New Delhi: Luxury Meets Nostalgia

In a city that prides itself as a gastronomical adventure, how do you create a culinary space that stands out from the rising clamour of restaurants, cafés and bars? If you’re Taj Palace, you combine your trademark sense of luxury and array of signature recipes with local nostalgia and add some innovative mixology into the potion. Patrons must have wondered why Taj Palace, New Delhi, recently took down its legendary Café Fontana after 16 years. On November 9, a new all-day diner named Capital Kitchen provided the answer. Its culinary concept revolves around comfort food for Dilliwallas—everything from rajma chawal and chhole bature to pasta and pizza—at affordable rates (a meal for two costs around ₹2,000). For the connoisseurs, chef Amit Rana whips up signature dishes from iconic Taj properties, like Cobb Salad from The Pierre, New York; Chicken Bunny Chow from Taj Cape Town; New England Lobster Roll from Taj Boston, etc—all priced between ₹700 and ₹1,000 each. Expat liquid chef Joel Scholtens stirs up some wicked cocktails; for the health conscious there are cold-pressed juices. The plush interiors are clad in gold and copper hues coupled with wood and marble work. The al fresco dining space, which overlooks a pool and a mini golf course, is bathed in a pool of blissful sunlight on winter afternoons, when you can enjoy a weekend brunch for ₹2,700.