Azok by vineet, juhu's newest lounge opens tomorrow. sunday midday gets the first look
Azok by vineet, juhu's newest lounge opens tomorrow. sunday midday gets the first look
The city looks its best from the top. And Azok by Vineet, a lounge which opens tomorrow at Oakwood Premiere, Juhu, makes full use of this. When we visit the lounge, it's in its final stage of preparation, the air thick with paint and new furnishing. Michelin star chef Vineet Bhatia, based in London, has been making quick trips to the city over the past eight months to set it up. "It took eight months for it to shape up from pen to paper. But that's not bad," he says, adding that restaurants usually take at least two-and-a-half years to get set up.
Vineet attributes this to his late involvement in the project. The Oakwood Premiere property was already set up when he was approached. "That was a handicap in some ways, because we did have certain limitations, but it's all worked out great," he says.
Preparing a brief wasn't easy, considering the city has many thousand restaurants offering food of varying rate, quality and type. Vineet says he knew they didn't want to do fine dining because the presence of a pool made it less formal. "We didn't pick a sheesha bar either because guests don't want that." What came about is a relaxed space which offers a private dining area, a terrace lounge, a sun deck and Vineet's favourite, the poolside lounge. Azok will open only after sundown. It has quite an amphitheatre-like view, of the crowded streets in and around Juhu, buildings and bungalows characteristic of the suburb, and of course, the beach in the distance. "It entirely changes at night. It's magical," says Vineet with a smile. 
The colours at Azok, a take off on the Ashoka tree, are varying shades of brown, from mocha to bitter chocolate. "It reminds me of the sand dunes of Rajasthan, the mud houses in our villages. Indians like earthy shades, it's like coming home," he explains.
Vineet who started training as a chef nearly 25 years ago, soon moved to the UK and now brings with him 18 years of experience. The chef has set up restaurants like Rasoi in London and Geneva, and been a consultant for Indego in Dubai, among others. Indians, he says, are much more demanding at restaurants here than they are abroad. "Here, they know the stuff, they know what the food is, that's why they go to certain places, because they know what they want in their own way," he says.
The menu at Azok will be 'evolved Indian', a cuisine personalised by Vineet. "You can't change the food but you could add things to it, or take out something. I'm not creating a new cuisine, I'm just modernising the food and taking it to the next dimension," he says. The chef talks gleefully of a Punjabi Penne which is basically pasta with chunks of chicken tikka and a new-age pesto which is actually a green chutney.
We get a quick peek into some of the 'modernised' items too, like a Cream of Asparagus and Green Peas Soup. "You see this here, it's Indian caviar," Vineet says with a smile, pointing to a cluster of tempered mustard seeds topping the soup. The soup comes alongside smoked mushroom tikka and sautu00e9ed asparagus.
The Grilled Pomfret, Vineet's favourite, is the classic suji-coated fish. The twist here is the bed of aloo tikki that the fish lies on which in turn sits on a slightly runny south Indian coconut sauce. Accompaniments: Crispy Lady's Fingers.
While a portion of Chargrilled Chicken may not sound exactly modern, the Potato and Cashewnuts Salad it comes with is flavoured with cardamom and cloves. What we think looks like a killer item is the Grilled Lobster.
Two pieces of the crustacean are rubbed with the south Indian chilli powder aka 'Gunpowder'. "One piece makes for a starter, two for a main course," says Vineet. The point of the matter is, he says, that you shut your eyes and eat any of these items they feel entirely Indian. But open your eyes and look at it, it's entirely different.
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