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here’s something so Indian about the love of all things Italian. That’s much in evidence at this new 124-cover restaurant, launched by former ITC chef Bill Marchetti. After wrestling with an exhaustive, verbose, veggie-friendly menu, the beef tenderloin with artichokes on rocket leaves provides a promising start to our meal, but the tiger prawns with roasted garlic are too spicy and seem to belong to another menu and restaurant. Before the main course, we sample an all-vegetarian, cracker-style pizza. It’s a good call—a generous topping of cheese balanced with just the right amount of green stuff. The Spaghetti Aglio Olio has oodles of flavour, and the Risotto with white wine and grilled chicken is subtle. The crisp roasted Peking duck is not quite the real thing, but it’s tasty—and you get a lot of duck. We have mixed luck with the desserts—the Triple Choc Biscotti, rich with hot chocolate and hazelnut, is sinfully delicious, but the Mahabaleshwar strawberries in brandy are disappointing—did they forget the brandy? All in all, even if it doesn’t quite serve the ambience for a romantic dinner a deux (even the food speaks up!), Spaghetti Kitchen provides excellent VFM.