Gossip over bacon wraps -- and good memories from The Chatter House

The interiors of the pub are dark and wooden, covered with iron and bricks. The walls of the outlet, in tony Khan Market, have lyrics of Irish rock bands scrawled all over.

In the midst of a chat with chef Ravindra Rawat, I could not help but notice that the servers were maintaining a distance from all the tables they were waiting on. Even a customer sitting alone was not made to feel conscious -- a rarity in most Indian eateries. For this reason, this pub worked for me even before the food arrived.

The chef, who has been attached to the brand for the past 3-4 years, told IANS: "We change our menu on a quarterly basis and change a minimum of at least 20-30 items. People go for combos more here... Our meals for two sell the most. People like our pizzas, burgers and salads."

After noting down all that I was open to trying, the chef assessed my likes and dislikes and whipped up the dishes on the menu that he personlly recommended. First came the perfectly cooked bite-size bacon wrap with mac and cheese. The bites were heavenly and sinful too, and a must-try for pork lovers.

The food I ordered was a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, and the dish that I looked forward to was the dahi kebab -- which turned out to be extremely soft but a tad creamy. I won't say it was bad, but I have had better versions of it.

Next came the balls on fire, which were well-made lamb dumplings cooked in tomato and chipotle sauce finished with feta and smoked chilli. It wasn't very hot but there was a soft presence of chilli, which lingered on for a bit. The meat was well-minced and melted in the mouth.

As for the drinks, the classics were ordered -- mojito and the Long Island Iced Tea, which helped to down the pub's specialty -- blue cheese naan and dal makhni. An interesting concept, which I found a bit overrated. The presentation was impressive, but the taste was average.

There are innovations too. For instance, the focaccia pao bhaji, a take on the traditional pao bhaji where the "pao" is replaced by the Italian focaccia bread. Definitely recommended for the vegetarian, but beware of the overdose of peas.

The pizza -- I tried the herb marinated vegetarian variety -- was just okay, nothing exceptional.

Then came on pork ribs, which had a good dressing of barbeque sauce. But I'd say my aunt makes them better. It's a good attempt, but it's not as juicy and chewable as they should be, which is why I couldn't take more than two bites.

The chicken spring rolls were crisp and nice and the galouti kebabs,which I was hoping would be great, did not impress much.

For seafood lovers, the prawns are a must-try. Named prawn star Italiano, the chef had tossed the Cochin bay prawns in pepper chino, garlic and tomato sauce with garlic bread. I did not have much place in my tummy as I was saving space for the dessert; otherwise I could have finished the entire dish in one go.

On to the game changer -- the desserts. I lapped up the apple crumble cake with ice cream. It wasn't exactly a cake like we would imagine with the bread, but more like the inside of an apple pie -- soft, light as air, sprinkled with muesli with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Full up to the neck, I had to give up on the other desserts that the pub has come up with like the caramalised banana cigars and the gooey chocolate cake. But the apple crumble is a winner.