From the hills of Hunan and its hot and spicy flavours, the Canton where Hakka, Hoisin and stir fries rule the roost, to the mountains of Sichaun where the famed Chilli is the jewel in the crown, comes this small, compact and easy-on-the pocket Chinese restaurant at the WELCOMHOTEL BENGALURU, member ITC Group of hotels. If the regions have inspired the menu, executive chef Dhawal Ajmera has imbued it with flavour. The name is inspired by the legendary game that the Qing dynasty would play — Mahjong, which also translates as small. The Mahjong Room opened doors to Chinese food lovers in December... and is the spanking new space on Richmond Road for a delicious Chinese taste trail, the way Indians like it.
“We opened for hotel guests in November, and then December is when we opened to the public. The menu is Chinese, to suit the Indian palate. Since we didn’t have any Chinese restaurant at the ITC hotels in the city, Mahjong Room was specially curated to bring to the regular foodie some wholesome Chinese fare. Executive chef Dhawal Ajmera, Rohit Bhargava and I sat together, as Chef Ajmera wanted to fashion a Chinese restaurant for the Indian foodie. It’s affordable for everyone,” explains Pratham Shray, food and beverage manager, WELCOMHOTEL BENGALURU. Classics are replete on this menu, and instead of the common jasmine tea, the restaurant has added some quirk with the aromatic and delicious caffeine-free butterfly blue pea tea which came infused with lemon grass and mint, “It’s good for health, packed with antioxidants, anti-anxiety properties, and good for depression. It has an interactive way of pouring the blue decocoction, and if you add lime or anything acidic, it turns purple, and if hibiscus is infused,
it turns red,” explains Pratham. The subtle flavour was perfect... as we dove into delicious food. The spicy bean curd dumplings were wholesome parcels. We loved the Shrimp hargao and the Chicken sui mai which we dipped into black bean and chilli sauce. The parcels were light, feathery and delicious. The stuffing was well spiced. The vegetable crystal dumplings were a bit salty though. The crispy lotus stem with sesame was crunchy. We love lotus stem and wish it were used often on menus. Light batter dunked into oil, it was tangy and delicious though we love it sliced and sautéed... The Golden fried prawns in a very drums of heaven avatar, we loved. Perfect succulent pink prawns, and a delectable sweet chilli sauce.
Executive chef Ajmera explains, “Mahjong Room is a humble Chinese cuisine restaurant at WelcomHotel that’s provides its guests with a comfort and community dining experience. The menu is completely non- pretentious and approachable, curated with an Indian soul.”
On our next course was the Sichuan chilli pepper chicken, tender, with a pungency of Sichuan. For mains, we went for the classics, a nice crunchy, garden fresh stir fried Chinese greens with minced garlic which was perfect, with broccoli and haricot beans.
The starter that we loved was a pork spare ribs in honey chilli which was perfectly cooked, caramel in glaze with a texture and flavour that saw it disappear without much further ado.
The chef’s favourite is the Hot and spicy Hunan prawns and the Gong Bao chicken dry chili, peanut sugar and vinegar which were subtly spiced, delicious and inherently fresh in their flavours. That with a beautiful steamy and fresh mushroom and corn fried rice was perfect, and with that we also had chilli garlic noodles that were simple in taste, done just right and delicious.
Not that we had space for more, given the specially curated meal that came laden with flavour, but it was time for the Mahjong special sundaes. Flight Passion was beautiful in all the textures and tastes that burst onto the palate. Beautiful, and even though it sounded a bit too much, it was delicate and light. The next was a hot chocolate cookie over fudge, sticky chocolate chip cookie, topped with dark chocolate ice cream, s’mores, and choco fills which the chocolate lovers on the table spooned with delight. It was good, with a nice marshmallow waiting to be chomped on, but for me personally, it did way too much, and the cookie could have been more soft and crumbly, to make a bite out of it.
While there is no beef pan ITC, there is pork and lobster, priced so economically, which is great, as where else can you find a lobster at 895?
Kitchen executive Rohit Bhargava speaks of the inspiration, “The concept of Mahjong is inspired by the tile based game that was found back in the centuries when the Qing dynasty used to rule, and many dynasties have prospered and evolved around the game. Here we have taken three Chinese cuisines, to curate the menu which is succinct, the Hunan, Cantonese and Sichuan provinces, so we have the Cantonese oyster and sweet sour sauces, Hunan’s spicy and chilli flavours, and Sichuans peppery and pungent tenets,” explains Rohit, who stresses on how economically priced the menu is, and we agree.
There is something for everyone in this special menu, the stand alone dishes are all stars, because each one is specially chosen so as to not repeat sauces, which happens often in a Chinese restaurant. Add a five star’s penchant on quality and good standards, and you have yourself a wonderfully tasty and flavourful meal with a competitive price point. “Our desserts are Mahjong’s special boozy sundaes that each play with a different kind of liqueur as well,” adds Bhargava, saying, “The Passion coconut lime short cake comes with macaroons at the bottom, two scoops of tender coconut ice cream, a scoop of passion fruit ice cream and vodka liqueur, berries, passion fruit compote, lime drizzle and macadamia nuts — a battle of distinctive flavours.”
The Crispy congee lamb, the golden fried prawn and in the mains the hot and spicy honey prawns or the honey chilli ribs are recommended. The compact Chinese restaurant is also getting set for the Chinese New Year celebrations from January 24, with three set menus (chicken and lamb, seafood and pork, and vegetarian) which will be priced very economically and is on till February 15.
The cocktails are Chinese inspired and we absolutely loved the whisky with green tea tenets, the Sakura Cosmos was subtle and delicious.
We’ll be back for good ol Chinese with no pretentious or fanfare, served in a sumptuous note.
(Suruchi Kapur-Gomes takes the road less travelled, in search of the ultimate foodie high in namma city)
Mahjong Room, WelcomHotel – ITC Hotels, 46, Richmond Road, Ashok Nagar
Meal for two: Rs 1,600 onwards
Call: 6704 1790
Must-haves: Chicken sui Mai, Prawn har gao, Pork honey chilli ribs, Hunan prawns, and the Passion fruit ice cream
