a
wood-fired oven and grill and cleverly shuts out
Hotel Janpath’s adjacent dump-yard by means of
a slat fence overgrown with greenery. Sconces are embedded along the wall; we were told they’re lit
with tealights at night. The speakers spill cheerfully cheesy salsa numbers. The minute our food arrived,
though, it was followed by flies and we had to go in. Hopefully, there’ll be some pest control in place
soon.
The indoor seating is equally sunny. Half the room is a dining area, with a spacious bar, blue wooden
barstools and wine racks. The tables have iron frames with wooden tops and are set with tall-backed
ash chairs. Even the flower settings are complementary: a blue-petalled arrangement that looked like
Mexican gentian sage. The other half of the room is less formal – pink and black, with deep sofas, wide
tables and pink lamps covered with tissue flowers, typical at Mexican fiestas.
The food tends towards comfort rather than authenticity, but it’s perfectly edible. Mismo is owned by the
folks behind Market Café and several menu items are lifted from there, which makes this a Mexican-
Mediterranean restaurant. We tried a taco salad – a crisp-fried tortilla rose filled with cold lettuce, ground
lamb (in lieu of beef), guacamole, salsa and sour cream (Rs 350). Our lamb fajitas arrived on a sizzling
hot plate – chunks of meat accompanied by red and green peppers and two tortillas (Rs 450). We
particularly liked the fresh guacamole, though we had to ask for a bit extra.
The food was serviceable, but we would have preferred everything a little spicier (more jalapenos,
paprika and habaneros) and perhaps a little heavier on the lime. In the spirit of the eclectic menu, we
also tried the thin-crust wood-fired Hawaiian pizza (chicken ham and pineapple, Rs 475), which should
have been left in the oven a few minutes more just to get really crisp.
Round off your meal with a pressed coffee (Yemini mocha, Rs 175) and dessert. The apple empanada
(Rs 275) was a hot gooey mix of apples, raisins and cinnamon wrapped in a crisp deep-fried tortilla and
served with vanilla ice cream. The tiramisu cake was a perfectly respectable rendition of the dessert,
nicely presented with drizzled Kahlúa syrup – a little more cake and a little less mascarpone would have
made the combination a shade less sweet (Rs 275).
Mismo’s liquor licence is slated to arrive in May, and they promise a strong emphasis on margaritas.
They’ll also have a mid-sized wine list and plenty of tequila shooters. Watch our nightlife section for
more. Sonal Shah
Mismo, Hotel Janpath (4356-5411). m Rajiv Chowk. Daily noon-11pm. All major cards. Meal for two Rs
2,000
Source : Time Out Delhi ISSUE 1 Friday, April 04, 2008
Rate this restaurant
Post Your Comments
Latest user reviews
e-mail address
