Name: Social
Address:Defence Colony Market
Price: Rs 1,200 (2 person)
Every good restaurant has its own little specialty, usually it’s a side dish or a sauce served with the main dish. At Social in Defence Colony market, it’s the Lahsun (garlic) Mayonnaise sauce served with the fish and chips. The fish is juicy inside; crisp outside and the chips are just as good. But it is the garlic mayo dip that makes it a hit for the Indian pallet. It’s worth a mention at the start of the review, although there’s a lot more that attracted food enthusiasts to Social past month.
The location to begin with is quite perfect. The calm hustle of Defence Colony market on a Sunday afternoon is just the kind of ambiance you need if you work 6 days a week. The market is nestled between a numbers of residential lanes and is protected from the noise and crowds of the two main roads that run on either sides of it. You enter through a heavy door shutting out the world and walk up the metallic stairs to reach a long, wooden room lit up with sunlight coming through the windows. Seating is arranged in a way to satisfy both groups of friends, family and couples who like some privacy of corners with the windows.
We were lucky to land at Social on a day when the place was offering an amazing deal— a pint of beer for just 16 rupees. The offer lasted till the New Year’s Eve. The manager told us that “We are grateful to our clients, for making it a hit so soon, and this was just one of the many offers we had planned to thank our clients”.
One thing on the menu which goes really well with free flowing beer is the Kerala coin paratha. Bite size circular pieces of parathas, topped with minced chicken, mutton and paneer make a perfect brunch starter or even a nice evening snack with an after work drink. Another good dish, and one that leaves you filled up, is Anda Shammi Pao, though the pao could do with a little more time of the frying pan, the shammi kebab, made up of red onions and mozzarella, in addition to the tender meat, and wrapped with a slice of omelet, was perfect. Lal maas pao should also be tried. For main course we tried the Mutton Dhansak with brown rice, a Parsi preparations which is a breath of fresh air for people used to eating mostly red meat and spicy north Indian non-vegetarian dishes. Last but not the least a pork dish called Salchipapas, which is a dish of finger chips topped with pork sausage slices and a fried egg, is a little too much for a single person but still worth a try. Though if you don’t like BBQ sauce, tell so to the servers it comes with a considerable quantity. Talking about the service, it was quite efficient and careful.